[mdlug] SATA DVD/CD drive

[Robert Meier]

David,

> However, The drive does not mount until I run Hardware information, in YAST.
> Is there a way to mount this and behave like a normal DVD/CD drive?

I'm not sure what is going on, so I'll guess :) .

Assuming normal syslogd configuration,
a more certain answer might result from posting the /var/log/messages
entries from just before you "run Hardware information, in YAST"
until just after you use the new drive the first time,
and for comparison, the /var/log/messages from just before you
mount/insert a normal DVD/CD drive until just after you use the
normal DVD/CD drive the first time.



The unix kernel doesn't know or care whether the drive is SATA or "normal".
The distinction is entirely in the driver.
In this context the driver is a piece of software called by the kernel
that presents the physical device as a "block-special device",
a map from inode (an integer) to a block (a fixed-size array of bytes).

IIRC, further details were presented a few years ago by Ray Ingles,
and are on the mdlug website.



<HINT>
The automatic features of drive use are configured with /etc/fstab
and /etc/hotplug/..., and reported in /proc/mounts and elsewhere.

Once mounted by any means (e.g. "Hardware information, in YAST",
you should be able to find the SATA drive mount settings reported
in /proc/mounts.
You will need to copy-and-edit these settings to /etc/fstab,
for the use of various tools.  See fstab(5) for details.

I am not aware of any likely changes to your hotplug configuration.

It is possible but improbable that "Hardware information, in YAST"
is loading kernel modules.
To see if it is.
1. bash> /sbin/lsmod > /tmp/modules.before.txt
2. Start YAST.
3. Run Hardware information.
4. After report is complete, but before exiting Hardware information,
   A. bash> /sbin/lsmod > /tmp/module.after.txt
5. Exit Hardware information.
6. bash> diff /tmp/modules.after.txt /tmp/modules.before.txt
If there is a difference, you may need to alter /etc/modules.conf .
</HINT>

Hopefully helpful,
-- 
Bob

  "My private keys are mine alone.
   My public keys to many shown.
   My secret keys with some are shared,
   But with only one message paired."
     -- Robert Meier 2001 excerpt from "Open-PGP Polka"