Just a couple of weeks into a new release, Mandrake Linux 9.2 users have encountered all sorts of problems. First, it was the problem of the missing kernel-source from the original ISO’s as reported on the Mandrake Club site, then it was a slew of a major bugfix set of patches, including fixes to KDE and the kernel, and now reports are surfacing on Cooker (and which has been confirmed on Mandrake’s site that Mandrake Linux 9.2 is killing some cdroms made by LG Electronics.
Major Problems with Mandrake Linux 9.2 Reported
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
I got an LG 52x CD-ROM on my AthlonXP here, thanks God that the only Linuxes I have tried on it is Red Hat, Fedora, Slackware, SuSE and Lindows. They all worked fine with the CD. Pure luck I never tried Mandrake on this particular machine (I have mdk on my Celeron machine)
Ok, so they have fixed many of the problems, but this proves that organizations other than Micro$oft release products with problems. Face it, a Linux distribution has problems similar to any new os, including Windose.
The sad part is that the bug is quite possibly in LGE’s product, yet Mandrake is going to take the blame.
My install on a VAIO went badly too. At boot it freezes when ALSA loads up. Never skips it or reboots… Just stays there. I have to remove the battery to shut it off.
I thought this was supposed to be a bugfix release.
I don’t think it’s LGE’s fault unless they proclaimed Linux compatibility. I work for a major printer manufacturer and we don’t test our hardware with Linux unless we provide Linux drivers that specific hardware. The test cycle is too short to test OS’ that you’re not supporting.
JBQ was speaking of a possible bug in the firmware or in the hardware, not if LGE tests with other OSes or not. A hardware bug is still a hardware bug, no matter if it gets exposed with another OS or not. There will always be a case, or an edge case at that, where the bug will be exposed in some PCs.
At this point we don’t know if it is LG’s hardware bug or Mandrake’s though. As I mentioned above, I do have an LGE drive and never had a problem with my Linuxes and other OSes that I ran there.
“The sad part is that the bug is quite possibly in LGE’s product, yet Mandrake is going to take the blame.”
9.1 must have worked OK on LG CD drives or we would have heard about problems by now. I am running 9.1 and was thinking about getting a LG CD-RW but I guess I better choose another supplier.
“9.1 must have worked OK on LG CD drives or we would have heard about problems by now. I am running 9.1 and was thinking about getting a LG CD-RW but I guess I better choose another supplier.”
I’ve got a LG CDRW Drive on one of my machines running Mandrake 9.1 and I never experienced problems with it. So it is definitly a new problem, maybe with one of their kernel patches, who knows …
Maybe the problem stems from mdk’s supermount? Maybe it mounts a little funny and that frys the drive? No other OS uses MDK’s supermount, correct?
I have an LG CD-ROM drive on a box that is currently running SuSE 8.2, and that didn’t fry installing linux. Plus it’s had everything from RedHat, MDK 9.1, FreeBSD and Fedora on it and it’s worked fine.
I agree with chemicalscum that MDK 9.2 must be at fault. Mandrakesoft must have made a big mistake somewhere – and I think until it’s solved they should withdraw 9.2 from being downloaded. After all, they might be liable for destroying a few thousand CD-ROM drives, and I don’t think LGE would be too happy about that!! – at the very least it damages their reputation for something that doesn’t seem to be their fault.
I have a LG CD-RW at home, and it works like a charm. The model number is CED-8080B. The ironic thing is that it seems some people had a hard time making that model work with Windows XP…
http://www.driversearch.com/forums/cdrom/2681.html
From what I can tell reading the Cooker list, affected models are from the CED-84XX line of products.
Mandrake always releases their products with out sufficent testing. This is typically happens when a company is starved for funds. I have never had a problem with LG CDROM drives using Linux.
…if it’s possible to re-flash or otherwise upgrade the firmware in these drives?
I never had a problem with 9.1 besides updating with urpmi which would fry Gnome. I think that was more user error on my part than anything on their end. I was thinking about buying 9.2 but thankfully I decided to hold off for a bit.
I’ve liked Mandrake the best of the ones I’ve tried (though Gentoo was amazing just…hard lol) but it does show that even Linux aint perfect
I’ve already experienced problems, too.
