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CD-ROM drives from which booting Visopsys works
https://visopsys.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=231		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  nextvolume [ Sat Mar 29, 2014 11:26 pm ]
Post subject:  CD-ROM drives from which booting Visopsys works
If you ever wondered why your system couldn't boot the Visopsys CD, the reason might be its CD-ROM drive.
The CDROM code in Visopsys is apparently quite finicky, and many drives have issues, thus making booting from them impossible; trying to boot from such a drive results in a device error.
I have tested most of the spare drives in my possession and I have compiled two lists: the first one lists the working drives, the second one the non-working ones.
Obviously the lists are incomplete, but they can be an useful starting point: if you happen to have one of the drives listed, you will know it doesn't currently work, or that you may swap an incompatible drive in a system with a compatible one.
That is, until the CDROM code is fixed, which will be obviously the best solution!

Working drives
    Mitsumi CRMC-FX4830T
    Pioneer DVR-112D
    BenQ 4816P
    TEAC CD-W548E
    BenQ DW1620
    LG GCE-8525B
    Ultima CHA-50
    GoldStar (LG) CRD-8482B
    ASUS CD-S520/A
    LG GCE-8520B
    SmartPro DVDRW 2016IM
    LG CRD-8520B
    Pioneer DR-744
    Creative CD4834E
    LG GCR-8520B
    LG GCR-8521B
    LG CRD-8522B

Non-working drives
    Creative CD5233E
    HP LTN-489S
    Panasonic/Matsushita SR-8585-B (Apple)
    LG GDR-8162B
    Panasonic/Matsushita CR-851-M
    Top-G BCD-G621D
    A-Open CD-932E/AKU
    Philips PCA403CD
    Pioneer DVR-110D
    BTC/Top-G BCD-F562B

The system used to test the drives is a Compaq Deskpro EP/SB Series from 1999.
Author:  ap0r [ Sat Mar 29, 2014 11:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: CD-ROM drives from which booting Visopsys works
Surely this info will be useful to determine what those drives have in common and determining the root issue!
Author:  andymc [ Wed Apr 02, 2014 10:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: CD-ROM drives from which booting Visopsys works
From the age of the system, I'm guessing you've tested all of these attached to a PATA (IDE) controller, is that correct?

It's true, the IDE code can be hit-or-miss with ATAPI sometimes. One drive interrupts here, another there. Last time I looked at it, I believe I managed to get it working with every drive I've got.

Could we perhaps identify some common point of failure, if the debugging messages were turned on? Could send me the debugging output from a few of the failing ones?

Just need to turn enable debugging in the kernel Makefile, turn on messages for kernelIdeDriver.c in kernelDebug.c (plus, I often use text mode display when I'm debugging hardware drivers).

Let me know if you think you can try it, and if you need help with any of the steps above.

Cheers nextvolume,
Andy
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