Cheap Linux Hardware - Need CDR/DVD reader/burner for Slack 12

Author

Need CDR/DVD reader/burner for Slack 12

wexfordpress

2007-08-27, 1:17 pm

My old drive is starting to act up. Need a new one. Tiger Direct has
ATA drives for
$24 and up but I am unsure about Linux compatibility. Any success
stories for under $100?

Some drives require Win XP. Are we back to the infamous Winmodem
nonsense?

John Culleton

Dances With Crows

2007-08-27, 1:17 pm

wexfordpress staggered into the Black Sun and said:
> My old drive is starting to act up. Need a new one. Tiger Direct has
> ATA drives for $24 and up but I am unsure about Linux compatibility.
> Any success stories for under $100?

IDE CD/DVD+-RWs are all supposed to follow the MMC-3 standards. While
I'm sure there are some that don't, I have neither seen any nor heard
any reports of those in the last 5 years. So your worries about
combatability are AFAICT not a concern. Heck, even the LightScribe
stuff will work if you don't mind installing an evil binary-only library
from them (google://"lightscribe linux" .)

> Some drives require Win XP. Are we back to the infamous Winmodem
> nonsense?

It's highly probable that the "Sleazy CD Cremator" or whatever that is
shipped with the drive is a 'DozeXP program. HTH,

--
So, what do *you* do for a living?
I sit in a chair, pressing small plastic rectangles with my fingers
while peering at many tiny, colored dots. --Peter Manders
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see

Michael Black

2007-08-27, 1:17 pm

wexfordpress (john@wexfordpress.com) writes:
> My old drive is starting to act up. Need a new one. Tiger Direct has
> ATA drives for
> $24 and up but I am unsure about Linux compatibility. Any success
> stories for under $100?
>
> Some drives require Win XP. Are we back to the infamous Winmodem
> nonsense?
>
Are you sure about that last? I don't know if there are such drives,
but the whole issue is often confounded by companies that list
"requirements" and don't make it clear whether they are an absolute,
or merely talking to most of the potential buyers. When I bought a 14.4K
modem, external, in 1996, the box mentioned the Mac and the Intel
machines, but said nothing about other computers. If you take
those requirements literally, then it rules out Linux or anything
else. But then, there are times when you have to have WIndows, but
there's no indication that it is an absolute, either.

One thing to watch. I bought a DVD writer a few months ago, and
was suprised when I got no sound out of it. It replaced a DVDrom
drive (ie no write), a direct replacement.

I reopened my computer, and poked around. Above the audio connector,
which was there, there was something like "reserved for future use"
or words along those lines.

I may be missing something, but the combination of no sound and those
words seems a strong indicator that the drive has no audio output. And
if this drive doesn't, then that may be a trend.

Another reason for thinking this is all those questions we see where
people complain they aren't getting any sound out of their drives, and
it turns out they have no audio cable in place, because Windows
doesn't need it (using software to extract from the data on the data
cable). Given that, I can imagine they've left off the audio output
since it wasn't being used by many anyway.

Michael

Oldtech

2007-08-27, 7:17 pm

Michael Black wrote:
> wexfordpress (john@wexfordpress.com) writes:
> Are you sure about that last? I don't know if there are such drives,
> but the whole issue is often confounded by companies that list
> "requirements" and don't make it clear whether they are an absolute,
> or merely talking to most of the potential buyers. When I bought a 14.4K
> modem, external, in 1996, the box mentioned the Mac and the Intel
> machines, but said nothing about other computers. If you take
> those requirements literally, then it rules out Linux or anything
> else. But then, there are times when you have to have WIndows, but
> there's no indication that it is an absolute, either.
>
> One thing to watch. I bought a DVD writer a few months ago, and
> was suprised when I got no sound out of it. It replaced a DVDrom
> drive (ie no write), a direct replacement.
>
> I reopened my computer, and poked around. Above the audio connector,
> which was there, there was something like "reserved for future use"
> or words along those lines.
>
> I may be missing something, but the combination of no sound and those
> words seems a strong indicator that the drive has no audio output. And
> if this drive doesn't, then that may be a trend.
>
> Another reason for thinking this is all those questions we see where
> people complain they aren't getting any sound out of their drives, and
> it turns out they have no audio cable in place, because Windows
> doesn't need it (using software to extract from the data on the data
> cable). Given that, I can imagine they've left off the audio output
> since it wasn't being used by many anyway.
>
> Michael
>
I haven't use any audio cables for any install of any CD or DVD since
about 1997. Everything plays just fine. Might have to make sure the
feed is on in KMix and the BIOS has the DMA ticked, (went away in about
1997 too!). The computer defaults to DMA (Direct Memory Addressing).

Do ensure that the CD or DVD is never on an IDE cable with a hard drive,
as the whole buss slows to ATA 33 speed.

Peter D.

2007-08-31, 7:15 am

on Tuesday 28 August 2007 02:23
in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.hardware
wexfordpress wrote:

> My old drive is starting to act up. Need a new one. Tiger Direct
> has ATA drives for $24 and up but I am unsure about Linux
> compatibility. Any success stories for under $100?
>
> Some drives require Win XP. Are we back to the infamous Winmodem
> nonsense?

It is highly likely that the software supplied with the drive
to burn CDs will be Windows only, but you don't need it. The
only bit of software that you might be interested in is to flash
the ROM of the drive and you probably don't want to do that either.

--
sig goes here...
Peter D.

robertharvey@my-deja.com

2007-08-31, 7:15 am

On 31 Aug, 08:17, "Peter D." <p...@live.home.invalid> wrote:
> It is highly likely that the software supplied with the drive
> to burn CDs will be Windows only, but you don't need it. The
> only bit of software that you might be interested in is to flash
> the ROM of the drive and you probably don't want to do that either.

I had to flash the Lite-on Allwriters I bought to make them work with
8cm DVD-R disks. I copied the downloaded code onto a bootable floppy
made with freedos, although nxdos might have done just as well, and
ran it from there.

Peter D.

2007-09-03, 1:19 pm

on Friday 31 August 2007 20:14
in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.hardware
robertharvey@my-deja.com wrote:

> On 31 Aug, 08:17, "Peter D." <p...@live.home.invalid> wrote:
>
> I had to flash the Lite-on Allwriters I bought to make them work with
> 8cm DVD-R disks. I copied the downloaded code onto a bootable floppy
> made with freedos, although nxdos might have done just as well, and
> ran it from there.

That is a plus for Lite-on. I got the impression that some flashing
software was Windows only, not even DOS.

--
sig goes here...
Peter D.

2007-09-03, 1:19 pm

On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 09:23:20 -0700, wexfordpress wrote:

> My old drive is starting to act up. Need a new one. Tiger Direct has ATA
> drives for
> $24 and up but I am unsure about Linux compatibility. Any success stories
> for under $100?
>
Buy a Nec and have its firmware updated with linux as well.
http://binflash.cdfreaks.com/