Evidently I think I've done something wrong here so here's the short
version of the conditions and symptoms, plus a little background.

We're migrating data from a VAX to a recently installed Integrity Blade.

I'd like to leave the theological arguments out of this, but I thought
it would be nice to have the VAX data on a CD so we retain it as an
archived starting point, and allows us to copy the data from the CD onto
the new server.

Objective: Alpha data on newly burned CDR, mounted on Blade and copied.
Problem: Cannot mount CDR on Blade! (VAX and Alpha's no problem).

Blades are new territory, and using HP SIM (even installing it), using
it, installing VMS is an entertainment in itself. This will be subject
of a VMS podcast before too long. However overall I'm impressed and if
this is the future, bring it on! But I'm straying from the point...

After connecting the DVD ROM, getting VMS installed, and logging in, I
put my CD into the DVD ROM and tried to mount...

$ mount/over=id dna0:
%MOUNT-W-IDXHDRBAD, index file header is bad; backup used
%MOUNT-F-MAPHDRBAD, storage map header is bad; volume locked

And the CD is not mounted.

$ mount/fore dna0:
%MOUNT-I-MOUNTED, CHANGED mounted on _IIIIII$DNA0:

However a foreign mount is not much use to me.

[Note: I have NOT tried the virtual connect of the ISO using SIM]

$ sh dev d/full

Disk DNA0:, device type HP......Virtual CD-ROM.., is online, mounted,
software
write-locked, file-oriented device, shareable, available to
cluster, error
logging is enabled.

But note on the Blade system is shows as a virtual connected device. It
is a HP BLc3000 DVD Drive ($ sh dev d/full

Disk DNA0:, device type HP......Virtual CD-ROM.., is online, mounted,
software
write-locked, file-oriented device, shareable, available to
cluster, error
logging is enabled.

This is showing as a virtual connected drive, but is a HP BLc3000 DVD
Drive (DVD/CDRW) mounted in the blade chassis.

The process used was to make a disk to disk saveset backup of the data,
copy to Alpha, use LDRIVER and CDRECORD to make a CD, and I even
performed (as routine) an ANAL/DISK/READ which passed, apart from

$ anal/disk dka400:
Analyze/Disk_Structure for _$5$DKA400: started on 5-AUG-2008 11:44:27.59

%ANALDISK-I-SHORTBITMAP, storage bitmap on RVN 1 does not cover the
entire device
%ANALDISK-I-OPENQUOTA, error opening QUOTA.SYS
-SYSTEM-W-NOSUCHFILE, no such file

This is on a (Toshiba) RRD46 type device. When performing the same
command on the YAMAHA CRW2100S (writer) it completes with no
SHORTBITMAP error. I use RITEK media.

Here is the summary of what I'm doing to create the CD, its a process i
have not changed for some while. I am using Alpha 8.3 with current patches.

cdrecord -version
Cdrecord 1.10 (Alpha/VAX-CPQ-VMS/OpenVMS) Copyright (C) 1995-2001 Jörg
Schilling

ld version
%LD-I-VERSION, LD version V8.2, module X-8 built on Jun 29 2006 17:51:35
-LD-I-DRIVERVERSION, Driver version: 29-JUN-2006 18:18:50.92
-LD-I-SYSINFO, Node: ZZZZZZ::, Hardware: AlphaServer 800 5/500, VMS
version: V8.3

This is the container create command:

ld create /siz='filsiz' disk$d0:[000000]staging.dsk

where filsiz is 1437408 I believe this to be the closest safest maximum
addressable data area on a standard "700 MB" cdr. I arrived at this
after some experimentation.

My INIT command for the container file is:

init lda1:/index=end/nohigh/system/cluster=4/erase/max='maxfil' 'label'

and my CDRECORD command is

cdrecord -v -speed=8 -dev=0,6,0 -driveropts=burnproof -data
disk$d0:[000000]staging.dsk

[Notes: burnproof doesn't actually work, and I'm using a copy I built
not the standard VMS supplied COPY/RECORDABLE]

I believe the process I am using SHOULD work, indeed for Alpha and VAX I
have no problems with CDs made this way, but I want to understand what's
going wrong here. Is my INIT command for the volume at fault? Is the
writer not creating a fully compatible disc? Will using COPY/RECORDABLE
make a better copy? If you think the answer will make for a good copy
and not a coaster then i am all ears.

