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WARNING! Mandrake 9.2 - Hardware problem.

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"Michał M. Lechański"

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Oct 24, 2003, 10:27:20 AM10/24/03
to

< Quote >

Mandrake Linux 9.2 Installation Notes

* Potential hardware damage doing install with LG-based CD-ROM drives

[...]

Error scenario: Installing 9.2 and being told unable to install the base
system and subsequent reboot reveals that CD-ROM 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 or it will damage your CD-ROM! We
are actively looking for a solution to this problem.

[...]

</ Quote >

source: http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/errata.php3#badlg
(It was already posted on polish linux newsgroups by e. Thx)

--
Mis'

Bill Unruh

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Oct 24, 2003, 11:00:27 AM10/24/03
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=?ISO-8859-2?Q?=22Micha=B3_M=2E_Lecha=F1ski=22?= <mic...@doriath.homeip.net> writes:

]< Quote >

][...]

][...]

]</ Quote >

]source: http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/errata.php3#badlg

How in the Hell can software destroy a CDRom drive? Taht makes no sense.
LG should be shot, and certainly should be liable for the damage.

Bruce

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Oct 24, 2003, 11:56:37 AM10/24/03
to

"Bill Unruh" <un...@string.physics.ubc.ca> wrote in message
news:bnbeqb$ru1$1...@string.physics.ubc.ca...


well i am running MDK 9.2 on my dell 4150 laptop which dows have an LG drive
in it and it is still working fine I just finished wathing a movie on it .


Bruce
www.smalltownpoets.net


sdh

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Oct 24, 2003, 11:57:21 AM10/24/03
to
Bill Unruh wrote:


> How in the Hell can software destroy a CDRom drive? Taht makes no sense.
> LG should be shot, and certainly should be liable for the damage.

maybe firmware? :)

--
sdh

patrick_darcy

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Oct 24, 2003, 12:16:13 PM10/24/03
to
"Micha? M. Lecha?ski" wrote:

i have a lg cdwriter dvdreader and its working
fine and has been for about the last year or so and
i am using Mandrake 9.2

--
of all the songs written from the dawn of creation, some were meant to
persist. of all the bells rung from a thousand steeples, none ring
truerthan this, its all God's children singing glory glory, hallelujah He
Reigns...............................................................NeWsBoYs

Skal Loret

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Oct 24, 2003, 12:52:56 PM10/24/03
to

Yeah. Firmware designed by accountants. >:'[

-skal

sdh

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Oct 24, 2003, 1:02:15 PM10/24/03
to
Skal Loret wrote:

what do you mean?

does anybody know the list of LG cdroms affected by this issue?

--
sdh

Walter Mautner

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Oct 24, 2003, 1:13:44 PM10/24/03
to
"Micha? M. Lecha?ski" wrote:

>
>
> < Quote >
>
> Mandrake Linux 9.2 Installation Notes
>
> * Potential hardware damage doing install with LG-based CD-ROM
> drives
>
> [...]
>
> Error scenario: Installing 9.2 and being told unable to install the
> base system and subsequent reboot reveals that CD-ROM 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.

....


> source: http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/errata.php3#badlg
> (It was already posted on polish linux newsgroups by e. Thx)
>

Crazy. I have installed the download edition of 9.1 from a LG CD drive
recently, without any hitch. Such a statement makes LG look a bit ... eh
questionable ... to me.
--
Longhorn error#4711: TCPA / NGSCB VIOLATION: Microsoft optical mouse
detected penguin patterns on mousepad. Partition scan in progress
to remove offending incompatible products. Reactivate your MS software
(3 days grace period).

Skal Loret

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Oct 24, 2003, 1:31:18 PM10/24/03
to
On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 19:02:15 +0200, sdh wrote:

> Skal Loret wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 17:57:21 +0200, sdh wrote:
>>
>>> Bill Unruh wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> How in the Hell can software destroy a CDRom drive? Taht makes no
>>>> sense. LG should be shot, and certainly should be liable for the
>>>> damage.
>>>
>>> maybe firmware? :)
>>
>> Yeah. Firmware designed by accountants. >:'[
>>
>> -skal
>
> what do you mean?

Please note: I *do* know what I am talking about.

In certain design phases of both hardware and software, decisions about
design are all to often made by accounting types, to lower
cost-per-unit-produced. These kinds of comprimises, in the name of The
Great God Mammon, can lead to situations just like this.

For more on this topic, google "Amiga+Dave Haynie".