Drakconf will lock the URPMI database if the download fails. Typical ways to solve the problem won’t work (like grepping from processes).
Mozilla AND Firebird keep locking up on some sites.
The packaged version of GAIM is garbage. Keeps crashing when trying to sync my list from oscar.aol.com
I, too, was dismayed over the lack of source for the kernel, especially when I wanted to compiled SHFS (Secure Shell File System).
i think i will skip this release…
Wow, I am amazed at the problems that people have using linux. I have been running libranet for a year now and never see these problems. But then again, my wife runs winXP on her machine and never has problems out of it either. I am begining to think that all these problems people keep having can be blamed on a lack of knowledge. Maybe its to much tinkering or maybe everyone wants to much out their systems. The only problem I have had in the last six months out of any of my six computers is a router that locked up this morning (smoothwall) and I have no clue what caused it. Maybe we all just need to install the damn operating system and leave it be, maybe then it will work.
James
I’ve been using 9.2 for a while now and the only problems I’ve been having are with URPMI sometimes getting stuck in an infinite loop waiting for some resource to free up. The only solution was to rebuild the RPM database, which is a huge time waster.
I just realized that I have an LG burner and I’m starting to get worried. I hope that this is just a Mandrake-specific problem and not one in Linux’s drivers. Maybe I’ll be a babe in the woods myself and give FreeBSD another shot.
During the post-install configuration, change the sound driver from via82xx to via82cxxx_audio.
If you can get to single-user mode, mount / rw and change /etc/modules.conf so sound-slot-0 is aliased to via82cxxx_audio.
Hope this helps
Huh? What on earth are you talking about?
How do KDE bugfixes, missing kernel sources, and fried CDROMs (all of which have been confirmed by Mandrake) stem from a lack of knowledge? Are you saying that when Mandrake tells users not to install 9.2 on systems with LG cdroms and that Mandrake is “actively looking for a solution to this problem” Mandrake is wasting its time since the whole problem is with the users?
Mandrake Linux 9.2 is killing some cdroms made by LG Electronics.
Inacurrate. In fact, and I surely didn’t expect a cdrom drive could not be compatible, this cdrom drive just doesn’t work with Linux.
A guy reported having a similar experience a bit
ago with a experimental linux Kernel (2.4.21-pre2-jp15)
http://linuxfr.org/~masterdik/6368.html#289219
It happened after installing mdk 9.2
The drive does not get recognized during bios auto detection. The light does not go on during boot up.
Basicaly it is DEAD!
I thought it died by itself (as it is now 2.5 yeras old).
I can’t believe that Mandrakesoft did not check for this. I have been avid Mandarke fan since 8.0, I always recommend it to my friends, but now I am having second thoughts
I am begining to think that all these problems people keep having can be blamed on a lack of knowledge. Maybe its to much tinkering or maybe everyone wants to much out their systems.
So, what you’re saying is, the problem may not be the computer or the software, but between the keyboard and the chair?
;D
I have posted several bugs including issues I have had upgrading from 9.1 to 9.2rc2 and 9.1 to 9.2Fivestar. Both bugs have yet to be confirmed, both bugs have not been responded to. I specifically did an upgrade based on the request from Mandrake to have the upgrade beta tested. on both systems one from 9.1 to 9.2rc2 on a compaq laptop and the other from 9.1 to 9.2FiveStar. Both systems experienced the same upgrade issues, missing kde apps that were used before. Multiple cd-roms mounted when only 1 exists. The boot and shutdown screens, look good but the fonts are HUGE and scewed on both monitors.The other apps may be at fault but I do see some inconsistencies on release, bug fixes, and beta test requests at Mandrake. I would still recommend them, though I will probably offer my clients 9.1 over 9.2 for now. I like Mandrake and they do make a very nice distro.
Man, I wouldn’t have thought there would be that many LuckyGoldstar drives out there. Are they re-lables for another brand? Where did you guys get them?
Incorrect? Have you been following the threads on the cooker list? Several CDroms have indeed been fried according to posts on that list.
