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Date:      Wed, 15 Dec 1999 00:45:52 -0600 (CST)
From:      Ryan Thompson <ryan@sasknow.com>
To:        Daniel Schrock <djab@enteract.com>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: CD question
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.10.9912150006420.79593-100000@sasknow.com>
In-Reply-To: <006b01bf46ba$d23f7a20$0200a8c0@olivia>

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On Tue, 14 Dec 1999, Daniel Schrock wrote:

> Hi Ryan! Thank you very much for your detailed response.  You have
> given me a lot to check. Being an extreme newbie, I included what I
> thought would be necessary, but I can definitely understand why you
> would need more.
> 
> Here goes (please try to excuse any minor typos (hopefully there will be
> none!) as my FreeBSD box is not online, so I have to type all this on my
> Windows box....yea...there probably is a an easier way, but like I
> said...I'm a newbie- I'm not sure how to make it easier.
> anyway...here goes...
> 
> > Make sure that you did NOT remove acd. :-)  As you are, by 
> > self-admission, a newbie, I'm assuming you did NOT build a new kernel,
> > but merely went through the visual config at bootup, right?
> 
> correct...visual config...I did not build a new kernel...I did not remove
> acd though, made sure of that one.
> 
> > Please include your FULL dmesg output; in particular, you haven't
> > included any output from the acd detection phase ....
> 
> dmesg | more      --complete output--after trying to mount cdrom (see below
> dmesg)
> 
> FreeBSD ver. 3.3- Release #0: Thu Sep 16 23:40:35 GMT 1999
> [...]
> wdc at 0x1f0-0x1f7 irq 14 on isa
> wdc0: unit 0 (wdo): <Maxtor 90871U2>
> wd0: 8297MB (16992864 sectors), 16858 cyls, 16 heads,  63 S/T, 512 B/S
> wdc1 at 0x170-0x177 irq 15 on isa
> wdc1: unit 0 (atapi): <WPI CDS-32X/ERe  2.0>, removable, dma, iordy

Here's the snag; you SHOULD have an acd0 device detected after wdc1.

wdc0 is your primary IDE controller.  FreeBSD detected your Maxtor
hard drive on this controller, SO, it called on the wd driver to give you
wd0.

wd0 is the FIRST DRIVE on your primary IDE controller.  Without the driver
for it, you would have no root filesystem :-)

wdc1, as you might guess, is your secondary IDE controller, which, like
your primary did, found a drive at position 0 (master, or, in this case, a
single drive).

Now, for some reason, the kernel didn't use the acd driver for your ATAPI
drive.  The detection line for wd1 looks pretty standard... But, if the
kernel doesn't properly detect your CD drive, it will not load an acd
driver.  Thus, you will not have a working CD :-)

Possible reasons include most things I mentioned in my previous message.
I'd almost be willing to hang a bet on your jumper config.  Barring that,
try booting with and without a CD in the drive, trying a different IDE
cable, etc, etc... Standard hardware diagnostic stuff.  The kernel
reported the standard atapi support... But I suppose it IS possible that
you have a marginally compatible drive that is rejecting FreeBSD's
attempts to identify and access it.

> [...]  More kernel output
>
> This was done after trying to mount the cdrom, per someone's suggestion to
> boot with the disc in as a work around, using:
> 
> mount -t cd9660 /dev/acd0a /cdrom

Yes, stick with that command line... And DO ensure that the /cdrom
directory exists prior to mounting.  As simple as it sounds, it's a very
common mistake among newbies, and /cdrom isn't created for you by
sysinstall.
 
> >Hmm... Are you sure it's on /dev/acd0c, and not acd0a?  Couldn't hurt to
> >verify that.
> 
> Both acd0a and acd0c have failed....

Your config suggests acd0a.  Stick with that.


> >Also, one common snag people run in to is using incorrect jumper settings
> >or cable positions when trying to fire up their CD-ROM drives.
> 
> The drive is alone on the secondary IDE channel, so I will try changing the
> jumper and send you an update on the result.

Yup... If that's not it, as a workaround/additional test, you might try
jumpering your CD drive as a slave and sticking it on the middle cable
position of your primary IDE controller.

The above is something I usually try as a "late resort"  ("last resort"
being unhooking the drive, putting it back in the static bag, and giving
it a ceremonial burial in the dumpster on the corner).  I say "late
resort", because some (particularly pre-pentium) configurations dislike
CD drives sharing IDE channels with HDDs.  And, if it does work, you may
notice a decline in your HDD throughput.

Question:  You DID remember to enable the secondary IDE channel in your
BIOS config, right? (Sorry, personal experience, here :-)

 
> result of `ls -la /dev/wcd* /dev/acd*`
> 
> brw-r-----  1 root  operator        19,        0 Dec 14 21:52  /dev/acd0a
> brw-r-----  1 root  operator        19,        2 Dec 14 21:52  /dev/acd0c
> lrwxrwxr-x   1 root    wheel                      5 Dec 14 21:52
> /dev/wcd0a -> acd0a
> lrwxrwxr-x   1 root    wheel                      5 Dec 14 21:52
> /dev/wcd0c -> acd0c

Ok.  Looks kosher.  Wanted to verify that the device nodes were actually
present.
 
> Thank you very much for taking the time help out a newbie.  It is
> greatly appreciated. As you could see I have 2 NICs, this is routing a
> DSL connection to my LAN. The modem was delivered today, and
> NorthPoint is doing the wiring in the next few days.  That will be
> another interesting problem, but I don't even want to think about it
> yet.
> 
> Thanks again, Ryan.
> 
> Daniel Schrock
> djab@enteract.com

No problem.  After you graduate out of the "newbie" stage, you will find
the FreeBSD experience to be both enlightening and refreshing, and just
challenging enough at times to hold your interest (or keep your wage high,
whatever the case might be :-).  I sometimes define the aforementioned
"graduation" as successfully rebooting a system after the first time fsck
fails and drops you into single user mode with a read-only root
filesystem, ed, and no man pages. I believe this is an important rite of
passage for upcoming sysadmins.  Sometimes I also think it doubles as an
important termination of a lot of unworthy sysadmins :-)  With any luck,
you won't fall into the latter category :-)

> --original message omitted due to size--
> 
What, was I rambling again? :-)

Virtually yours,
- Ryan

---

  Ryan Thompson <ryan@sasknow.com>
  50% Owner, Technical and Accounts
  Phone: +1 (306) 664-1161

  SaskNow Technologies     http://www.sasknow.com
  #106-380 3120 8th St E   Saskatoon, SK  S7H 0W2




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