-skal

Jason

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Oct 24, 2003, 1:56:32 PM10/24/03
to
* Walter Mautner <new.10.e...@spamgourmet.com>:

> "Micha? M. Lecha?ski" wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> < Quote >
>>
>> Mandrake Linux 9.2 Installation Notes
>>
>> * Potential hardware damage doing install with LG-based CD-ROM
>> drives
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> Error scenario: Installing 9.2 and being told unable to install the
>> base system and subsequent reboot reveals that CD-ROM 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.
> ....
>> source: http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/errata.php3#badlg
>> (It was already posted on polish linux newsgroups by e. Thx)
>>
> Crazy. I have installed the download edition of 9.1 from a LG CD drive
> recently, without any hitch. Such a statement makes LG look a bit ... eh
> questionable ... to me.

But is it LG or what they did to 9.2 that is the problem? I suspect its
9.2 if so many of the previous releases worked.

Jason

Jason

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Oct 24, 2003, 2:00:42 PM10/24/03
to
* Bill Unruh <un...@string.physics.ubc.ca>:

What makes you think it's LG's fault? Especially if its worked fine on
previous releases of mandrake but with a new release it doesn't. That
makes me think it's something on Mandrakes end that they changed for 9.2

Jason

john Hill

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Oct 24, 2003, 2:38:23 PM10/24/03
to
And I do believe there are fairies at the bottom of my garden....what
utter tosh!
J

Luca T.

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Oct 24, 2003, 2:47:42 PM10/24/03
to
Jason wrote:

> What makes you think it's LG's fault? Especially if its worked fine on
> previous releases of mandrake but with a new release it doesn't. That
> makes me think it's something on Mandrakes end that they changed for 9.2

Mandrake's fault or not it is still a problem of LG.
A software should not be able to physically damage any kind of hardware,
if it does, the hardware is designed very bad.

Bye,
Luca

--
Linux registered user #291568 (http://counter.li.org/)
Electronic Frontier Foundation Member (http://www.eff.org/)
Mandrake Club Member (http://www.mandrakeclub.com/)

Atle Nissestad

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Oct 24, 2003, 3:14:01 PM10/24/03
to
Walter Mautner wrote:
> "Micha? M. Lecha?ski" wrote:
>
>
>>
>>< Quote >
>>
>>Mandrake Linux 9.2 Installation Notes
>>
>> * Potential hardware damage doing install with LG-based CD-ROM
>> drives
>>
>>[...]
>>
>>Error scenario: Installing 9.2 and being told unable to install the
>>base system and subsequent reboot reveals that CD-ROM 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.
>
> ....
>
>>source: http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/errata.php3#badlg
>>(It was already posted on polish linux newsgroups by e. Thx)
>>
>
> Crazy. I have installed the download edition of 9.1 from a LG CD drive
> recently, without any hitch. Such a statement makes LG look a bit ... eh
> questionable ... to me.

Crazy..? Yeah, that's what I thought when this happened to me 4 days
ago. During installation of Mandrake 9.2 on my HP computer at work, I
got the message "unable to install the base system". I suspected a bad
installation CD, but when I rebooted the computer, the CDROM was dead as
a rock. This was a Goldstar (made by LG) drive (don't remember the part
no.).
The same drive survived a installation of Mandrake 9.1 two momths ago.

Atle

Luca T.

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Oct 24, 2003, 3:20:24 PM10/24/03
to
Atle Nissestad wrote:
> Crazy..? Yeah, that's what I thought when this happened to me 4 days
> ago. During installation of Mandrake 9.2 on my HP computer at work, I
> got the message "unable to install the base system". I suspected a bad
> installation CD, but when I rebooted the computer, the CDROM was dead as
> a rock. This was a Goldstar (made by LG) drive (don't remember the part
> no.).
> The same drive survived a installation of Mandrake 9.1 two momths ago.

Can you please go and look for the part number so that we can make a
little database of known bad CDROMs?

Thanx,

Atle Nissestad

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Oct 24, 2003, 3:27:33 PM10/24/03
to
Luca T. wrote:
> Atle Nissestad wrote:
>
>> Crazy..? Yeah, that's what I thought when this happened to me 4 days
>> ago. During installation of Mandrake 9.2 on my HP computer at work, I
>> got the message "unable to install the base system". I suspected a bad
>> installation CD, but when I rebooted the computer, the CDROM was dead
>> as a rock. This was a Goldstar (made by LG) drive (don't remember the
>> part no.).
>> The same drive survived a installation of Mandrake 9.1 two momths ago.
>
>
> Can you please go and look for the part number so that we can make a
> little database of known bad CDROMs?
>
> Thanx,
> Luca
>
>

I'll check it out when I'm back at work on monday.