You can also look at these links:
http://www.mandrakeusers.org/viewtopic.php?t=8886
http://www.mandrakeusers.org/viewtopic.php?t=8870
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=…
After having burnt several cds with mandrake 9.2 my LG CDRW is still alive. Maybe it’s just a CD-reader problem?¿?¿ or maybe im lucky?
Incorrect? Have you been following the threads on the cooker list? Several CDroms have indeed been fried according to posts on that list.
Indeed, and I had also read the cooker mailing-lists 😉
What is incorrect ?
It is incorrect that it is a Mandrake-specific bug. (The guy in my link had the same problem with a experimental Linux kernel in a different distro).
Why did I say that ?
Not to say my distro is the best.
Because the unfornate guys who loosed their cdrom can IMHO ask for refund from LG. It shouldn’t be possible for Linux (a software) to break the cdrom (a hardware).
“Mandrake always releases their products with out sufficent testing.”
Straw man. You don’t post ANY proof nor arguments for this statement.
“Wow, I am amazed at the problems that people have using linux.”
This is not about Linux, this is about the Linux distribution called Mandrake Linux. Version 9.2, to be more clear.
Big difference. Linux is only a kernel, a Linux distribution is a set of free (and sometimes includes non-free) software which are together with the Linux kernel, GNU utilities ”one”; a distribution.
Just remember when you read Linux. It’s not about Linux!
This is not about Linux, this is about the Linux distribution called Mandrake Linux. Version 9.2, to be more clear.
See my post above.
It’s about Linux-the-kernel, a bad driver and a crappy hardware.
Shit happens.
I think this is by no means mandrakes fault. Even if the only distro or OS on this planet which has this problem: A hardware device shouldn’t break due to faulty software (mechanical damage from overtaxing the device left aside).
If I can brak a CD-ROM with software, something is terriblly with that drive. How can you develop any device driver, if you’ve always the risk of blowing the whole device up?
According to someone who apparently has been monitoring all the posts on this problem (see 4th post down in this pclinuxline thread:
http://www.pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid…),
it does only affect cdroms and not cdrw drives.
Here is the guy’s post:
“From what I’ve read so far from all the posts I’ve come across, the problem is only affecting the CDROM drives, not the DVD or CDRW drives.
No, I have never heard of this either but believe me, it’s actually happening. You can see the guys on the cooker mailing list building up a database of what drives are afftected and whats not. Seems as if the LG CRD-84xxx drives are all affected.
The currently stands as:
fried:
CRD-8322B
CRD-8400B (machine: IBM PC 300 PL)
CDR-8400B(mi)
CRD-8400C
COMPAQ CRD-8402B
CRD-8482B (machine: Dell Optiplex GX1)
GCR-8523B
LG ???? (machine: HP Vectras VL4xx)
work:
HL-DT-ST CD-ROM GCR-8520B
HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4480B (motherboard: ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe)
LG CD-RW CED-8120B (motherboard: ASUS K7M)
LG GMA-4020B DVD-RW
HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8161B (motherboard: Soyo)”
time for Gentoo for me…
@ Anonymous (IP: —.sip.rdu.bellsouth.net) I was not speaking of mandrake in peticular, but was trying to be more general. I have been repairing PCs for years and can honestly say I have never seen a piece of software destroy any hardware (not that it can’t be done).
@ Kick The Donkey Yes we call it Cranal-anal-loopback. :p
@dpi I have been using linux (linux based distros) since 1995 and currently run my business on a linux terminal server with several terminals (typing on one right now) so to clarify, I know exactly what linux is.
The comment I made was not to try and start a flamewar. I was simply stating my own experience with reparing PCs. Most of the problems that come into my shop are related to spyware, viruses, trying to fix it their self or getting “the cousins best friend to fix cause they know a lot about computers” and end up causing even more problems.
Do those cdrom drives have flashable firmware? you could try updating the firmware and see if that works.
I really can’t think of any other way to kill a cdrom other destroying the cdrom’s firmware, so could mandrake be doing this?
This may be usefull if someone wants to hunt for cdrom/cdrw firmware: http://www.cdfreaks.com/drive
This is why I still have a hard time recommending Mandrake to newcomers. As a Linux user of five years now, I’m perfectly happy with Slackware but recognise that it’s not for everyone; nonetheless, I don’t come across such enormous problems as these.
