On Fri, 04 May 2007, Michael Blanc wrote:

> This is a Pentium MMX 233 MHz with 256M DRAM.

This meets the minimum requirements for Fedora 6, for example.

> Now I've been trying various distros on bootable CD-ROM, with similar (not
> good) results. If the media is even recognized, the only (partially)
> successful boot is in "safe" mode, which is to a version 2.4 kernel with
> flags such as "noapic" and nodma". But then what happens is a flurry of
> CD-ROM timeouts and read errors, with a defective image in memory (if it
> even gets that far).

I'd suspect that the problem really is with your CD-ROM drive. A
light-weight distribution I like is Vector, http://www.vectorlinux.com/.
If you still get these errors with Vector, that would pretty much prove
that the problem is with the CD-ROM drive rather than because your
hardware isn't powerful enough.

--
Yves Bellefeuille

Thank you for reading and replying.

Yes, I also think that the CD-ROM reader is the "problem". Yet the device
seems to work fine in general, just not with some media.
I wonder if Linux distributors are aware of any systematic incompatibilities
with "older" CD-ROM readers?

MB

Yves Bellefeuille wrote in message ...
>On Fri, 04 May 2007, Michael Blanc wrote:
>
>> This is a Pentium MMX 233 MHz with 256M DRAM.
>
>This meets the minimum requirements for Fedora 6, for example.
>
>> Now I've been trying various distros on bootable CD-ROM, with similar
(not
>> good) results. If the media is even recognized, the only (partially)
>> successful boot is in "safe" mode, which is to a version 2.4 kernel with
>> flags such as "noapic" and nodma". But then what happens is a flurry of
>> CD-ROM timeouts and read errors, with a defective image in memory (if it
>> even gets that far).
>
>I'd suspect that the problem really is with your CD-ROM drive. A
>light-weight distribution I like is Vector, http://www.vectorlinux.com/.
>If you still get these errors with Vector, that would pretty much prove
>that the problem is with the CD-ROM drive rather than because your
>hardware isn't powerful enough.
>
>--
>Yves Bellefeuille
>
>

On Sun, 06 May 2007, Michael Blanc wrote:

> Yes, I also think that the CD-ROM reader is the "problem". Yet the device
> seems to work fine in general, just not with some media.
> I wonder if Linux distributors are aware of any systematic incompatibilities
> with "older" CD-ROM readers?

I also have a CD-ROM drive that works fine with some disks and has
problems with others. I don't think there's anything that can be done,
except to buy another drive.

--
Yves Bellefeuille

Michael Blanc wrote:
> I wonder if Linux distributors are aware of any systematic incompatibilities
> with "older" CD-ROM readers?

Yeah. I've had some very odd behaviour with CDROM drives:

http://markhobley.yi.org/linux/labor...rom/index.html

Post the model number of any with strange behaviour, so I can update the
records.

Regards,

Mark.

--
Mark Hobley
393 Quinton Road West
QUINTON
Birmingham
B32 1QE

Telephone: (0121) 247 1596
International: 0044 121 247 1596

Email: markhobley at hotpop dot donottypethisbit com

http://markhobley.yi.org/

I demand that Mark Hobley may or may not have written...

> Michael Blanc wrote:
>> I wonder if Linux distributors are aware of any systematic
>> incompatibilities with "older" CD-ROM readers?

> Yeah. I've had some very odd behaviour with CDROM drives:
> http://markhobley.yi.org/linux/labor...rom/index.html
> Post the model number of any with strange behaviour, so I can update the
> records.

I have an old Hitachi CDR-7930 which has consistently failed to read or evaen
acknowledge the presence of CDRWs.

It is currently in use: a 15" monitor is stood on it...

--
| Darren Salt | linux or ds at | nr. Ashington, | Toon
| RISC OS, Linux | youmustbejoking,demon,co,uk | Northumberland | Army
| + Use more efficient products. Use less. BE MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT.

Wishing without work is like fishing without bait.

On Sun, 06 May 2007, Darren Salt wrote:

> I have an old Hitachi CDR-7930 which has consistently failed to read or evaen
> acknowledge the presence of CDRWs.

If the drive is not designed to work with CD-RWs, then it's not at all
surprising that it doesn't even recognize them.

--
Yves Bellefeuille

Thanks, guys, for the feedback.

Now I know that at least I'm not alone with erratic CD-ROM behavior. I did
give the the thing a cleaning, which helped some. I'll get another one if I
must.

BTW, the problems were from CD-R discs for the most part, though some may
have actually been industrially-pressed CDs. I have no expectation of any
results from any DVD or CD-RW disc.

MB