Atle

Jos Herni

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Oct 24, 2003, 5:18:47 PM10/24/03
to
On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 15:56:37 +0000, Bruce wrote:

>> How in the Hell can software destroy a CDRom drive? Taht makes no sense.
>> LG should be shot, and certainly should be liable for the damage.
>>
>
>
> well i am running MDK 9.2 on my dell 4150 laptop which dows have an LG drive
> in it and it is still working fine I just finished wathing a movie on it .

There is a difference between cdrom and dvdrom

FarmAV8R

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Oct 24, 2003, 9:01:59 PM10/24/03
to
On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 23:18:47 +0200, Jos Herni wrote:
>
> There is a difference between cdrom and dvdrom

I have to assume since it is addressed on the Mandrake errata page that
there is in fact a valid problem with LG-based drives.

The question is, does it affect ALL LG ODD (Optical Disc Drive) products,
i.e. CD, DVD and burners or does it just affect the CD-ROMs? I have to
admit, although I was planning to upgrade as I do with each new version,
this makes me a bit hesitant to install 9.2 since I have an LG CD-RW
CED-8081B burner.

I've been using and upgrading every version of Mandrake since 7.0, but
certainly don't want to do an upgrade if its going to fry my burner.

How many other people have upgraded to 9.2 with LG drives and have or have
not killed the drive?

Robert

CyberCFO

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Oct 24, 2003, 9:21:59 PM10/24/03
to
Jason wrote:

Apparently it was the patch added on 8-15 that enabled packet writing. This
was reported on Cooker this afternoon, and I'm sure we'll hear more soon.
--
/g

"Outside of a dog, a man's best friend is a book, inside
a dog it's too dark to read" -Groucho Marx

Jason

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Oct 24, 2003, 10:34:09 PM10/24/03
to
* john Hill <joni...@members.v21.co.uk>:

Utter tosh? So a drive that has worked without a problem the last
multiple releases without a problem suddenly gets literally wrecked on
the latest and its the drive makers fault??? You don't deal much in
reality I see there J.

Jason

Jason

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Oct 24, 2003, 10:35:34 PM10/24/03
to
* Luca T. <lu...@despammed.com>:

> Jason wrote:
>
>> What makes you think it's LG's fault? Especially if its worked fine on
>> previous releases of mandrake but with a new release it doesn't. That
>> makes me think it's something on Mandrakes end that they changed for 9.2
>
> Mandrake's fault or not it is still a problem of LG.
> A software should not be able to physically damage any kind of hardware,
> if it does, the hardware is designed very bad.
>
> Bye,
> Luca
>

No its not a problem of LG, thier drives work fine. But all of a sudden
a new release of an OS literally kills the drive, I call that the
problem of the OS. What did they change?

Jason

Tony Sivori

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Oct 25, 2003, 12:32:24 AM10/25/03
to
Luca T. wrote:
> Jason wrote:
>
>> What makes you think it's LG's fault? Especially if its worked fine on
>> previous releases of mandrake but with a new release it doesn't. That
>> makes me think it's something on Mandrakes end that they changed for
>> 9.2
>
> Mandrake's fault or not it is still a problem of LG. A software should
> not be able to physically damage any kind of hardware, if it does, the
> hardware is designed very bad.

I don't think that is true. You can easily foul up a bios flash and your
computer won't boot again until you replace the bios chip (assuming you
don't have a premium board with the spare bios feature). You can also
easily kill a CD writer by flashing it with a bad firmware program.

It sounds to me like this may be Mandrake's fault, in that they enabled
something that the particular drive in question was not supposed to do.

--
Tony Sivori

Tony Sivori

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Oct 25, 2003, 12:34:58 AM10/25/03
to
Bruce wrote:
>
> well i am running MDK 9.2 on my dell 4150 laptop which dows have an LG
> drive in it and it is still working fine I just finished wathing a movie
> on it .

Does LG make their own drives, or do they sell rebadged drives from
multiple manufacturers?

--
Tony Sivori

Jos Herni

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Oct 25, 2003, 2:07:43 AM10/25/03
to
On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 20:01:59 -0500, FarmAV8R wrote:


> How many other people have upgraded to 9.2 with LG drives and have or have
> not killed the drive?