The Mandrake guys do some fantastic work and are helping to propel Linux’s desktop image, but their QA is abysmal and subjecting users to a constant stream of bugs as seen here is no better than Windows. Alright, some problems are obscure, but others (like leaving out the kernel source) are just symptomatic of lazy packaging and lack of testing.
If anyone from MandrakeSoft is reading, PLEASE sort out the QA. Thoroughly test stuff before release. We need a desktop distro — SUSE isn’t freely distributable and Fedora has yet to be proven. Mandrake has so much good stuff packed in, but it’s just way too bug-ridden and glitchy at present to be a decent alternative to Windows for many.
Good luck MandrakeSoft — we’re all wishing you the best, but you need to come up with a solid product.
M
I just tried to install these updates thru rpmdrake,
it took a long time just to update the media, took a
long time to download, and in the end more than half
of the patches refused to install because of dependencies
problems. (Just when I thought urpmi/rpmdrake is suppose
to resolve these issues..) I have been using 9.2 for the
past few days, while I’m very happy with gnome 2.4 (this release is looks so good that I actually switched from
KDE. I had always been a KDE user, but never really happy
with KDE) and Mandrake did try hard to make it easy to use.
But darn it, at least make the administration tools work!
9.1 was like this where Mandrake Control Center would bomb
randomly, and with 9.2 they still couldn’t get it right.
For example, there’s this ‘localedrake’ tool that allows you to change locale, but for whatever reason it’s not in the Control Center, you have to launch it thru the commandline.
Oh wait, 15 mins after I killed rpmdrake because it wasn’t
doing anything, a dialogue popped up saying it finished
installed. I don’t even know which ones are installed
successfully and which ones are not.
Now, is there a good distro out there that comes with gnome 2.4? I tried Slackware but wasn’t too happy with it and I
don’t want to use Gentoo because my computer is slow and I
don’t want to spend days to compile stuff. May be I finally
have to go back to Redhat/Fedora.
Actually, what would be utterly superb is: Mandrake 9.1.1. Fixes these massive bugs, and makes it easier to distribute CDs (instead of saying “install and get these 20 patches” etc.). Ideally they should still sort out these problems before the distro goes gold, but it’d be a praiseworthy step.
M
NanoBaka, You will not need to compile Gentoo if you don’t want to. They have precompiled versions available. Pick the image that best fits your needs and there ya go!
I did look into that, but currently their livecd
only comes with gnome 2.2. On the other hand,
it is true that I can do a GRP install with the
livecds, but when I need to update it (say, a new
version of gnome/kde or etc) I still need to spend
time compiling them, right?
Err, does this effect DVD-ROM drives as well? Guess not, since my LG dvd drive still works like a charm, after two complete ftp-installs…
Anyway, I haven’t experienced any problems with 9.2, I actually love it! It’s quite fast, stable… Guess I’m the lucky exception here? 9.2 made me got rid of Windows, I no longer dual-boot now… I hope for Mandrake (my fav distro since I started with Linux) that it doesn’t hurt my little DVD-Drive…
I will start writing my review tomorrow…
Bastards. Damn, If I had thought anyone cared, I could have had that scoop for you two weeks ago.
Good thing I didn’t pay for Mandrake…
the latest, from a post on pclinuxonline (this poster is not me, I can’t take credit):
“Ok, here’s status: Nicolas Planel found the origin of the problem. It’s the “packet writing support” for cd/dvd burners that was introduced on 15th of August, changelog reading:
– 2.4.22-rc2q5.
[…]
* add packet cdvd support (svetoslav).
What amazes me is that we’ve had it in the kernel of 9.2-RC1 and 9.2-RC2, and it still managed to be, erhm, “featured”, in the final version. All people who say we should do more beta and RC versions see that such a big problem passed one month of
RC-testing… Real problem would perhaps be to enlarge our testing community? Anyway, that’s not the topic for this day
.
I’ve passed suggestions to our management as to what to do now –
I think we should act *fast* and be responsible, but I don’t know what will be decided exactly.
