SUMMARY: CDRW and Plextor PW-12/10/32TSe

I thought I had sent a summary of the CDRW/Plextor problem, but have had
several people email me directly asking if I found a fix, so it's evident my
summary never made it to the list.  Here it is again, and hopefully will
help those still having problems.  
 
I have had several people send suggestions, all of which I've tried, and I
thank the following people for sending them.  Randy Adams provided the fix
listed below.
 
Jay Lessert
David Foster
Thomas McMurtrey
Rainer Heilke
Ryan Krenzischek
Randy Adams.
 
I noticed the following if I placed a blank cd-rw into the plextor vs a
blank CD-R:
 
# cdrw -M
 
Device : PLEXTOR  CD-R   PX-W1210S
Firmware : Rev. 1.03 (05/23/01  10)
Media is blank
#
 
This tells me it reads the media just fine, but if I do the following, it
shows the error and won't change reporting status until the plextor is
powered off and back on:
 
# cdrw -i 2.6.recommended.iso
Initializing device...done.
Writing track 1...failed.
Transport mechanism error:
I/O error

This file (2.6.recommended.iso is only about 129MB of data...so it should be
fine.  The SGC and FBK files that some recommended only need to be used if
cdrecord is used.  If you use cdrw on Sol 8, no additional drivers need to
be used, but yet, I can't seem to get it to write to the CD-RW properly, or
get it to recognize it afterwards.  Solaris 8 was installed with 64bit
support, but I don't see how that would come into play.
 
THE FIX:  
 
The problem I had was in the switch positions on the rear of the drive.
They needed to be set as follows, then power the drive off and back on, and
all was well.  
 
    First switch is parity OFF
    Second switch is termination ON
    Third switch is test OFF
    Fourth switch is block OFF
    Fifth is for audio if you need it.
 
The bios on the Plextor only can handle active termination.
 
 
After resetting the dip switches, I did the following as my test:
 
 
hdw200# cdrw -M
 
Device : PLEXTOR CD-R PX-W1210S
Firmware : Rev. 1.03 (05/23/01 10)
Media is blank
hdw200.littondsd.com# cdrw -i 2.6.recommended.iso
Initializing device...done.
Writing track 1...done.
Finalizing (Can take upto 4 minutes)...done.
hdw200#
 
Thanks all .....
 
Jeff Wimmer
 
 
The original question is below
 
 
> 
> I have attached the Plextor 12/10/32S to my Ultra 30, it's all
> recognized just fine. When I do the following command to write a cd
> however, I get the following error. Has anyone ever seen it before?
> 
> 
> # mkisofs -r /development 2>/dev/nul | cdrw -i -p 1
> Initializing device...done.
> Writing track 1...failed. 
> Transport mechanism error:
> I/O error
> 
> I looked at the CD after it errored and saw that it wrote a bit on the
> first few tracks....then the error kicked it out....I would think
> writing at a speed of 1 should be slow enough....but then again maybe
> it's too slow. I then ran it in sim mode....and got the following
> below...
> 
> # mkisofs -r /development 2>/dev/nul | cdrw -S -i -p 1
> Initializing device(Simulation mode)...done.
> Writing track 1...failed. 
> Transport mechanism error:
> I/O error
> 
> Just about the same thing. I will try it once more at a faster
> speed...could have been going too slow with a -p 1 speed.
> 
> I was trying to write the contents of the development filesystem to
> CD....and it's less than 600MB so it should fit just fine......any
> ideas? 
> 
> I'll summarize
> 
> Jeffrey G. Wimmer. 
 



Jeffrey G. Wimmer. 
Network Engineer/System Admin 
Northrop Grumman 
Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector 
Advanced Naval Platforms Division 
6608 Sun Scope Drive 
Ocean Springs, MS  39564 
228.872.7376 
Jeffrey.Wimmer@northropgrumman.com

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