Installing a DVD-Writer on a SunFire V250

I have a SunFire V250 with the stock DVD-ROM drive. I wanted to install
a DVD-Writer so I purchased a Plextor PX-716A drive and swapped it in for
the existing drive. The new drive performs identically to the old one in
that it acts as a CD/DVD-reader, but it is not recognized as a writer and
no software can locate it as such. Plextor ships its own software with
the drive which I ran on the installed SunPCi-III card (Windows XP). This
software sees the drive as a generic DVD with only read capabilities.

Has anyone else installed an internal ATAPI DVD-writer on this machine?
Any tips as to what to look for? It seems to me that it might be an issue
of some jumpers somewhere that activate the write channel for the drive.
However, Sun is not providing any assistance under my service contract.

Thanks for any insights you can offer.
--
C. Jeffery Small
[email]jeff@cjsa.com[/email]

[email]jeff@cjsa.com[/email] (Jeffery Small) writes:
[color=blue]
>I have a SunFire V250 with the stock DVD-ROM drive. I wanted to install
>a DVD-Writer so I purchased a Plextor PX-716A drive and swapped it in for
>the existing drive. The new drive performs identically to the old one in
>that it acts as a CD/DVD-reader, but it is not recognized as a writer and
>no software can locate it as such. Plextor ships its own software with
>the drive which I ran on the installed SunPCi-III card (Windows XP). This
>software sees the drive as a generic DVD with only read capabilities.[/color]
[color=blue]
>Has anyone else installed an internal ATAPI DVD-writer on this machine?
>Any tips as to what to look for? It seems to me that it might be an issue
>of some jumpers somewhere that activate the write channel for the drive.
>However, Sun is not providing any assistance under my service contract.[/color]


What does "cdrw" or "cdrecord" do with the drive?

Casper
--
Expressed in this posting are my opinions. They are in no way related
to opinions held by my employer, Sun Microsystems.
Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may
be fiction rather than truth.

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005, Jeffery Small wrote:
[color=blue]
> Has anyone else installed an internal ATAPI DVD-writer on this machine?
> Any tips as to what to look for? It seems to me that it might be an issue[/color]

Hmm. What does "cdrw -M" say?

--
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA, OpenSolaris CAB member

. * * . * .* .
. * . .*
President, * . . /\ ( . . *
Rite Online Inc. . . / .\ . * .
.*. / * \ . .
. /* o \ .
Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638 * '''||''' .
URL: [url]http://www.rite-group.com/rich[/url] ******************

I wrote:
[color=blue]
>I have a SunFire V250 with the stock DVD-ROM drive. I wanted to install
>a DVD-Writer so I purchased a Plextor PX-716A drive and swapped it in for
>the existing drive. [...][/color]

Casper H.S. Dik <Casper.Dik@Sun.COM> writes:
[color=blue]
>What does "cdrw" or "cdrecord" do with the drive?[/color]

40-> ls -l /dev/sr0 /dev/rsr0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Apr 21 2004 sr0 -> dsk/c1t2d0s2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Apr 21 2004 rsr0 -> rdsk/c1t2d0s2

41-> ls -l /dev/dsk/c1t2d0s2 /dev/rdsk/c1t2d0s2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 42 Apr 21 2004 dsk/c1t2d0s2 -> \
../../devices/pci@1e,600000/ide@d/sd@2,0:c
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 46 Apr 21 2004 rdsk/c1t2d0s2 -> \
../../devices/pci@1e,600000/ide@d/sd@2,0:c,raw


I tried the xcdroast interface to cdrecord. When it starts it reports

Something on the SCSI_bus has changed. Please check your writer
and reader configuration Setup.

Accessing the setup page, it shows my three disk drives and reports:

No CD-Writer or CD-ROM device detected. For ATAPI/IDE devices under
Linux you have to enable SCSI-Emulation in the kernel in order to
activate them. Please see the X-CD-Roast manual how to do that.

On Linux, this is done by modifying the /etc/modules.conf file. There are
no instructions for Solaris. Is there something similar that needs to be
done to make the ATAPI devices accessible? BTW, I tried it with vold(1) on
and off.