By the way, latest list:
fried:
COMPAQ CRD-8322B(CP1)
CRD-8400B (machine: Dell Optiplex gx1)
CRD-8400B (machine: IBM PC 300 PL)
CDR-8400B(mi)
CRD-8400C
COMPAQ CRD-8402B
LG CRD-8480C (machine: Old Dell XPS T650r)
GCR-8481B (machine: Dell Optiplex gx270; rom: 1.06; date: jun 2003)
CRD-8482B (machine: Dell Optiplex GX1)
GOLDSTAR CDR-8482B (machine: HP Vectra VL400; firmware: 1.01)
CRD-8482B (Dell Precision 220, rom: 1.05)
LG ???? (machine: HP Vectras VL4xx)
GCC 4480B DVD/CD-R/RW/CDROM (firmware 1.00 – upgrading firmware to 1.01 workarounds
problem)
work:
LG GMA-4020B DVD-RW
LG GCC-4120B CDRW/DVD
LG CD-RW CED-8080B DVD/CD-R/RW/CDROM
LG CD-RW CED-8120B (motherboard: ASUS K7M)
HL-DT-ST GCC-4480B (machine: Shuttle SB 62 G2 – i865/ICH5; firmware 1.01 – WARNING,
firmware 1.00 is reported to have the fry problem!) HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4480B
(motherboard: ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe) HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8161B (motherboard: Soyo)
HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8240B
HL-DT-ST GCE-8481B CD-CDRW (chipset: SIS 651/962)
HL-DT-ST CD-ROM GCR-8520B
HL-DT-ST GCE-8520B (motherboard: ASUS P4P800)
(From the Cooker list, posted by Guillaume Cottenceau )
– Si”
CRD-8400B (machine: Dell Optiplex gx1)
Huh. Good thing I didn’t upgrade my gf’s PC – that’s exactly what it is. Well, I guess I’ll wait until 9.2 SR1 until I upgrade! 😉
I think Guillaume nailed it on the head when he said that the testing pool should be bigger – such a serious bug wouldn’t have gone unnoticed if even one of the testers had had an affected drive model in his PC.
Fortunately, CD-ROM drives are dirt cheap. Still, this is definitely a serious blotch on Mandrake’s record.
On a side note, LG and IBM have had numerous partnerships. It’d be nice if IBM actually tried to influence manufacturers to do some testing on Linux, or at least to give specimen drives to the distro makers so they can test them.
Enough with the distro bashing already. First, your post has nothing to do with the problem at hand – you just use the current problem as an excuse for it. Second, Mandrake 9.2 works wonderfully on my system, so the most we can say is that YMMV. You had a bad experience, that doesn’t make it a crappy OS! Hey I’ve had a crappy experience with installing Win98 before, and that doesn’t make it…er…um…bad example. (Okay, no flaming, that was a joke…)
What I’m really wondering is, if you were so used to installing Debian, why didn’t you install that in the first place? I mean, for a newbie, KDE/Gnome under Debian isn’t much more of a challenge than under Mandrake. What major differences are there apart from the administrative tools?
Anyway, as far as the nforce drivers are concerned, I believe there are rpms available on the Mandrake Club site. I’m not sure why Nvidia hasn’t put them on their website, though. I can understand they don’t want the RPMs to be on the download edition, given that they’re proprietary and all, but if the RPMs exist, and considering that they distribute Mandrake RPMs on their site (up to Mdk9.1), then why aren’t they putting the 9.2 ones on their site as well?
Honestly, I didn’t like it at all. Since I have the download edition, I expect that when i have the kernel-sources installed, which matches the kernel version, that the nforce2 drivers will compile.
Also I would install debian on his system, thing is those admin tools would be handy for the guy. I don’t know what he runs at home, what he does what. I can’t configure it all. So if he needs to chagne something he can, easily. If he had knowledge, of course I would give him Debian, but honetly it took me 5 months of red hat, until I got the hang of manully doing something, and decided trying Debian. Also that whole supermount thing is useless. I honestly don’t like Mandrake 9.2. A newbie distro is NOT supposed to give more problems then a more advanced one.
Actually, Supermount in 9.2 is the first time it has worked for me. Seriously, I’ve disabled it in every version of Mandrake I’ve had so far, but then my downstairs neighbour would come and use the PC and then she’d forget about the whole unmount thing and would remove her floppy without unmounting it (yeah, I know, some people still use floppies…oh well).