Nic.

PS. If anyone suggests "why don't I copy this over the network", they'll
find themselves on the receiving end of the fish slapping dance from
Monty Python.
--
nclews at csc dot com aka Mr. CP Charges
"The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour
to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly
ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology,
led them into it in the first place."- DNA

baldrick wrote:
> [...snip...]
> My INIT command for the container file is:
>
> init lda1:/index=end/nohigh/system/cluster=4/erase/max='maxfil' 'label'
^^^^^^^^^^

Nic, I'm always suspicious of "stuff" at the end of a CD, given
that some (all?) drives work with 2,048-byte blocks, and you're
never quite sure *exactly* how much you can really get on the CD.

Just a hunch: try sticking the index file at the beginning,
and since you're such a newbie I'll give you the command:

$ init lda1:/index=beginning ...

;-)

R.A.Omond wrote:
> baldrick wrote:
>> [...snip...]
>> My INIT command for the container file is:
>>
>> init lda1:/index=end/nohigh/system/cluster=4/erase/max='maxfil' 'label'
> ^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Nic, I'm always suspicious of "stuff" at the end of a CD, given
> that some (all?) drives work with 2,048-byte blocks, and you're
> never quite sure *exactly* how much you can really get on the CD.
>
> Just a hunch: try sticking the index file at the beginning,
> and since you're such a newbie I'll give you the command:
>
> $ init lda1:/index=beginning ...
>
> ;-)

Roy, thank you ! However, there is a cunning reason why the index is
positioned at the rear end, which is that sometimes I wish to use
MKISOFS for a dual standard windows/VMS cd, as per Brian's page
http://www.tmesis.com/CDrom/

I don't have immediate access to another VMS integrity Box to try
another (SCSI) DVD drive, but my puzzle remains as I wish to be able to
create a CD that can be universally mounted on all platforms, but this
is the first time I tried one of my home cooked CDs on an Itanium.
Anyone done this and it works ?

I am going to try using SIM and connect the image through virtual
connect and see what happens... That should eliminate the physical drive
as a cause.

Nic
--
nclews at csc dot com aka Mr. CP Charges
"The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour
to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly
ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology,
led them into it in the first place."- DNA

baldrick wrote:
> R.A.Omond wrote:
>> baldrick wrote:
>>> [...snip...]
>>> My INIT command for the container file is:
>>>
>>> init lda1:/index=end/nohigh/system/cluster=4/erase/max='maxfil' 'label'
>> ^^^^^^^^^^
>>
>> Nic, I'm always suspicious of "stuff" at the end of a CD, given
>> that some (all?) drives work with 2,048-byte blocks, and you're
>> never quite sure *exactly* how much you can really get on the CD.
>>
>> Just a hunch: try sticking the index file at the beginning,
>> and since you're such a newbie I'll give you the command:
>>
>> $ init lda1:/index=beginning ...
>>
>> ;-)
>
> Roy, thank you ! However, there is a cunning reason why the index is
> positioned at the rear end, which is that sometimes I wish to use
> MKISOFS for a dual standard windows/VMS cd, as per Brian's page
> http://www.tmesis.com/CDrom/
>
> I don't have immediate access to another VMS integrity Box to try
> another (SCSI) DVD drive, but my puzzle remains as I wish to be able to
> create a CD that can be universally mounted on all platforms, but this
> is the first time I tried one of my home cooked CDs on an Itanium.
> Anyone done this and it works ?
>
> I am going to try using SIM and connect the image through virtual
> connect and see what happens... That should eliminate the physical drive
> as a cause.
>
> Nic

There are many people in the Unix world who seem to be having similar
problems, they can read factory made CDs without problems but the home
brew CDs just will not work! Some drives seem to work better than others.

The conventional wisdom on the Unix side is, to burn using the slowest
possible speed.

