cdrecord read error

[Rick Stevens]

On Fri, 2005-09-23 at 17:22 -0500, Sidney Abrahams wrote:
> I used cdrecord to copy my data file backups to cd every day on Linux 9 Red
> Hat. I recently upgraded to Enterprise WS and now the cdrecord gives me:
> Cdrecord: Input/output error. Read error on input file.
> Yet I can use kde audio burner software to burn that same file to a cd??
> The cdrw is configured on dev/hda, while on my old system it was on fake
> scsi dev=1,0,0. cdrecord cannot read/write to ide devices?

You didn't specify if its WS4 or WS3.  WS4 uses a 2.6 kernel and WS3
uses a 2.4 kernel.  Since it's not working any longer, I'm going to
assume that you're using WS4 and a 2.6 kernel.

Under a 2.4 kernel, the IDE driver couldn't do ATAPI I/O (ATAPI is the
way CD/CDR/CDRW and DVD/DVD+-R/DVD+-RW drives talk to the bus--
essentially SCSI commands over an IDE interface).  To fix that, there
was an "ide-scsi" driver that did the translation.  Hence, ATAPI devices
appeared to the kernel as if they were native SCSI devices.

The 2.6 kernel's IDE midlayer is capable of handling the ATAPI I/O
directly, so the ide-scsi driver is not necessary.  "dev=1,0,0" implies
SCSI, and since there's no SCSI emulation any longer, "dev=1,0.0" won't
work.

Under a 2.6 kernel and using an ATAPI drive, the proper syntax is
"dev=ATA:1,0,0" (the ATA tells cdrecord to use the ATAPI interface
rather than the default SCSI interface).  If you were using a native
SCSI CD writer, then "dev=1,0,0" would still be appropriate.

I know this is more info than you probably need, but I'm a firm believer
that just handing someone a solution without explaining _why_ it works
is a bit of a disservice to the person originally asking the question.
It also puts this kind of information into the list's archives so people
can find it for themselves in the future.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
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-                 IGNORE that man behind the keyboard!               -
-                                                - The Wizard of OS  -
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