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List:       jaxlug-list
Subject:    [JaxLUG] Re: CDrecord on kernels > 2.6.8
From:       "Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith () ieee ! org>
Date:       2005-01-27 4:37:31
Message-ID: 1106800651.2600.12.camel () localhost ! oviedo ! smithconcepts ! com
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On Wed, 2005-01-26 at 17:36, Tim Holloway wrote:
> I got the same message but chalked it up to the same old sour grapes 
> that the author of cdrecord has always had about IDE vs. SCSI. As I've 
> already mentioned once or twice, I'm a big SCSI fan myself, but it's 
> been about 7 years since I've seen a SCSI CD device - even the SCSI 
> RAID servers I used to spec out used IDE for the CD devices. Maybe Sun 
> or Apple have a secret hoard; none of the catalogs I've gotten lately 
> have featured SCSI CD or DVD recorders.

With most ATAPI devices complying with MMC-3 and adopting UltraDMA with
its ECC signaling, optical SCSI peripherals don't really offer any
value.  Besides, ATAPI devices are typically slower block devices, so
you want them on a dumb, point-to-point DMA bus like ATA or SATA.

> For the rest of us - who cares? Unlike old-time CD recorder systems, 
> where you had slow CPUs driving devices with minimal buffering and even 
> had to be careful about what hard drives you used lest they go into a 
> slow-down/cool-down cycle in the middle of writing a track,

Actually, the _major_ problem used to be the _lack_ of DMA with
error-correction in ATA and, even more recently, ATAPI.  I didn't start
adopting ATA and, later, ATAPI _until_ the drives started offering
UltraDMA with ECC.

> modern-day burners get by just fine without making brain surgery out
> of the job.  And for those of us who believe in K.I.S.S., playing
> pretend-SCSI is just a nuisance and another pointless excuse to
> indulge juvenile flame wars.

Actually, the SCSI emulation is not just a Linux thing.  In fact, NT
kernels still use SCSI emulation for a lot of non-SCSI devices.  It's
really about building an app for _1_ interface, and letting the OS
translate if needed.  But ATAPI+MMC-3 has removed a lot of that
requirement.

> Some of the works I've seen lately make me suspect that eventually 
> cdrecord is likely to be forked right out of the hands of its creator. 

It already has been, but don't demonize Jorg.  He's still an outstanding
developer and his work goes _under_appreciated.  His "star" replacement
for tar is the most POSIX 2001 compliant tar implementation.

But there are forks of CDRTools 2.0 that add DVD outside of his
CDRecord-ProDVD.  I agree with Jorg that it should be renamed because he
_does_ get a lot of e-mail for support that he cannot help them with.

> One of the things I discovered while playing around with the FC3 
> version of cdrecord is that that particular version accepts an 
> alternative syntax: dev=/dev/cdwriter.
> As it happens, the FC3 installer sets up the necessary linkages 
> automatically - assuming you have a resonably sane hardware 
> confiiguration. So under FC3, you actually /could/ burn a CD from the 
> command line as easily as:
> cdrecord myfile.iso

The entire and greater Fedora Project (which is more than just the Red
Hat controlled Fedora Core) aims for LSB compliance.  They still have a
far way to go (and other distros have had better LSB in many areas), but
most of the new mechanisms aren't really Fedora-specific, they are LSB.

Fedora Core 3 (CL4.1) adds udev, which Fedora Core 2 (CL4.0) never
tackled completely.  Fedora Core 4 (CL4.2), current nearing Test (fka
Beta), seems to finalize some details that are always an issue in a new
series with a major set of changes.

> I like to add a -v and an -eject, myself however.

Of course.

> I do like being able to recycle a CD/RW just by saying "cdrecord
> blank=fast", though.

Most of those mechanisms are kernel 2.6 detail, not Fedora-specific.

> But if you really WANT to use "SCSI" addressing, or actually have one 
> of these fabulous SCSI burners and believe that /dev-level drivers are 
> for wimps, the old "dev=a,b,c" notation is still there.

Of course.

But you only want to use those for SCSI.

-- 
Bryan J. Smith                                   b.j.smith@ieee.org 
------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Linux Is Everywhere Insight #5:  Branding Requirements in Licenses
How do you tell if an embedded appliance runs Linux?  You can't
There is no requirement that a vendor disclose it runs Linux
How do you tell if an embedded appliance runs Windows?  The logo
Because the Microsoft Windows logo will be bigger than the vendor's


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