I tried the following cdrecord commands directly, with a disk in the drive and
vold both on and off:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
47-> cdrecord dev=b,t,l driveropts=help -checkdrive
Unlocked features: ProDVD Clone
Limited features:
This copy of cdrecord is licensed for: \
private/research/educational_non-commercial_use
/opt/csw/bin/cdrecord: Invalid argument. \
Invalid bus or target specifier in 'b,t,l'. Cannot open SCSI driver.
/opt/csw/bin/cdrecord: For possible targets try 'cdrecord -scanbus'.
/opt/csw/bin/cdrecord: For possible transport specifiers try 'cdrecord dev=help'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
48-> cdrecord -scanbus
Cdrecord-ProDVD-Clone 2.01b38 (sparc-sun-solaris2.8) \
Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Jvrg Schilling
Unlocked features: ProDVD Clone
Limited features:
This copy of cdrecord is licensed for: \
private/research/educational_non-commercial_use
Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'.
scsibus0:
0,0,0 0) HOST ADAPTOR
0,1,0 1) 'SEAGATE ' 'ST373307LSUN72G ' '0507' Disk
0,2,0 2) 'SEAGATE ' 'ST373207LSUN72G ' '045A' Disk
0,3,0 3) 'SEAGATE ' 'ST373207LSUN72G ' '045A' Disk
0,4,0 4) *
0,5,0 5) *
0,6,0 6) *
0,7,0 7) *
scsibus1:
1,0,0 100) HOST ADAPTOR
1,1,0 101) *
1,2,0 102) *
1,3,0 103) *
1,4,0 104) *
1,5,0 105) *
1,6,0 106) *
1,7,0 107) *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
50-> cdrecord dev=HELP
Cdrecord-ProDVD-Clone 2.01b38 (sparc-sun-solaris2.8) \
Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Jvrg Schilling
Unlocked features: ProDVD Clone
Limited features:
This copy of cdrecord is licensed for: \
private/research/educational_non-commercial_use
Supported SCSI transports for this platform:

Transport name: scg
Transport descr.: Generic transport independent SCSI
Transp. layer ind.:
Target specifier: bus,target,lun
Target example: 1,2,0
SCSI Bus scanning: supported
Open via UNIX device: not supported

Transport name: USCSI
Transport descr.: SCSI transport for targets known by Solaris drivers
Transp. layer ind.: USCSI:
Target specifier: bus,target,lun
Target example: USCSI:1,2,0
SCSI Bus scanning: supported
Open via UNIX device: supported

Transport name: RSCSI
Transport descr.: Remote SCSI
Transp. layer ind.: REMOTE:
Target specifier: rscsi@host:bus,target,lun
Target example: REMOTE:rscsi@host:1,2,0
SCSI Bus scanning: supported
Open via UNIX device: not supported
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any suggestions on how to get cdrecord to access the ATAPI device?


So I tried cdrw:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
49-> cdrw -lv
Looking for CD devices...
No CD writers found or no media in the drive.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I always assumed that this meant that no device could be located, but I just
inserted a DVD-RW disk and tried again and:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
50-> cdrw -lv
Looking for CD devices...
Node Connected Device Device type
----------------------+--------------------------------+-----------------
cdrom0 | PLEXTOR DVDR PX-716A 1.08 | CD Reader/Writer
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So that was a surprise! It looks like cdrw works in conjunction with vold.
So am I good to go with cdrw? I haven't even read the full manual page at
this point.

I would still like to find a way to make the device generally accessible to
the system as a DVD-writer. It would be good if the SunPCi-III could see
this as a writer device - although that may be limited by the hardware
emulation currently provided in the software. Any thoughts on that?

Casper, thank you for your help!

Regards,
--
Jeff

C. Jeffery Small CJSA LLC 206-232-3338
[email]jeff@cjsa.com[/email] 7000 E Mercer Way, Mercer Island, WA 98040

Rich Teer <rich.teer@rite-group.com> writes:
[color=blue]
>On Tue, 20 Dec 2005, Jeffery Small wrote:[/color]
[color=blue][color=green]
>> Has anyone else installed an internal ATAPI DVD-writer on this machine?
>> Any tips as to what to look for? It seems to me that it might be an issue[/color][/color]
[color=blue]
>Hmm. What does "cdrw -M" say?[/color]

As I previously reported, with a disk inserted it does respond as follows:

54-> cdrw -M
Device : PLEXTOR DVDR PX-716A
Firmware : Rev. 1.08 (05/30/05 14)
Media is blank

I had been trying to get cdrecord to work and had not tried cdrw after it had
reported no device (when there was no disk in the drawer)! I'll give cdrw a
whirl.

Regards,
--
C. Jeffery Small CJSA LLC 206-232-3338
[email]jeff@cjsa.com[/email] 7000 E Mercer Way, Mercer Island, WA 98040