I did a clean install on my Dell 4450 and this box got:

cdrom Samsung dvd
cdrom1 LG CD-RW 8081B

No problem here. But I did use the dvd drive for booting and installing.
That could make the difference?

/Jos - http://www.herni.net

Miguel Barrio

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Oct 25, 2003, 6:15:15 AM10/25/03
to
I did a network install (using the network.img boot floppy image) and
everything went fine. I've been using the system for a week, including the
LG DVD-ROM, and so far so good. The exact model is HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM
GDR8161B.

--
Miguel Barrio
España / Spain

E-Mail: preguntar / ask
URL: http://pagina.de/sinclairmania

"Luca T." <lu...@despammed.com> escribió en el mensaje
news:bnbu2i$uvo7d$1...@ID-99001.news.uni-berlin.de...

Luca T.

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Oct 25, 2003, 6:32:12 AM10/25/03
to
Tony Sivori wrote:

> I don't think that is true. You can easily foul up a bios flash and your
> computer won't boot again until you replace the bios chip (assuming you
> don't have a premium board with the spare bios feature). You can also
> easily kill a CD writer by flashing it with a bad firmware program.
>
> It sounds to me like this may be Mandrake's fault, in that they enabled
> something that the particular drive in question was not supposed to do.

Still LG's fault. It should not be that easy to erase a flash bios but
it should follow a precise sequence of commands.

Luca T.

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Oct 25, 2003, 6:33:14 AM10/25/03
to
Jason wrote:

> No its not a problem of LG, thier drives work fine. But all of a sudden
> a new release of an OS literally kills the drive, I call that the
> problem of the OS. What did they change?

Then why this problem does not affect all the CDROM drives? It doesn't
even affect all LG drives but only a little percent of them. This means
that those CDROM drives were poorly designed.

Luca T.

unread,
Oct 25, 2003, 6:34:40 AM10/25/03
to
Jason wrote:

> Utter tosh? So a drive that has worked without a problem the last
> multiple releases without a problem suddenly gets literally wrecked on
> the latest and its the drive makers fault??? You don't deal much in
> reality I see there J.

As i said before, it was a CDROM poorly designed... probably to make the
unit as cheaper as they could.

Mike Johnson

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Oct 25, 2003, 6:57:21 AM10/25/03
to
"Micha? M. Lecha?ski" <mic...@doriath.homeip.net> wrote in message news:<p4dbnb...@clarkconnect.lan>...

> < Quote >
>
> Mandrake Linux 9.2 Installation Notes
>
> * Potential hardware damage doing install with LG-based CD-ROM drives
>
> [...]
>
> Error scenario: Installing 9.2 and being told unable to install the base
> system and subsequent reboot reveals that CD-ROM 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 or it will damage your CD-ROM! We
> are actively looking for a solution to this problem.
>

Wish they had made this clear *before* I installed on my Dell Dimension
8200. The CD is fried and I think it also took out the IDE controller
as I can't see the DVD-RW on the same cable anymore.

All I can hope is that Dell treat it as a 'normal' hardware failure
and replace the broken CD for free.

Not happy.

Luca T.

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Oct 25, 2003, 8:07:17 AM10/25/03
to
Mike Johnson wrote:

> Wish they had made this clear *before* I installed on my Dell Dimension
> 8200. The CD is fried and I think it also took out the IDE controller
> as I can't see the DVD-RW on the same cable anymore.

Doubt it.
When there is a drive failure it usually brings down the whole IDE
channel. So, unplugging the defective device, the IDE channel should
restart working correctly.
If they ask you what you did just don't say you installed Linux, so they
do not have excuses to not change it... as i said... this is a problem
of the LG drive since Mandrake 9.2 works perfectly with any other unit.
Whatever they would say to avoid changing their defective unit is a lie.

P.T. Breuer

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Oct 25, 2003, 9:09:32 AM10/25/03
to
Luca T. <lu...@despammed.com> wrote:
> Jason wrote:

> > Utter tosh? So a drive that has worked without a problem the last
> > multiple releases without a problem suddenly gets literally wrecked on
> > the latest and its the drive makers fault??? You don't deal much in
> > reality I see there J.

> As i said before, it was a CDROM poorly designed... probably to make the
> unit as cheaper as they could.

Nobody really knows what the problem is at this point, but yes, it is the
case that ANY hardware that can be put out of commission by software is
at fault, morally. The latest from the cooker list is that the problem
seems to affect LG cdroms (not burners, not dvds) with the model number
CRD-84xx, and that it seems to have been triggered by a patch for
packet-writing added to the 2.4.22-rc2q5 kernel on Aug 15.