I decided to reactiveate supermount in 9.2 and – surprise – it worked exactly as how it should have been working all these years. All in all, Mandrake 9.2 really satisfies me (I still think this CD bug is really bad, though).
I agree it sucks you weren’t able to compile the nforce driver – but again, if Nvidia had up-to-date RPMs on their site (and the RPMs exist, because I’ve seen them on Mandrake Club) then you wouldn’t have had that problem.
I KNOW I’ve heard this 6 months to a year or so ago and I think it was Dell computers.
I did find one thing on Google. It happened while using Gentoo on one of the Dell machines.
So before you slam Mandrake, you better put your money where your mouth is and install your distro of choice on one of the obviously flawed LG CD drives.
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm…
I hope that this huge link works.
Mutiny
I upgraded from mandrake 9.1 on my homebuilt Athlon 1600+ (1GB PC166, WD120GB HD, 1394, Lite-On CDRW, geForce4200 64MB). I am loving it. Stable, stupid fast with NVidia driver modules installed, really enjoyable user experience.
Granted, it’s not much different than 9.1. Upgrading OpenOffice and applying all of the updates from 9.1 will get you almost the same environment.
But, enough with the Mandrake bashing. This is a very well assembled distro for the desktop market. I have solaris 9 and Mac OS X 10.2.8 along side the Mandrake box. Each are mature and stable. This is my favorite distro and rev since RedHat 6.2.
I did have problems installing it on a friend’s ThinkPad 380X, which was a surprise. I installed it on a Gateway P166 which I then donated, and it worked great (though slow as a dog in KDE).
I don’t think all of these “Too bad MandrakeSoft got it wrong” posts are warranted. My CDRW is burning and working beautifully. My DVD plays in Xine. I couldn’t be happier with a Linux install. And after sysadminning for 10 years, that’s a big statement for a new release.
This is what happens when you use a distro from Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys.
But seriously folks, is this really a major problem? I mean ALL distors put out updates. I can see that the LG cdrom is a serious issue. My question is did this come up during their beta testing? Did they change something since then?
This is so typical of Froggie products….no R&D by the company. If they were to be honest in their advertising they would rename the company to “Renault Software”.
I wonder what implications this messy version of Renault Linux are going to have up at Fiona’s disaster called HP/Compaq
Yes yes, I have played with Renault Linux……V 8.0 on an IBM Thinkpad 600x…..at least I got my money back the next day.
I do not think that you can reflash the firmware.
Of course, reflashing would most likely repair the damage and make the drive work again. But for reflashing the firmware (the “bios” of the drive) must be running because it controls the flashing process.
So you would have to open the drive, solder the flashrom chip out, flash it with extra hardware, and solder it back in.
Of cource this isn’t easy, and it is not worth the time for such a crappy 20 Euro CD Rom – its cheaper to buy a new one unless you do not know what to do with your time.
“dpi I have been using linux (linux based distros) since 1995 and currently run my business on a linux terminal server with several terminals (typing on one right now) so to clarify, I know exactly what linux is.”
My point was not you don’t know what Linux is. That’s out of line; i can’t proof such that since i don’t know you plus it’s not my point. My point is you use the wrong definition in a context; i can talk about that, and it’s my point. Problems with GNU/Linux or Linux are out of line. We’re discussing a bug & problem in GNU/Linux distribution called Mandrake Linux.
Althought the previous Gentoo report text by Mutiny does sound suspicious. Ok, admitted.
my mdk 9.2 runs fine from RC2 days on. but maybe i am just a lucky boy in terms of hardware. but that much luck can’t be real when i read all your MDK bashing. my girl friends comp (mdk 9.2) runs totally stable too, what a luck.
wolfgang
…. Well, you’ll have to fry your money for a new CD Rom Drive
My advise: If you can stick to windows, do it – at least it doesn’t fry HW. What’s the point of having free S/W, anyway?
BTW, i was thinking of giving MDK a go. After all of this there is no way i’ll spend my money on a frying pan.
“My advise: If you can stick to windows, do it”
That’s FUD. This problem doesn’t have much to do with GNU/Linux – at least that hasn’t been proven yet. Can you proof so? It hasn’t even been solved yet, nor properly analyzed.
