Stumbling block on road to going Linux-only, the dvdrw is very odd.

[Bob King]

Hey all,

Having been (as most on this list) fed up with MS for a long time, I
am finally getting off my butt and trying to switch to a Linux desktop
full time. I have been listening to the distro conversations here as
well as reviews in other places and had settled on Mandriva as a
decent distro which had most of the multimedia funtionality and such
with minimal work on my part. I had hoped to stick with updating
packages with as little intervention from me as possible, but it would
appear that is not an option.

However, I have realized that there was a real problem with the system
right after I plunked down the money for a subscription...

I had posted this previously to Mandriva "experts", but they have been
decidedly silent on this issue... I am hoping the hardware wizards
here might have some helpful pointers. I tried googling around, but
did not see too much directly relevant (although found some stuff
about JMicron controllers that I suspect may be part of the issue)

I have a Gigabyte Mobo (GA-P35-DS3R) with a Lite-on DVDRW
(SOHW-1673S). I had previously run Fedora 7 on this machine, and it
had no trouble with the drive, but was using the SCSI pseudo-driver.
Mandriva idendifies the drive as an IDE drive (/dev/hda) but does not
seem to be recognizing the drive completely as a functional cdrom.

The control center shows the hardware as a DVDRW:
--- begin include ---
Identification
Vendor: ‎Lite-On Technology Corp.
Model: ‎DVDRW SOHW-1673S
Media class: ‎cdrom
.
Bus identification
Vendor ID: ‎0x0000 <-- This seems like a bad sign
Device ID: ‎0x0000 <-- As does this
Sub vendor ID: ‎0x0000
Sub device ID: ‎0x0000

Connection
Bus: ‎ide
Channel: ‎primary

Device
Old device file: ‎/dev/hda

Misc
Drive capacity: ‎burner DVD
Disk controller: ‎0
--- end include ---

This started with the drive reporting that it had an audio CD in the
drive when it was in fact empty. I then realized that the OS was
having some real problems working with the drive.

--- begin include ---
[root at adsel etc]# wodim -prcap dev=/dev/hda
Device type : not present Object based storage
Version : 0
Response Format: 10
Capabilities :
Device seems to be: unknown.
--- end include ---

lshal showed the following:
---begin include ---
udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_empty_unknown'
block.device = '/dev/hda' (string)
block.is_volume = true (bool)
block.major = 3 (0x3) (int)
block.minor = 0 (0x0) (int)
block.storage_device =
'/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_model_LITE_ON_DVDRW_SOHW_1673S'
(string)

info.capabilities = {'volume.disc', 'volume', 'block'} (string list)
info.category = 'volume' (string)
info.interfaces = {'org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume',
'org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume'} (string list)

info.parent =
'/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_model_LITE_ON_DVDRW_SOHW_1673S'
(string)

info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_empty_unknown' (string)
linux.hotplug_type = 3 (0x3) (int)
linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/block/hda/fakevolume' (string)
org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.method_argnames = {'extra_options',
'extra_options'} (string list)

org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.method_execpaths = {'hal-storage-eject',
'hal-storage-eject'} (string list)

org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.method_names = {'Eject', 'Eject'} (string
list)

org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.method_signatures = {'as', 'as'} (string
list)

storage.model = '' (string)
volume.block_size = 0 (0x0) (int)
volume.disc.has_audio = false (bool)
volume.disc.has_data = false (bool)
volume.disc.is_appendable = false (bool)
volume.disc.is_blank = true (bool)
volume.disc.is_rewritable = false (bool)
volume.disc.type = 'unknown' (string)
volume.fstype = '' (string)
volume.fsusage = '' (string)
volume.fsversion = '' (string)
volume.is_disc = true (bool)
volume.is_mounted = false (bool)
volume.is_mounted_read_only = false (bool)
volume.is_partition = false (bool)
volume.label = '' (string)
volume.linux.is_device_mapper = false (bool)
volume.mount_point = '' (string)
volume.num_blocks = 0 (0x0) (int)
volume.size = 0 (0x0) (uint64)
volume.uuid = '' (string)
--- end include ---

I have tried googling for some help (and searching the Mandriva
forums) but do not see anything relevant. I did find some information
regarding trouble with JMicron IDE controllers that might be
relevant,so I am including that here as well:

--- begin include ---
$ lspci | grep IDE
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801IR/IO/IH (ICH9R/DO/DH) 4
port SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) 2 port
SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
03:00.1 IDE interface: JMicron Technologies, Inc. JMicron 20360/20363
AHCI Controller (rev 02)

I had run Mint 3.1 and the previously mentioned Fedora 7 on this same
platform, and they had no trouble with the drive.

Any ideas on how I can get Mandriva.2008 to recoginize this drive correctly?