I don't know how they narrowed down on that. There is no indication in
the cooker lists. There is a lot of traffic reporting model numbers of
working and nonworking drives, with everybody everywhere (mandrake or
not) in the dark as to what the cause might be, and then this mail from
Guillaume Cottenceau saying that Nicolas Planel "has found the origin".

Maybe somebody follwoing IRC can tell me.

And the comment is that a month of beta testing didn't find the problem,
so presumably none of their beta testers had such drives.

I would say that patching the kernel for hardware support might be
risky. This would have been caught if it were in kernel ... I think.
It's only a specific manufacturer and a specific set of models, so the
chances would be low too that kernel list denizens would find it.


Peter

P.T. Breuer

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Oct 25, 2003, 9:25:27 AM10/25/03
to
Luca T. <lu...@despammed.com> wrote:
> Tony Sivori wrote:

> > I don't think that is true. You can easily foul up a bios flash and your
> > computer won't boot again until you replace the bios chip (assuming you
> > don't have a premium board with the spare bios feature). You can also
> > easily kill a CD writer by flashing it with a bad firmware program.
> >
> > It sounds to me like this may be Mandrake's fault, in that they enabled
> > something that the particular drive in question was not supposed to do.

> Still LG's fault. It should not be that easy to erase a flash bios but
> it should follow a precise sequence of commands.

Restoring or upgrading the bios does not fix it. Once it is done it is
done, whatever it is. There is some indication that using the 1.01 bios
may protect it. I don't think anybody has yet got hold of a destroyed
drive to analyse it, so please send examples to mandrake, USA, if you
have one (at least contact them to say so, in fact, obviously, contact
before sending to see if they still need it).

But yes, it is LG's fault. The current news is that it was triggered by
the addition of packet-writing code to the 2.4.22-rc2q5 kernel on Aug.
15, no news on how that determination was made. One must suspect that
querying the drive for the format of the disk or its capabilities
somehow triggers a firmware self-destruct bug in the CRD-84xx models.

Peter

Christian Wolff

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Oct 25, 2003, 9:38:21 AM10/25/03
to
Jos Herni wrote:

> I did a clean install on my Dell 4450 and this box got:
>
> cdrom Samsung dvd
> cdrom1 LG CD-RW 8081B
>
> No problem here. But I did use the dvd drive for booting and installing.
> That could make the difference?


What version is your firmware? Pls try to find out and post the result here
and in the MDK Club Forum (Install)

TY in advance

Christian

--

Mandrake 9.1 (Kernel 2.4.22-0.18mdk Athlon)

Christian Wolff

unread,
Oct 25, 2003, 9:47:19 AM10/25/03
to
Jason wrote:

>> Mandrake's fault or not it is still a problem of LG.
>> A software should not be able to physically damage any kind of hardware,
>> if it does, the hardware is designed very bad.
>>
>> Bye,
>> Luca
>>
>
> No its not a problem of LG, thier drives work fine. But all of a sudden
> a new release of an OS literally kills the drive, I call that the
> problem of the OS. What did they change?

That is BS (sorry for the strong word, no intention to offend you).
Obviously, the LG firmware has a serious flaw that easily allows to
manipulate it. I am just waiting for the first Win viruses that kill LG
drives by exploiting this flaw in the firmware!

This could be even worse - if the firmware can manipulated even without any
checksum before allowing changes on the firmware, Trojan Horses or viruses
could *theoretically* hide in the firmware and survive even a hard disk
format.

George N. White III

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Oct 25, 2003, 9:55:10 AM10/25/03
to
On Fri, 24 Oct 2003, patrick_darcy wrote:

> i have a lg cdwriter dvdreader and its working
> fine and has been for about the last year or so and
> i am using Mandrake 9.2

Can I take ride in your time machine? Most people have only had access to
9.2 for a few days.

If would be useful to know exactly which models have problems. What model
is your LG RW/DVD? You can check using cdrecord:

# cdrecord --scanbus # on a system running 9.0
[...]
0,3,0 3) 'HL-DT-ST' 'RW/DVD GCC-4320B' '1.00' Removable CD-ROM

I'd like to know more before risking 9.2 on this machine.

--
George N. White III <aa...@chebucto.ns.ca>

Graham

unread,
Oct 25, 2003, 10:02:30 AM10/25/03
to
On Sat, 25 Oct 2003 12:33:14 +0200, Luca T. wrote:

> Jason wrote:
>
>> No its not a problem of LG, thier drives work fine. But all of a sudden
>> a new release of an OS literally kills the drive, I call that the
>> problem of the OS. What did they change?
>
> Then why this problem does not affect all the CDROM drives? It doesn't
> even affect all LG drives but only a little percent of them. This means
> that those CDROM drives were poorly designed.

I think, as far as I can tell from what I've read, that it's both's fault
(there doesn't have to be only one party to blame for a fault).

Thankfully, this doesn't affect me, but if I were using one of the
affected LG drives and Mandrake 9.2, I think I'd put off by both parties.
Anyway, it has taught me not to buy an LG drive (thankfully, I've never
had the pleasure of owning one), and to wait a while before upgrading my
OS (I stuck with 9.1, which is working fine for me, and plan on continuing
to do so till 9.3 or 10.1).


Graham

Han Willemsen

unread,
Oct 25, 2003, 10:09:18 AM10/25/03
to
"Micha? M. Lecha?ski" wrote:

> Installing 9.2 and being told unable to install
> the base system and subsequent reboot reveals that
> CD-ROM is physically dead.

My whole computer (the LG cd-rom included) is dead
a week after installing 9.2 ;-)

]-[an.
--
==================================================
= Han Willemsen - <will...@xs4all.nl> =
= Utrecht - Netherlands =
==================================================

P.T. Breuer

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Oct 25, 2003, 10:27:15 AM10/25/03
to

You are not unsafe according to the reports that mandrake has.
The list on cooker at the moment looks like this:

By the way, latest list:

fried:
COMPAQ CRD-8322B(CP1)
CRD-8400B (machine: Dell Optiplex gx1)
CRD-8400B (machine: IBM PC 300 PL)
CDR-8400B(mi)
CRD-8400C
COMPAQ CRD-8402B
LG CRD-8480C (machine: Old Dell XPS T650r)
GCR-8481B (machine: Dell Optiplex gx270; rom: 1.06; date: jun 2003)
CRD-8482B (machine: Dell Optiplex GX1)
GOLDSTAR CDR-8482B (machine: HP Vectra VL400; firmware: 1.01)
CRD-8482B (Dell Precision 220, rom: 1.05)
LG ???? (machine: HP Vectras VL4xx)
GCC 4480B DVD/CD-R/RW/CDROM (firmware 1.00 - upgrading firmware to 1.01
workarounds problem)

work:
LG GMA-4020B DVD-RW
LG GCC-4120B CDRW/DVD
LG CD-RW CED-8080B DVD/CD-R/RW/CDROM
LG CD-RW CED-8120B (motherboard: ASUS K7M)
HL-DT-ST GCC-4480B (machine: Shuttle SB 62 G2 - i865/ICH5; firmware
1.01 - WARNING, firmware 1.00 is reported to have the fry problem!)
HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4480B (motherboard: ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe)
HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8161B (motherboard: Soyo)
HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8240B
HL-DT-ST GCE-8481B CD-CDRW (chipset: SIS 651/962)
HL-DT-ST CD-ROM GCR-8520B
HL-DT-ST GCE-8520B (motherboard: ASUS P4P800)

(reproduced from Guillaume Cottenceau - http://people.mandrakesoft.com/~gc/)

Peter

Krishnan Nagarajan

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Oct 25, 2003, 10:41:21 AM10/25/03
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On Sat, 25 Oct 2003 15:47:19 +0200
Christian Wolff <wolf...@removethis.web.de> wrote:

<... snip...>


> manipulate it. I am just waiting for the first Win viruses that kill LG
> drives by exploiting this flaw in the firmware!

<...unsnip...>

It might be the best thing to happen if some script kiddies latch onto this
CDROM Drive hardware vulnerability and writea coupla' viruses that destroy
CDROm drives; that would force LG to rectify this vulnerability (that's what
it is). Then it's no longer anything to do with Linux / Mandrake :-)


Jim Shaffer, Jr.

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Oct 25, 2003, 12:04:08 PM10/25/03
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On Sat, 25 Oct 2003 01:21:59 GMT, CyberCFO <cybe...@gkmweb.com> wrote:

>Apparently it was the patch added on 8-15 that enabled packet writing. This
>was reported on Cooker this afternoon, and I'm sure we'll hear more soon.

So we have packet writing now? Does it work on CD-R or just CD-RW?