On 5 Aug, 21:26, baldrick wrote:
> R.A.Omond wrote:
> > baldrick wrote:
> >> [...snip...]
> >> My INIT command for the container file is:
>
> >> *init lda1:/index=end/nohigh/system/cluster=4/erase/max='maxfil' 'label'
> > * * * * * * *^^^^^^^^^^
>
> > Nic, I'm always suspicious of "stuff" at the end of a CD, given
> > that some (all?) drives work with 2,048-byte blocks, and you're
> > never quite sure *exactly* how much you can really get on the CD.
>
> > Just a hunch: *try sticking the index file at the beginning,
> > and since you're such a newbie I'll give you the command:
>
> > $ init lda1:/index=beginning ...
>
> > ;-)
>
> Roy, thank you ! However, there is a cunning reason why the index is
> positioned at the rear end, which is that sometimes I wish to use
> MKISOFS for a dual standard windows/VMS cd, as per Brian's pagehttp://www..tmesis.com/CDrom/
>
> I don't have immediate access to another VMS integrity Box to try
> another (SCSI) DVD drive, but my puzzle remains as I wish to be able to
> create a CD that can be universally mounted on all platforms, but this
> is the first time I tried one of my home cooked CDs on an Itanium.
> Anyone done this and it works ?
>
> I am going to try using SIM and connect the image through virtual
> connect and see what happens... That should eliminate the physical drive
> as a cause.
>
> Nic
> --
> nclews at csc dot com aka Mr. CP Charges
> "The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour
> to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly
> ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology,
> led them into it in the first place."- DNA- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Thinking back to when I first tried cutting CDs for VMS, have you
considered the drive and the level of "reflectivity" on the disk? On
older Alphas I found that the CD-RW disks were useless as they
couldn't be read. Is a similar thing happening here do you think?

Steve

We had to do the same : write CD's on Alpha and read them
on Itanium ( rx2620 not sure about the exact DVD drive).

If you are on 8.3 you can use copy/recordable_media lda1 dqa0:

This has varying results as the Itanium DVD drives are apparently much
pickier than any others, resulting sometimes in read errors on
CD's that are perfectly readable on Alpha. If you use the wrong
brand or lot you always get errors.

I used a CD -RW and this worked fine, maybe because of a different
kind
of on-disk tracks or whatever.

My guess is you ran in to similar problems, I would try a few other
brands or types
of media.

etmsreec@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> On 5 Aug, 21:26, baldrick wrote:
>
> Thinking back to when I first tried cutting CDs for VMS, have you
> considered the drive and the level of "reflectivity" on the disk? On
> older Alphas I found that the CD-RW disks were useless as they
> couldn't be read. Is a similar thing happening here do you think?

I can MOUNT/FORE the CD no problem, and even start to DUMP it so it can
be read...

Richard B. Gilbert wrote:

>
> There are many people in the Unix world who seem to be having similar
> problems, they can read factory made CDs without problems but the home
> brew CDs just will not work! Some drives seem to work better than
others.
>
> The conventional wisdom on the Unix side is, to burn using the slowest
> possible speed.

This CD was written at 8X on a 16x capable drive, I also tried a 4X
written disk, and the media speed always faster than that quoted.

But I can use the CD on Alpha and VAX, why is the Itanium rejecting it?

What other media are people using (I am using RITEK (=TRAXDATA among
other brands)

Nic.

PS. Didn't manage to try the virtual connect yet...


--
nclews at csc dot com aka Mr. CP Charges
"The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour
to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly
ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology,
led them into it in the first place."- DNA

Jose Baars wrote:
> We had to do the same : write CD's on Alpha and read them
> on Itanium ( rx2620 not sure about the exact DVD drive).
>
> If you are on 8.3 you can use copy/recordable_media lda1 dqa0:
>
> This has varying results as the Itanium DVD drives are apparently much
> pickier than any others, resulting sometimes in read errors on
> CD's that are perfectly readable on Alpha. If you use the wrong
> brand or lot you always get errors.
>
> I used a CD -RW and this worked fine, maybe because of a different
> kind
> of on-disk tracks or whatever.
>
> My guess is you ran in to similar problems, I would try a few other
> brands or types
> of media.

