[sf-lug] i586 ThinkPad CD-ROM problems

[Alex Kleider]

Rick chided me (justifiably of course) for not providing more specifics
re my problems installing Mandriva. I've done some more experimenting
and am beginning to worry that the CD-Rom may be dying although there
is also some evidence to the contrary.
Currently I'm running DSL (Damn Small Linux) with out problems BUT
would like to switch to a more conventional distro. I AM able using the
i586 ThinkPad running DSL to mount and read a CD burned on another
(ubuntu) computer. For example I read the README file on the Mandriva
CD this way. Pretty good evidence I thought that the CD-ROM drive works
fine.
BUT:
When doing an install (I've tried both Debian and Mandriva with similar
results) the process stalls. 

during Debian install:
it proceeds as expected untill the "Detecting Hardware" part-
it fails to find the CD Rom drive and offers to let me submit one on a
floppy.
"No common CD ROM drive was detected"
with the following reports on the display of another (virtual)
terminal:

ide-cd: cmd 0x5a timed out
hdc : lost interrupt
hdc: ATAPI 24X CD ROM drive 128 k Cache
Uniform CD-Rom driver Revisioin: 3.20
hdc: lost interrupt

Mandriva starts with a "Mandriva screen"; notifies that booting is
beginning and then that Kernel is loading; and then goes to another
Mandriva screen and just sits there indefinitely;
Ctl-Alt- F2 ---> another terminal with messages similar to those seen
during Debian's install attempts:

hdc : lost interrupt          #this appears many many times
ide-cd : cmd 0x5a timed out

*looking for media adaptors
*PCI : device 1069 5229 ffff ffff is "ALi Corporatioin IM5229 IDE",
driver is alim15x3
*have to insmod alim15x3
*warning: unable to get module filename for ide core
ide-cd : cmd 0x28 timed out
hdc: lost interrupt
/sbin/init: error while loading shared library invalid ELF header
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

All of this makes me think that the CD-Rom is failing BUT if that is
true why does it read a CD normally using DSL Linux? 

Perhaps there is enough information here for someone to immediately
recognize the cause of the problem; if not, I'm ready to suggest to my
friend who owns this computer to pitch it into the trash! (But I'd
rather conquer the problem instead!)

Thanks               alex




alex at kleider.net


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