[NEWS] - Mandrake 9.2 kills LG CD-ROM

[CougTek]

Error scenario: Installing 9.2 and being told unable to install the base system and subsequent reboot reveals that CD-ROM drive is physically dead.
Why: According to LG Electronics, their ODD (Optical Disc Drive) products do not support Linux nor do they test with Linux. Unfortunately, many Dell computers (possibly others) come with these CD-ROM drives.
Solution: Currently there is no solution or work-around for this issue; it is still under investigation. Damage occurs even when doing a network install. At this point, please do not install Mandrake Linux 9.2 on any computer containing a LG-based CD-ROM drive or it will damage your CD-ROM drive! We are actively looking for a solution to this problem.

Now I know why one of my LG 52x reader died about a month ago when I tried to install the first beta of Mandrake 9.2

News source

 

[Adcadet]

can somebody explain how a software program can physically kill hardware? I can almost imagine how a video card could kill a monitor. But a CD-ROM drive?

 

[blakerwry]

i never had any problem and I pretty much exclusively use LG/Goldstar optical drives...

 

[i]

can somebody explain how a software program can physically kill hardware? I can almost imagine how a video card could kill a monitor. But a CD-ROM drive?

I read somewhere that the CD-ROM wipes out its firmware when sent a command to flush its cache. And without functioning firmware, you can't even load a replacement firmware, let alone use the drive for anything.

 

[Mercutio]

Certain revisions of LG firmware have the microcode for the ATAPI "Query for Writable State" set to the same thing as "Firmware flash".

So, during Mandrake's install, when it checks to see if you've got a burner, and even if you don't, it goes "poof".

Updating to the new firmware on LG's site corrects this problem.

The problem in this case is with LG, not with Mandrake.

 

[Adcadet]

ah, that makes sense.

Now, who had the bright idea of making the commands the same? It will be a shame if Linux gets a bad name over this.

 

[blakerwry]

Some Engineer at LG must have made the mistake. I doubt this will give linux a bad name, the same thing could happen in windows.

I believe that LG's drives can be flashed even if the current firmware is erased (as if there were a "bad" flash) using the mtkflash tool from DOS. I believe the optical drive does have to be on a certain channel and either master or slave exclusively for this to be done though.

The symptoms of a drive with none or bad firmware would probably be none detection on boot, misdetection/identification on boot, hanging IDE device detection on boot or at best case failure to read/write disks.

From what is on mandrake's site it looks like very few of LG's drives are actually effected, only one of mine was, and that was using an older firmware version than the one I already had. (and I have 2 LG CD-ROM drives and 4 burners)