Ah now this is the sort of data I seek, what media are you using (brand)
? If you have a CDINFO tool on a Wintel drive what does it tell you
about the media? I may try a different media (I have some TDK) and try
using the COPY/RECORDABLE rather than my home grown. I'll see if I have
a CDRW disc too...

Nic.

--
nclews at csc dot com aka Mr. CP Charges
"The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour
to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly
ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology,
led them into it in the first place."- DNA

baldrick wrote:
>
> Evidently I think I've done something wrong here so here's the short
> version of the conditions and symptoms, plus a little background.
>
> We're migrating data from a VAX to a recently installed Integrity Blade.
>
> I'd like to leave the theological arguments out of this, but I thought
> it would be nice to have the VAX data on a CD so we retain it as an
> archived starting point, and allows us to copy the data from the CD onto
> the new server.
>
> Objective: Alpha data on newly burned CDR, mounted on Blade and copied.
> Problem: Cannot mount CDR on Blade! (VAX and Alpha's no problem).
>
> Blades are new territory, and using HP SIM (even installing it), using
> it, installing VMS is an entertainment in itself. This will be subject
> of a VMS podcast before too long. However overall I'm impressed and if
> this is the future, bring it on! But I'm straying from the point...
>
> After connecting the DVD ROM, getting VMS installed, and logging in, I
> put my CD into the DVD ROM and tried to mount...
>
> $ mount/over=id dna0:
> %MOUNT-W-IDXHDRBAD, index file header is bad; backup used
> %MOUNT-F-MAPHDRBAD, storage map header is bad; volume locked
>
> And the CD is not mounted.
>
> $ mount/fore dna0:
> %MOUNT-I-MOUNTED, CHANGED mounted on _IIIIII$DNA0:
>
> However a foreign mount is not much use to me.
>
> [Note: I have NOT tried the virtual connect of the ISO using SIM]
>
> $ sh dev d/full
>
> Disk DNA0:, device type HP......Virtual CD-ROM.., is online, mounted,
> software
> write-locked, file-oriented device, shareable, available to
> cluster, error
> logging is enabled.
>
> But note on the Blade system is shows as a virtual connected device. It
> is a HP BLc3000 DVD Drive ($ sh dev d/full
>
> Disk DNA0:, device type HP......Virtual CD-ROM.., is online, mounted,
> software
> write-locked, file-oriented device, shareable, available to
> cluster, error
> logging is enabled.
>
> This is showing as a virtual connected drive, but is a HP BLc3000 DVD
> Drive (DVD/CDRW) mounted in the blade chassis.
>
> The process used was to make a disk to disk saveset backup of the data,
> copy to Alpha, use LDRIVER and CDRECORD to make a CD, and I even
> performed (as routine) an ANAL/DISK/READ which passed, apart from
>
> $ anal/disk dka400:
> Analyze/Disk_Structure for _$5$DKA400: started on 5-AUG-2008 11:44:27.59
>
> %ANALDISK-I-SHORTBITMAP, storage bitmap on RVN 1 does not cover the
> entire device
> %ANALDISK-I-OPENQUOTA, error opening QUOTA.SYS
> -SYSTEM-W-NOSUCHFILE, no such file
>
> This is on a (Toshiba) RRD46 type device. When performing the same
> command on the YAMAHA CRW2100S (writer) it completes with no
> SHORTBITMAP error. I use RITEK media.
>
> Here is the summary of what I'm doing to create the CD, its a process i
> have not changed for some while. I am using Alpha 8.3 with current patches.
>
> cdrecord -version
> Cdrecord 1.10 (Alpha/VAX-CPQ-VMS/OpenVMS) Copyright (C) 1995-2001 Jörg
> Schilling
>
> ld version
> %LD-I-VERSION, LD version V8.2, module X-8 built on Jun 29 2006 17:51:35
> -LD-I-DRIVERVERSION, Driver version: 29-JUN-2006 18:18:50.92
> -LD-I-SYSINFO, Node: ZZZZZZ::, Hardware: AlphaServer 800 5/500, VMS
> version: V8.3
>
> This is the container create command:
>
> ld create /siz='filsiz' disk$d0:[000000]staging.dsk
>
> where filsiz is 1437408 I believe this to be the closest safest maximum
> addressable data area on a standard "700 MB" cdr. I arrived at this
> after some experimentation.
>
> My INIT command for the container file is:
>
> init lda1:/index=end/nohigh/system/cluster=4/erase/max='maxfil' 'label'
>
> and my CDRECORD command is
>
> cdrecord -v -speed=8 -dev=0,6,0 -driveropts=burnproof -data
> disk$d0:[000000]staging.dsk
>
> [Notes: burnproof doesn't actually work, and I'm using a copy I built
> not the standard VMS supplied COPY/RECORDABLE]
>
> I believe the process I am using SHOULD work, indeed for Alpha and VAX I
> have no problems with CDs made this way, but I want to understand what's
> going wrong here. Is my INIT command for the volume at fault? Is the
> writer not creating a fully compatible disc? Will using COPY/RECORDABLE
> make a better copy? If you think the answer will make for a good copy
> and not a coaster then i am all ears.
>
> Nic.
>
> PS. If anyone suggests "why don't I copy this over the network", they'll
> find themselves on the receiving end of the fish slapping dance from
> Monty Python.
> --
> nclews at csc dot com aka Mr. CP Charges
> "The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour
> to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly
> ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology,
> led them into it in the first place."- DNA