Bill Unruh

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Oct 25, 2003, 3:43:15 PM10/25/03
to
Han Willemsen <will...@xs4all.nl> writes:

]"Micha? M. Lecha?ski" wrote:

]> Installing 9.2 and being told unable to install
]> the base system and subsequent reboot reveals that
]> CD-ROM is physically dead.

]My whole computer (the LG cd-rom included) is dead
]a week after installing 9.2 ;-)

And your car drove off a cliff and lightning hit your house and your
daughter ran off with the plumber. Boy that Mandrake has a lot to answer
for.

Bill Unruh

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Oct 25, 2003, 3:52:54 PM10/25/03
to
Jason <Ja...@beer.it.does.the.body.good> writes:
]>
]> How in the Hell can software destroy a CDRom drive? Taht makes no sense.
]> LG should be shot, and certainly should be liable for the damage.
]>

]What makes you think it's LG's fault? Especially if its worked fine on

]previous releases of mandrake but with a new release it doesn't. That
]makes me think it's something on Mandrakes end that they changed for 9.2

Because no piece of hardware should be fryable by software code sent to
it. If LG has a harware code which reads "On receipt of 7b57x, sent 100
volts through the controller" then it is LGs fault that they would put
such a stupid peice of code into their firmware. It does not matter is
noone elses code happened to send it the 7B57 command, it is their
fault.

Han Willemsen

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Oct 25, 2003, 3:55:22 PM10/25/03
to
Bill Unruh wrote:

> ]My whole computer (the LG cd-rom included) is dead
> ]a week after installing 9.2 ;-)
>

> And your car drove off a cliff ...

I don't have one (nor a driverslicence).

> and lightning hit your house

No

> and your daughter ran off with the plumber.

No

> Boy that Mandrake has a lot to answer for.

No

Zbigniew A.

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Oct 25, 2003, 6:02:57 PM10/25/03
to
Skal Loret pi? 24. pazdziernika 2003 16:52 wrote:
> On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 17:57:21 +0200, sdh wrote:

>
>> Bill Unruh wrote:
>>
>>
>>> How in the Hell can software destroy a CDRom drive? Taht makes no sense.
>>> LG should be shot, and certainly should be liable for the damage.
>>
>> maybe firmware? :)
>
> Yeah. Firmware designed by accountants. >:'[
>

Did you mean accountants of MandrakeSoft.com ?

Yours Virtually,
Zbigniew A.

Dean P.

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Oct 25, 2003, 6:43:17 PM10/25/03
to
"Luca T." <lu...@despammed.com> wrote in message news:<bnbu2i$uvo7d$1...@ID-99001.news.uni-berlin.de>...
...

> Can you please go and look for the part number so that we can make a
> little database of known bad CDROMs?
>
> Thanx,
> Luca

Here's a drive failure report. Actually, it's replicated (scientist
to the end, I repeated the experiment before I knew what was going
on): this happened on two identical computers.

I'm not a member of the Mandrake Cooker groups, so if there's someone
who wants to forward this information there (or anywhere else it will
be useful to the Mandrake folks), please feel free to do so.

Computer (actually two identical ones):
IBM Personal Computer 300PL
Part number: 6862-N4U

CD Drive (data from label on CD drive units in each computer):
LG
CD-ROM DRIVE
Model: CRD-8400B
Manufactured: July 1999
F/W: 1.08
H/W: A
MECHA: B

In both cases, the drive died and took down the IDE channel with it.
Once the CD drive was disconnected, the IDE channel worked fine
again. After a floppy/network install of Mandrake 9.2, it's been
working fine (albeit without CD drives).

Hope that's helpful.

-Dean
--
de...@biol.sc.edu

exaudio

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Oct 25, 2003, 7:39:10 PM10/25/03
to

"Tony Sivori" <TonySivoriM$WO...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:pan.2003.10.25...@yahoo.com...

I recently had an LG CD-ROM fail when I tried to boot to Cool Linux CD RC1.
I bet it's the same problem people are having with Mandrake 9.2. Perhaps
there is a problem with recent linux kernels?

JH

Skal Loret

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Oct 25, 2003, 8:55:19 PM10/25/03
to

No. LG. Drill down into this whole mess, and I predict one will find that
the firmware problem was caused by someone making a decision to cheap out
in the final HW designs. Generally, HW engineers do not make such a
decision. They design things, initially, to be rock-solid. When decisions
like this are made, they are usually made by clueless management types, in
unholy partnership with those Spawns of Satan, accountants. Generally to
save a maximum of $US0.003 per unit produced, or some equally ridiculous
number.

