RHEL3 DVD+RW scsi error on DL360

[Jamie A. Thom]

Hi All!

We're running RHEL3 WS (kernel 2.4.21-27) on our DL-360 with an HP DVD+R/RW 8X SlimLine and we're putting data down onto DVD+R media using mkisofs (v 2.01a32) via growisofs (v 5.16).

Usually it works but occasionally the kernel throws up:

Jan 24 13:59:00 localhost kernel: scsi0 channel 0 : resetting for second half of retries.
Jan 24 13:59:00 localhost kernel: SCSI bus is being reset for host 0 channel 0.
Jan 24 13:59:02 localhost kernel: sr0: CDROM (ioctl) error, command: Test Unit Ready 00 00 00 00 00
Jan 24 13:59:02 localhost kernel: sr00:00: old sense key None
Jan 24 13:59:02 localhost kernel: Non-extended sense class 0 code 0x0

and the write fails. Try again a moment later and off it goes like nothing ever happened.

We're seeing this and...

scsi0 channel 0 : resetting for second half of retries.
SCSI bus is being reset for host 0 channel 0.
SCSI error: host 0 id 0 lun 0 return code = 18000002
Sense class 0, sense error 0, extended sense 0

happening in /var/log/messages pretty often whether the DVD+RW is being used or not.

We've made sure nowt else is mounting the DVD and swapped both the drive and the 44pin IDE cable to no avail.

Looks to me like a problem with the kernel communicating with this drive, possible the ide-scsi emulation.

Anyone else seen this? Got a work around or fix or know of a DVD+RW that doesn't exhibit this behaviour?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Jamie

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

Shalom Jamie,

It is best to use equipment specifically supported and tested by HP. HP storageworks has a DVD RW+ that uses only R+ media. Its quite pricey, but it is certified.

SEP

[Andrew Cowan]

Jamie,

I've been doing a lot of hardware testing with RHEL-4.0/Suse/Fedora Linux and IDE/USB CD-ROMS and have found that only Suse works consistantly. Mkisofs uses a different library in the two distros and the explanation I got from Redhat was that Suse were using a much newer library that accepted so-called unstable devices.

In my experience the opposite is true, and although I much prefer Redhat, Suse is a much better bet when it comes to supporting devices.

I have to say that I agree with SEP comment about sticking to supported hardware although I have found that even when doing this there can still be problems.

[Jamie A. Thom]

Thanks guys, those are both helpful answers. Can anyone tell me which library is liable to be the cause of the problem though?

Cheers,

Jamie

[Andrew Cowan]

I hope this helps:

ldd /usr/bin/cdrecord
libc.so.6 => /lib/tls/libc.so.6 (0x009d2000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x009b9000)

ldd /usr/bin/mkisofs
libc.so.6 => /lib/tls/libc.so.6 (0x009d2000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x009b9000)

[Jamie A. Thom]

Thanks again Andrew, that does help.

Steven - do you mean the HP DVD400i?
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?cc=uk&docname=c00044337&lc=en
If not, then which?

Cheers,

Jamie