SCSI CD ROM not rec. by system, 10.20 Unix

[Bill Maly]

I have an HP Server that I am connecting to an external SCSI CD ROM drive. I am unable to mount the drive. The CD is a Plextor Ultraplex, 50 pin SCSI connector. Is there any reason why this drive will not work w. 10.20? Thanks for any response.

Bill

[Bill Hassell]

Let's start by the common but not meaningful term 'recognized'. SCSI is a wonderful standard because there are so many to choose from. Make sure thet you are connecting a compatible drive to a compatible I/O card. If your computer has a fast-wide interface (FWD or similar words near the connector) then it won't work at all-I don't know of any FWD CDROM drives.

Start with ioscan, the only useful tool to debug new hardware. Use the command:

ioscan -fCdisk

If you did the unthinkable by connecting the new disk with power on and HP-UX running, you may have to run the above command several times to clear the bus. If the drive does not show up then it is not compatible. If there are disks on the same bus, you can easily crash the system with live connects and/or disconnects.

If ioscan identifies the CDROM, use ioscan -fnCdisk to see the device files. If they aren't listed, then you probably did not reboot after adding the CDROM drive. You can use insf -H x.x.x where x.x.x is the hardware path from ioscan.

Once you have device files (ie, lssf /dev/dsk/*) then mount the CD with:

mount /dev/dsk/ /some_directory

Note that the option -ocdcase is needed for many non-HP-UX CDs.

[Bruce Regittko_1]

Hi,

Another thing to check is that the SCSI target address is not conflicting with another device also on the SCSI controller. You can use ioscan -fu and look for the target values reported. You could also change the target value on the drive - there is probably a switch on the back of the drive - and hope for the best.

As was stated earlier, you should really power down before adding, removing, or even changing the target on the drive, if you are not already.

--Bruce

[Gerard Leclercq]

Hello,

Just a little check.
Does your kernel is configured with the subsystem "CD-ROM/9000"?

Bye

[wendler]

Just a general note... you will not be able to write directly or copy to a mounted cd... You will need a third party software to make writing to a CD possible... do a search on mkisofs ( makes a file containing all the desired dir and files you want to write to CD) or cdrecord ( program that actually writes the mkisofs file to the CD).... There is freeware and there is a $$ware($2k) that will allow writing CD's on a unix system. It is doable, but is not a straight plug n play deal.