Slashdot Mirror
Mandrake 9.2 ISOs Available
joestar writes "Since LG has released updated firmwares and a recovery procedure for all so-called ATAPI LG cd-rom drives that were "destroyed" by a feature of Mandrake 9.2, MandrakeSoft has publicly released the set of Mandrake 9.2 ISO images which are now available on a number of FTP mirrors. Mandrake 9.2 is one of the few remaining 100%-OSS major Linux distributions, so considering a MandrakeClub membership or joining Cooker - Mandrake's open development version - is certainly an excellent idea."
Here's the feature list.
I believe the "so-called" part is from the manufacturer not sticking to design specs and also having bad code implementing what they did design that caused the CD-ROM firmware to be scrambled when a particular "Flush" command was sent to the drive.
-- D3X
NeoX3.com: The ONE, the Only, the first truly Free Adult Entertainment site... [I'm serious]
The problem was that they did not correctly implement the ATAPI standard. If the drives received a certain ATAPI command, they would die. This is, of course, a violation of the ATAPI standard, as well as poor engineering. Thus, the "so-called" adjective was appropriate --- the drives were labeled ATAPI, but were not actually ATAPI.
The LG drives in question were not 100% compliant with the ATAPI specification. The drive firmware re-mapped the optional, rarely-used "clear cache" command to "upload firmware". As a result, when the Mandrake drivers issued the "clear cache" command as part of the initialization routine, the drive firmware was erased.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
It's really simple. That and I want my download to go faster :-P