[lug] A bit confused

[Rob Riggs]

Howard,

As one of the sbpcd contributors, I have quite a bit of (albeit
dated) experience with that driver. There is documentation on that
driver in the kernel tree under
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/cdrom/sbpcd.

One item to note is that the second parameter is the controller
type and not an interrupt number. The documentation may be a bit
hard to follow at times, but that is mostly due to the myriad
combinations possible with the old matsushita/panasonic style
interface and the numerous semi-compatible controller boards.

My first question is: what kind of controller is it? Is it a
soundblaster card, or something else? Have you tried letting
the controller auto-detect? (Yes, this can take some time, but
may be the best way to go.)

But ultimately, unless you are set on using this drive,  I would
recommend shelling out a few bucks and picking up an old IDE
CDROM.

The sbpcd interface *really* sucks. It is polled, not interrupt
driven, which can cause huge latencies. And it is more like a
character device than a block device. The driver reads a byte at
a time, causing the kernel to block for an insane amount of time
while the driver reads a few blocks of the disc. This can wreak
havoc with other peripherals (notably network cards, especially
ones with tiny FIFOs).

But do double check your drive type. Half of the people that
could not get their sbpcd drives to work right off the bat
really had an IDE drive.

Howard Smith wrote:
> 
> I am attempting to put Suse linux  on my old 486 (AST with an overdrive
> chip). The CD-ROM, an old one, a Matsushita/Panasonicis giving me
> problems.
> 
> When I install the module from the floppy, it asks for a specific set of
> parameters. "sbpcd=0x230,1" is the example given.
> 
>     Now the question, what are these specifically ? I tried the IO port
> and IRQ # in combinations to no luck. where can I find out what they
> are, just point me in the right direction and I can figure it out...

-- 
Rob Riggs
http://www.pangalactic.org/