SUMMARY: Adding NEC CDROM drive

From: Dan Penrod (penrod@whiplash.er.usgs.gov)
Date: Tue Mar 07 1995 - 08:02:45 CST


Sun Managers:

Many thanks for the multitude of replies to my problem. I've included my
original query at the bottom of this email. In brief - I'm attempting to
install an NEC quad-speed CDROM drive (NEC MultiSpin 4Xe) to my Sun
workstation but only received I/O errors and a message saying "data transfer
overrun".

The reason is simple - the solution is more complicated. Generally speaking,
CDROM vendors make their drive with a block size of 2048 bytes/block these
days. Sun, however, expects 512 bytes/block. A Sun CDROM drive is actually
a Sony drive with a Sun chasis, and Sony drives will run at 512, so, Sony
drives will work on your workstation, others will not. There are some
workarounds depending variously on make and model of the CDROM drive as well
as OS rev and PROM rev of workstation. In some cases you can cut jumpers or
modify some assembler to work-around the problem but in my case there doesn't
seem to be a solution. Specifically, a Sun workstation running SunOS 4.1.3
can't be patched and the NEC CDROMs don't appear to provide blocksize
switches or jumpers.

One Sun Manager mentioned a utility called 'cdblksiz' which can, as I
understand it, send a SCSI-II command to the drive telling it, at run-time,
to switch to 512 bytes/block. That manager didn't say where I could find
it and Archie hasn't yielded any results. If anyone knows where I can
get a copy of 'cdblksiz' please let me know. Even with this work-around,
it looks like I won't be able to boot from CD but at least my users will
be up and running.

A FAQ was included discussing in detail the problems associated with getting
CDROM drives to run on Sun workstations. I'm going to save some bandwidth
and not include it here, however, it is posted to comp.sys.sun.hardware and
alt.cdrom; also, you can ftp it from rtfm.mit.edu. If you look in these
places and still cannot find it let me know and I'll email you a copy.

MultiThanks to the following managers:
Kevin.Sheehan@uniq.com.au
Henry Unger <hunger@hitech.com>
csmoko@relay.nswc.navy.mil
perryh@pluto.rain.com
Nate-Itkin@ptdcs2.intel.com
poffen@San-Jose.ate.slb.com

-drp

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ | Dan Penrod - Unix Administrator |
| _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ | USGS Center for Coastal Geology |
| _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/_/ | St. Petersburg, FL 33701 |
| _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ | (813)893-3100 ext.3043 |
|_/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ | penrod@whiplash.er.usgs.gov |
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--------- Original Query -----------------

Dear Sun Managers:

I'm attempting to add a couple of NEC MultiSpin 4X CDROM drives
to one of our workstations.

        root@felix(6)# mount -r /dev/sr0 /cdrom
        mount: /dev/sr0 on /cdrom: I/O error
        mount: giving up on:
           /cdrom
        root@felix(7)#

The console displays a bunch of complaints as well which I've posted at
the very bottom because what it lacks in lucidity, it makes up for in
verbosity.

I bought two of these guys and was going to put one on target 5 (and
call it /dev/sr0) and the other on target 6 (and call it /dev/sr1).
When that failed I tried to back up and just get one to work. Seems
like it's a special problem with these drives.

Question 1: Anyone out there gotten these particular CDROMs to work on
a Sun? Anything special I should know. I assumed they'd be just like
any other scsi CD drive... apparently not.

Question 2: If I use 2 cdrom drives, am I correct in the assumption
that all I have to do is change the lines in my kernel configuration
file from...
        tape st1 at scsibus0 target 5 lun 0 # second SCSI tape
        disk sr0 at scsibus0 target 6 lun 0 # CD-ROM device
to...
        disk sr0 at scsibus0 target 5 lun 0 # first CD-ROM device
        disk sr1 at scsibus0 target 6 lun 0 # second CD-ROM device
and Make the kernel??? Devices /dev/sr0 and /dev/sr1 should work, right?

Thanks in advance,
-drp

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ | Dan Penrod - Unix Administrator |
| _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ | USGS Center for Coastal Geology |
| _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/_/ | St. Petersburg, FL 33701 |
| _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ | (813)893-3100 ext.3043 |
|_/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ | penrod@whiplash.er.usgs.gov |
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

root@felix(1)# sr0: Unrecongized Vendor 'NEC ', product 'CD-ROM DRIVE:501'sr0 at esp0 target 6 lun 0
esp0: data transfer overrun
        State=DATA Last State=DATA_DONE
        Latched stat=0x11<XZERO,IO> intr=0x10<BUS> fifo 0x60
        last msg out: <unknown msg 0xff>; last msg in: IDENTIFY
        DMA csr=0x94400010<INTEN>
        addr=fff2c000 last=fff2a000 last_count=2000
        Cmd dump for Target 6 Lun 0:
        cdb=[ 0x8 0x0 0x0 0x10 0x10 0x0 ]
        pkt_state 0xf<XFER,CMD,SEL,ARB> pkt_flags 0x0 pkt_statistics 0x1
        cmd_flags=0x21 cmd_timeout 179
        Mapped Dma Space:
                Base = 0x2a000 Count = 0x2000
        Transfer History:
                Base = 0x2a000 Count = 0x2000
        current phase 0x26=DATAIN stat=0x11 0x2000
        current phase 0x1b=RESEL stat=0x17 0x6 0x0
        current phase 0xb=CMD_CMPLT stat=0x17 0x1000
        current phase 0x27=STATUS stat=0x17 0x0
        current phase 0xb=CMD_CMPLT stat=0x13
        current phase 0x26=DATAIN stat=0x1 0x1000
        current phase 0x20=SELECT stat=0x10 0x3 0x0
        current phase 0x1=CMD_START stat=0x10 0x8 0x20
        current phase 0xb=CMD_CMPLT stat=0x17 0x1000
        current phase 0x27=STATUS stat=0x17 0x0
        current phase 0xb=CMD_CMPLT stat=0x13
        current phase 0x26=DATAIN stat=0x1 0x1000
        current phase 0x1b=RESEL stat=0x7 0x3 0x0
        current phase 0x5=MSG_IN stat=0x7 0x4
        current phase 0x28=DISCONNECT stat=0x7 0x1000
        current phase 0x2c=SAVEDP stat=0x7 0x1000
sr0: SCSI transport failed: reason 'data_ovr': retrying command
sr0: SCSI transport failed: reason 'unexpected_bus_free': giving up
sr0: device busy too long
esp0: Target 3 now Synchronous at 4.0 mb/s max transmit rate
esp0: Target 3 now Synchronous at 4.0 mb/s max transmit rate
esp0: Target 1 now Synchronous at 4.0 mb/s max transmit rate
esp0: Target 1 now Synchronous at 4.0 mb/s max transmit rate
 

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