CDs and DVDs may MOUNT with different, not necessarily compatible
geometries, thus convincing the system that the BITMAP.SYS is too short,
or that the home blocks are in the wrong place, etc.

SHOW DEVICE/FULL of the DVD MOUNTed with a known good volume would be
enlightening, I think. Don't have access to one myself; so, I can't test
it on this end.

If possible, try comparing the CD MOUNTed in a DVD-ROM in an Alpha
(newer GS1280?) and see how that goes and how it compares to the DVD
drive in the I64.

D.J.D.

On 8 Aug, 09:41, baldrick wrote:
> Jose Baars wrote:
> > We had to do the same : write CD's on Alpha and read them
> > on Itanium ( rx2620 not sure about the exact DVD drive).
>
> > If you are on 8.3 you can use copy/recordable_media lda1 dqa0:
>
> > This has varying results as the Itanium DVD drives are apparently much
> > pickier than any others, resulting sometimes in read errors on
> > CD's that are perfectly readable on Alpha. If you use the wrong
> > brand or lot you always get errors.
>
> > I used a CD -RW and this worked fine, maybe because of a different
> > kind
> > of on-disk tracks or whatever.
>
> > My guess is you ran in to similar problems, I would try a few other
> > brands or types
> > of *media.
>
> Ah now this is the sort of data I seek, what media are you using (brand)
> ? If you have a CDINFO tool on a Wintel drive what does it tell you
> about the media? I may try a different media (I have some TDK) and try
> using the COPY/RECORDABLE rather than my home grown. I'll see if I have
> a CDRW disc too...
>
> Nic.
>
> --
> nclews at csc dot com aka Mr. CP Charges
> "The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour
> to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly
> ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology,
> led them into it in the first place."- DNA- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Be interesting to see what it does on other Integrities too - some of
them present the DVD drive as DNA0: whereas others appear to use the
SCSI driver (is there a SCSI translator board on the back?) and
present the drive as DKxy:

A couple of things the DVD in the blade enclosure is not directly
connected to any of the blades. It is
connected to the enclosure manager and controlled by that software. VMS
sees it as a virtual CD/DVD
so when the O.S. talks to it. We manufacture a SCSI command send it out
over the USB bus. Then a
a custom ASIC in the management processor takes the USB command and put it
on the network. The
enclosure manager get the network packet and passes it to an application
that eventually passes and IDE
command to the device. Having said that it all works for reading.

There is a bug in the V8.3 driver fixed in V8.3-1h1 where we report the
disk size at 4x larger
than it really is. This results in a information when the disk mounts but
it mounts and works in all
the testing done to date.

