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LG CD-ROMs Destroyed by Mandrake 9.2
An anonymous reader writes "The latest offering of Mandrake's distribution, 9.2, has been found to not only be incompatible with some LG CD-ROM drives, but to destroy them during the installation process. Mandrake have posted information on their errata page and further information can be found on this thread [google]. Along with over 350Mb of updates within a week of release, it's not been a good start for this latest release."
Lete not get all worked up, we all know what is going to happen.
1. LG continues to deny any responsibility.
2. The usual suspects will float a few pieces on the ZD rags and perhaps C|Net spreading FUD that Linux is dangerous.
3. One of the Linux IDE Gods will become sufficently annoyed that a proper investigation will happen, the flaw in LG's firmware will be documented in overkill detail.
4. The PR war will turn against LG, they will repent and issue a firmware update, stick a penguin somewhere deep on their support site and declare their eternal love of all things Linux. But it will strictly be for PR.
5. Once understood, a workaround will keep Linux from destroying unpatched drives. Probably something as simple as not checking for packet writing capacity unless basic RW support has already been detected.
6. No longterm changes anywhere. Nothing to see here, move along.
Democrat delenda est
LG doesn't support Linux, so this problem doesn't exist in their eyes.
When I bought my LG CD burner, they claimed compatibility with Linux - Slackware 2.0, but Linux - on the box.
I submitted an article about this after I fried THREE CD-ROMs in about 2 hours installing 9.2 on a rack of 5 machines. In the article I submitted were the exact model numbers of the dead puppies. All that remains of the article now is:
- 2003-10-23 20:40:24 Mandrake 9.2 Eats CD-ROM Drives On Install (articles,mandrake) (rejected)
When I get back to work Monday I'll post that info (and the firmware versions, if I can get them) to the Mandrake Club Install forum. Of course, that's where I should have posted it in the first place. I'll know better next time, but I tried to warn 'ya!
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insuficiently advanced.
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. - Geek's corollary to Clarke's law
I disagree in part. Sending a command to a device without knowing it is supported is not good ATA practice at all. The patch they applied should have checked but didn't.
Shipping easy to fry drives isnt bright either and I suspect LG know this without any help, especially when they get lorry fulls of faulty drives back. Not only can a wrong command occur due to an error on the cable (very unlikely) so should be handled tolerantly, but every virus writer on the planet now knows how to toast all the LG ROMs (and rebadged LG ROMs).
I just hope Mandrake have the decency to recall any boxed sets sitting in warehouses and heading to shops and replace the CD's in them.