Also 1 time such a problem doesn’t make it always a problem.
“at least it doesn’t fry HW.”
What makes you think so?
“What’s the point of having free S/W, anyway?”
Whole other (offtopic) discussion.
Can you proof it’s because of Mandrake and not because of LG? What if it’s because of the hardware instead of the software?
Your bad…9.2 is a great distro. If you don’t have a LG CD-ROM with Firmware 1.00, then it’s totally safe for you to try Mandrake 9.2.
But, since you seem mostly interested in bashing Linux and Free Software in general, I don’t believe you ever really wanted to test Mandrake. Rather, you take the opportunity presented by defective hardware (why do you think this only happens with Firmware version 1.00? Perhaps because LG fixed the bug later on?) to spread more FUD about Linux.
“Don’t try it, it will make your computer explode!”
All you Linux-bashers (oh, and racist French-bashers as well) are really getting on my nerves.
recommend all of these folks purchase a new CDROM drive and a god fearing operating system like Microsoft Windows XP. Then they can rest sure at night, knowing their computer will not self-destruct, or randomly destroy any of its hardware. Worms can cleaned, but you can’t fix ruined hardware.
Dude, I wouldn’t my CD-drive to be fried, but I rather loose ten of them instead of getting my unvaluable data erased by a worm or looking bad in front of mi clients because my systems got infected and are spreading porn to my contacts list.
i am horrified they left out kernel-source. since i don’t have a net connection for a few months i forked out a significant sum for CDs. and guess what … depsite searching through all 6 CDs,… not a signof kernel-header/source.
this is terrible… not only for people compiling the NVIDIA driver… but people who compile software against the kernel. how terrible is that?
its like their last release… where gdb failed with XFS. what testing do they do? games/ office? i’d behappy to test the development packages for them if they shipped periodic snapshots of their cooker to me.
t
I was serious as i said i was going to give MDK a go.
It wasn’t my intention to discredit Linux in any way;
I do not think that Linux is at fault, but i believe that MDK has done something wrong. Isn’t it strange that suddenly many complain complain to have lost a cd drive after installing MDK 9.2? Why didn’t this happen before or to other distros? I do not believe LG has done anything wrong since their products work with all OS’s (including Linux) exept for MDK 9.2
No FUD and no flame war …. BTW, i PURCHASED a few distros…..
It’s clear from my humble point of view that if there’s one to blame for this damage, is no one else than LG Electronics, probably some firmwares of those drives -since the problem seems to lie on certain firmwares and not all drives- have a serious bug and some data sent trough the IDE bus is interpreted as a flash firmware command, filling with garbage the firmware flash rom and breaking the drive. I don’t think we should blame mdk for the problem, as they cannot be accountable for bugs on the firmware of those cd drives.
While LGE may or not be willing to accept being responsibility, it’s clear that it is, since the afected firmwares are clearly deviating from the stablished standard (ATAPI), if not how can a drive interpret a data packet as a command packet?. Come one, we all know how damm difficult is for a company to accept it’s responsability when there’re death persons involved, much more how can they accept responsability for a design fault whose damage just involves broken hardware?. LGE is responsible although they don’t claim linux compatibility as they state their drives as ATA/ATAPI compatible drives.
Now this begins to make sense why I’ve seen some lg cd-roms drives die at random at work on machines running linux (not just mdk, also rh, debian, etc..)
Ok, Here are the conclussions:
– It’s a bug in the LG firmware that apparently has been corrected in newer versions.
– It’s not mandrake exclusive: It has happened to me with a rescue linux cd with a patched 2.4.22 kernel, it seems to be more related to some 2.4.22 kernels.
– It’s NOT possible to reflash the drive, believe me, I’ve tried.
So don’t blame mandrake or linux it’s LG’s fault
There’s a problem where the mandrake update utility can bork the user menus. Happened to me immediately in a kde desktop and a gnome desktop environment. (Basically de-populates the menus to the point of uselessness.) I was just recommended to run “update-menus -v” as root to fix this, but haven’t confirmed it yet, as I’m posting from another (working) partition. If it helps anyone… cheers.