Oh yeah: That line LG is using, "Our products were not tested with Linux
and were not intended...", et al, ad nauseaum? Total, utter CYA bullshit.
IDE/ADA is a well-defined and stable standard, as is ATAPI. As long as
they adheared to the standard, there would be no problems. What this says
is that somewhere along the way, they started taking design shortcuts,
dangerous shortcuts at that. Now, they will default to the " I know
NOZZING!!!!" defense, even though they knew that their products were being
used on many thousands of Linux Boxen, every day. What utter horseshit.

-skal

steve mitchell

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Oct 26, 2003, 12:59:05 AM10/26/03
to
Another one to add to the list.
Just killed my cd-rom drive.

LG model : CRD-8322B
ROM version 1.05

Mark

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Oct 26, 2003, 1:25:28 AM10/26/03
to
In article <pan.2003.10.26...@shaw.ca>,
steve.N0SP...@shaw.ca says...

> Another one to add to the list.
> Just killed my cd-rom drive.
>
> LG model : CRD-8322B
> ROM version 1.05

<snip>

On Thursday, Mandrake posted information on their website regarding
these cd-roms and other issues with 9.2. If you are going to install any
operating system, it pays to read such articles...
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/errata.php3

Mandrake has also been slashdotted today, and a lot of it is not very
flattering.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/25/1737244

--
Regards,
Mark

Samba Setup Guide: www.samba.netfirms.com
My gpg public key: www.samba.netfirms.com/gnupg/gpg_public.asc

Scott Robinson

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Oct 26, 2003, 12:22:11 PM10/26/03
to
On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 20:47:42 +0200, "Luca T." <lu...@despammed.com>
wrote:

>Jason wrote:
>
>> What makes you think it's LG's fault? Especially if its worked fine on
>> previous releases of mandrake but with a new release it doesn't. That
>> makes me think it's something on Mandrakes end that they changed for 9.2
>
>Mandrake's fault or not it is still a problem of LG.
>A software should not be able to physically damage any kind of hardware,
>if it does, the hardware is designed very bad.
>

>Bye,
> Luca

Without knowing what is the problem, I would say that a *lot* of
hardware can be damaged by software. Typically, what happens is that
there is an easily writeable FLASH that stores necessary
data/programming, and is upgradeable. Anybody who has flashed a bios
on the motherboard should understand this. I have heard of DVD
writers upgradeable on the fly (actually increasing CD-R write rates).

Wise engineers include an uneraseble backup and a jumper to reload
this. Bungee-boss program managers don't understand this, nor care.

Scott

Steve

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Oct 27, 2003, 1:12:30 PM10/27/03
to
>
> I recently had an LG CD-ROM fail when I tried to boot to Cool Linux CD RC1.
> I bet it's the same problem people are having with Mandrake 9.2. Perhaps
> there is a problem with recent linux kernels?

I believe you are right -- it's not just Mandrake. I've destroyed
three CDROM's on my Dell Optiplex GX260 in the last month, just trying
to mount them under Gentoo Linux.

It installed just fine, and it was a week or two later that I tried to
mount a disc in the drive and locked up the system. This was the
first time I tried to mount the drive after building my production
kernel (as opposed to booting from the live cd which was fine.) I
tried another CD drive from another machine and toasted it right away.
Dell replaced the motherboard and CDROM under warranty, and a week
later I tried to mount the new one -- with immediate destruction.

Sound like the same thing. There's something in "recent" kernels that
has changed, but necessarily right up to the minute kernels. I'm
using Gentoo's 2.4.20-r7 kernel.

Cliff Matthews

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Oct 29, 2003, 1:04:40 PM10/29/03
to
"exaudio" <j.ha...@cox.net> wrote in message news:<FRDmb.14986$5c2.9593@okepread03>...

I have to aggree with JH. It seems a very standard ATAPI command has
been abused by LG - What is supposed to be the FLUSH_BUFFER command
under the ATAPI rules has been used in LG drives to initiate a
firmware write sequence. Another posting states the obvious (but I
hope it didn't plant any bad seeds) that new virus's could be made to
exploit this...
Remember, when a manufacturer claims 100% ATAPI they are liable to
live up to that statement. I'm waiting for new firmware from LG all
the same before I think about moving to Mandrake. (I'll use Gentoo
Linux for now :-)
For ATAPI info:
http://www.ata-atapi.com/hist.htm
Cheers CM

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