We have seen lots of issues with the drives being incerdible sensitive
to media. To the point where
one out 3 burned DVD's would not be readable. Take the same media to
adifferent machine and they
would work fine. Media type and if they were burned -r instead of +r caused
the most problems.


Forrest

>
> What other media are people using (I am using RITEK (=TRAXDATA among
> other brands)
>

I didn't use DVD's but I have used Imation CD's without a lot of
success, the CD-RW was a Philips one.
The r+ and r- discussion was only for DVD's wasn't it?
If I find the time I'll try a TDK color CD tomorrow, that'll make a
nicer coaster anyway :-)
Jose

In article
,
Jose Baars wrote:

> >
> > What other media are people using (I am using RITEK (=TRAXDATA among
> > other brands)
> >
>
> I didn't use DVD's but I have used Imation CD's without a lot of
> success, the CD-RW was a Philips one.
> The r+ and r- discussion was only for DVD's wasn't it?
> If I find the time I'll try a TDK color CD tomorrow, that'll make a
> nicer coaster anyway :-)
> Jose

I had a bad experience with Imation CDs a couple of years ago, and went
a-Googling to find recommendations. Verbatim Datalife and Datalife Plus
came up regularly in terms of success in both burning and reading on a
variety of drives.

May I suggest asking on a forum or newsgroup specializing in CD & DVD
technology?

--
Paul Sture

baldrick wrote:
> Evidently I think I've done something wrong here so here's the short
> version of the conditions and symptoms, plus a little background.
>
> We're migrating data from a VAX to a recently installed Integrity Blade.
>
> I'd like to leave the theological arguments out of this, but I thought
> it would be nice to have the VAX data on a CD so we retain it as an
> archived starting point, and allows us to copy the data from the CD onto
> the new server.
>
> Objective: Alpha data on newly burned CDR, mounted on Blade and copied.
> Problem: Cannot mount CDR on Blade! (VAX and Alpha's no problem).
>
> Blades are new territory, and using HP SIM (even installing it), using
> it, installing VMS is an entertainment in itself. This will be subject
> of a VMS podcast before too long. However overall I'm impressed and if
> this is the future, bring it on! But I'm straying from the point...
>
> After connecting the DVD ROM, getting VMS installed, and logging in, I
> put my CD into the DVD ROM and tried to mount...
>
> $ mount/over=id dna0:
> %MOUNT-W-IDXHDRBAD, index file header is bad; backup used
> %MOUNT-F-MAPHDRBAD, storage map header is bad; volume locked
>
> And the CD is not mounted.
>
> $ mount/fore dna0:
> %MOUNT-I-MOUNTED, CHANGED mounted on _IIIIII$DNA0:
>
> However a foreign mount is not much use to me.
>
> [Note: I have NOT tried the virtual connect of the ISO using SIM]
>
> $ sh dev d/full
>
> Disk DNA0:, device type HP......Virtual CD-ROM.., is online, mounted,
> software
> write-locked, file-oriented device, shareable, available to cluster,
> error
> logging is enabled.
>
> But note on the Blade system is shows as a virtual connected device. It
> is a HP BLc3000 DVD Drive ($ sh dev d/full
>
> Disk DNA0:, device type HP......Virtual CD-ROM.., is online, mounted,
> software
> write-locked, file-oriented device, shareable, available to cluster,
> error
> logging is enabled.
>
> This is showing as a virtual connected drive, but is a HP BLc3000 DVD
> Drive (DVD/CDRW) mounted in the blade chassis.
>
> The process used was to make a disk to disk saveset backup of the data,
> copy to Alpha, use LDRIVER and CDRECORD to make a CD, and I even
> performed (as routine) an ANAL/DISK/READ which passed, apart from
>
> $ anal/disk dka400:
> Analyze/Disk_Structure for _$5$DKA400: started on 5-AUG-2008 11:44:27.59
>
> %ANALDISK-I-SHORTBITMAP, storage bitmap on RVN 1 does not cover the
> entire device
> %ANALDISK-I-OPENQUOTA, error opening QUOTA.SYS
> -SYSTEM-W-NOSUCHFILE, no such file
>
> This is on a (Toshiba) RRD46 type device. When performing the same
> command on the YAMAHA CRW2100S (writer) it completes with no
> SHORTBITMAP error. I use RITEK media.
>
> Here is the summary of what I'm doing to create the CD, its a process i
> have not changed for some while. I am using Alpha 8.3 with current patches.
>
> cdrecord -version
> Cdrecord 1.10 (Alpha/VAX-CPQ-VMS/OpenVMS) Copyright (C) 1995-2001 Jörg
> Schilling
>
> ld version
> %LD-I-VERSION, LD version V8.2, module X-8 built on Jun 29 2006 17:51:35
> -LD-I-DRIVERVERSION, Driver version: 29-JUN-2006 18:18:50.92
> -LD-I-SYSINFO, Node: ZZZZZZ::, Hardware: AlphaServer 800 5/500, VMS
> version: V8.3
>
> This is the container create command:
>
> ld create /siz='filsiz' disk$d0:[000000]staging.dsk
>
> where filsiz is 1437408 I believe this to be the closest safest maximum
> addressable data area on a standard "700 MB" cdr. I arrived at this
> after some experimentation.
>
> My INIT command for the container file is:
>
> init lda1:/index=end/nohigh/system/cluster=4/erase/max='maxfil' 'label'
>
> and my CDRECORD command is
>
> cdrecord -v -speed=8 -dev=0,6,0 -driveropts=burnproof -data
> disk$d0:[000000]staging.dsk
>
> [Notes: burnproof doesn't actually work, and I'm using a copy I built
> not the standard VMS supplied COPY/RECORDABLE]
>
> I believe the process I am using SHOULD work, indeed for Alpha and VAX I
> have no problems with CDs made this way, but I want to understand what's
> going wrong here. Is my INIT command for the volume at fault? Is the
> writer not creating a fully compatible disc? Will using COPY/RECORDABLE
> make a better copy? If you think the answer will make for a good copy
> and not a coaster then i am all ears.
>
> Nic.
>
> PS. If anyone suggests "why don't I copy this over the network", they'll
> find themselves on the receiving end of the fish slapping dance from
> Monty Python.

