CD burner woes

[VirginSnow at vfemail.net]

> Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:29:12 -0400
> From: "Drew Van Zandt" <drew.vanzandt at gmail.com>

> I used to be able to burn CD's on this laptop, now I can't.  Here's the info
> that's probably most relevant:
> 
> 1) I can read CD's just fine.
> 2) uname -a returns:
> Linux pi 2.6.18-5-686 #1 SMP Wed Oct 3 00:12:50 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux
> and the system is Debian Etch
> 
> 3) wodim dev=help returns:
> 
> Supported SCSI transports for this platform:
> 
> Transport name:         sg
> Transport descr.:       Generic transport independent SCSI
> Transp. layer ind.:
> Target specifier:       bus,target,lun
> Target example:         1,2,0
> SCSI Bus scanning:      supported
> Open via UNIX device:   not supported   *** DING DING DING looks
> suspiciously like my issue. ***
> 
> Transport name:         ATA
> Transport descr.:       ATA Packet specific SCSI transport
> Transp. layer ind.:     ATAPI:
> Target specifier:       bus,target,lun
> Target example:         ATAPI:1,2,0
> SCSI Bus scanning:      supported
> Open via UNIX device:   not supported
> 
> Transport name:         ATA
> Transport descr.:       ATA Packet specific SCSI transport using sg
> interface
> Transp. layer ind.:     ATA:
> Target specifier:       bus,target,lun
> Target example:         1,2,0
> SCSI Bus scanning:      supported
> Open via UNIX device:   not supported

This is just help output... hypothetical/example/(perhaps misleading)
verbiage to show you how to form arguments to "dev=".  It has nothing
to do with *your* particular device setup.  But, the fact that wodim
spit out "DING DING DING" in the middle of the output may point to
compiler/linker issues...

Are you SURE you're using the correct device specifier?  Don't
(repeat: DON'T) rely on the output of (wodim/cdrecord/readom)
-scanbus.  Use "cat /proc/scsi/scsi" instead.  It will show you ALL
currently attached SCSI devices on your system.

Beware of potentially misleading SCSI devices... USB MSD usually
appear as SCSI devices.  Some USB MSD even have two endpoints: one
that appears as a SCSI disk (/dev/sd*), and one that appears as a
read-only CD-ROM (/dev/sr*).  Then, there's the 'dummy" SCSI device
which Linux supports: it's a SCSI device which simply ignores commands
sent to it (meant for debugging purposes/fingerless operation).

So, check your device spec.

Then, if that doesn't work, check to make sure you're using the new
SCSI generic interface, and NOT ide-scsi emulation.  You'll have to
check your kernel .config (or the list of loaded modules) and cat
/proc/cmdline to see if it contains any references to "ide-scsi".