Ask Slashdot: Linux and IDE CD-ROM Changers

Posted by Cliff on Friday June 11, 1999 @02:29AM from the cheap-hardware-support dept.

EvilNight asks: "How do you get an IDE CD-ROM changer to work with Linux? I know the kernel has support for these devices but I have tried to use them in the past and have had no luck (with the NEC 6x4). I am planning a fileserver which needs to have the ability to serve up 20 CD-ROM discs and I really want to use Linux for it. SCSI changers are easy to set up (increment LUNs). The cost of SCSI changers is a bit high though (about $190). The IDE changers are very cheap ($85). I was looking at the Nakamichi 16x5 IDE changer. Has anyone had any luck getting it to work under Linux? Will the discs switch on demand or do you need to switch them by running a command? How does it handle an access conflict such as trying to read discs 2 and 5 at the same time? I would greatly appreciate any advice that you can give me."

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Auto-switching on EIDE by jamie32 · 1999-06-11 00:47 · Score: 3

I've got two NEC 4x4 CD changers, and there's a reasonably
easy way to make them auto-switch CDs, despite what everyone else says. :)
SCSI host emulation doesn't do what you want, but
the kernel automounter (normally used for NFS)
can be told to run a command when a filesystem
is mounted, and that certain filesystems are
mutually exclusive. So mine does an eject -c0 for /cdrom1,
eject -c1 for /cdrom2 etc. Works lovely. The automount
man pages/docs tell you how to do it.
Mount all disc's at once with /dev/changer by torment · 1999-06-11 00:55 · Score: 3

Yes, thats right, you too can mount all the discs in your cdrom changer at once with the /dev/changer device driver. There is a kernel patch available here for Linux kernel 2.2.9. Hopefully this driver will make it into a kernel source tree near you!