The number of different formats and "sizes" available in the "real
world" for CD and DVD is amazing. I've gotten two units working in my
lab, one Philips CDD-521 attached to my Infoserver and a
"stab-in-the-dark, sometimes you just gotta say WTF and try it" HP
writable SCSI CD drive on one of my Alphas. I think the latter is a
6620 or something. It works with CDRECORD pretty well. The key to
getting both drives working was the blank media. NEITHER one worked
with anything but the old 650mb blanks. To quote one of my coworkers, I
was making nothing but "coasters" with the 700mb CD blanks that are
much, much more common today.

So unless you're using CD or DVD drives with the exact same features and
compatibilities on all the systems, it feels to me like you've got
mismatched formats and the more modern drive can't read the older
drive's output. The Infoserver won't allow "just any drive" because it
looks for specific models (finding a working Philips was a miracle) so
you can't just put a newer writable SCSI DVD unit in place. CDRECORD
should be more flexible but may still leave you with a mismatch if your
writer isn't writing what your reader can read. At least on Alpha with
CDRECORD (or native tools) you've got more options. Unless, of course,
you can move the drive that wrote the CD to the Itanium and get it
working there. You might also try using a current OpenVMS release on
Alpha, turning on the Infoserver bits and serving the written CD to your
Itanium...

bob

On 18 aug, 19:50, Bob Blunt wrote:
> So unless you're using CD or DVD drives with the exact same features and
> compatibilities on all the systems, it feels to me like you've got
> mismatched formats and the more modern drive can't read the older
> drive's output.

In my experiments I used a year old samsung IDE drive ( 20 euro in
any
PC part shop) to write the CD's on Alpha VMS 8.3. Maybe that's too old
for the Itanium drives, but it sure gives me the idea that it is
mainly an issue
with the Itanium drives being picky.