[gentoo-amd64] Re: Can anyone help please - CD error

[Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net>]

BRM posted on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:53:06 -0800 as excerpted:

> I have:
> 
> CONFIG_CDROM_PKTCDVD=y
> CONFIG_CDROM_PKTCDVD_BUFFERS=8
> # CONFIG_CDROM_PKTCDVD_WCACHE is not set

AFAIK, that's for packet data, not audio or ISO9660 filesystem, both of 
which are stream based (disk or session at once), not packet based.  
Normal CDs are stream based as well (by default), tho CD_RAM rewritables 
are packet based I believe.  DVDs are setup to be packet-written (UDF, 
see below), tho they typically are written as a stream, anyway

So basically
> Also have:
> 
> CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDECD=y
> CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDECD_VERBOSE_ERRORS=y

IDE is legacy/deprecated.  The PATA/SATA drivers are current (yes, even 
tho PATA is still classified experimental).  Unless you need to use IDE 
drivers for something not yet supported by the libata based drivers, you 
should really switch over to the libata/PATA/SATA drivers and turn off 
the entire IDE subsystem.  At your leisure, of course, but I'd strongly 
consider checking it out the next time you upgrade your kernel... Unless 
you know you need it for legacy IDE drive controllers, of course.

> But those are not likely it. It's likely with the File Systems...
> 
>> CONFIG_ISO9660_FS=m
>> CONFIG_JOLIET=y
>> CONFIG_ZISOFS=y
>> CONFIG_UDF_FS=m
>> CONFIG_UDF_NLS=y
> 
> I have all of these as 'y', no modules. Check to make sure the UDF and
> ISO9660 file system modules are loaded. Your issue may be that they are
> not being loaded for some reason.

ISO9660 was the CDROM default, tho IIRC it's not used for CDA/CDAudio.  
Joliet (AKA CDFS) is the MS backed ISO9660 additional metadata (long-
filename/lfn, pure unextended ISO9660 allows 31-char filenames only, with 
certain other restrictions as well) extension, while RockRidge is the *ix 
based parallel, which includes POSIX file permissions as well as the 
longer filenames.  Most folks have both enabled, to read CD/DVDs created 
with either (and many people will include both extensions on their CD/
DVDs, too), tho MS-only folks could probably get along with Joliet-only, 
and *ix-only folks could get along with RockRidge only if they don't care 
about compatibility or reading MS platform authored disks.

ZISOFS is simply gzip-compressed ISOs, I believe.

UDF, Universal Disk Format, was to be the successor to ISO9660, and is 
what is used on DVDs by default (tho many/most are dual ISO9660/UDF as 
their data format is compatible, it's the metadata location and format 
that differs).  As mentioned above, it can be packet-based or stream-
based.  The original/plain UDF spec allowed for packet-based, but the 
physical/practical limits of optical disc media make that difficult.  
There's two additional forms of it, VAT and Spared, the latter being the 
most practical for most RW media.  Unfortunately, UDF support is often 
only plain, particularly in older DVD players, etc, not VAT or Spared.

> I also have:
> 
> CONFIG_UFS_FS=y
> 
> While I could be wrong, I believe some CD/DVD producers use the UFS file
> system on the discs, so while it's not directly listed under the CD/DVD
> stuff, it may still be important.

AFAIK (and wikipedia backs it up, BTW, there's interesting wiki articles 
on UDF, packet writing, ISO9660, etc, as well), UFS, Unix File System, 
aka Berkeley Fast File System (FFS), has little or nothing to do with 
optical media.  According to wikipedia, the Sony Playstations v 2 & 3 use 
UDF, but on the hard drive not on optical media.

So you're probably getting UDF (universal disk format, optical) and UFS 
(Unix File System, normally conventional magnetic hard drives) mixed up, 
as I often do myself except I knew I was doing so and could therefore 
look it up if necessary (as I finally did just now).  But since I did 
finally look them up, and in doing so I found out that UFS is Unix 
filesystem, I think/hope I'll be able to keep them straight now, or at 
least straighter.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman