Subject: Re: Sony CDU31A not recognized at all!?

From: [email-masked] (Bruce Perens)
Date: Sun, 8 Sep 96 11:48 PDT

> I choose CDU-31-A as CD drive module and tried to install it with the
> parameters "0x340,5".

Oh darn. I gave the wrong advice.

Try:

	modprobe cdu31a cdu31a_port=0x340 cdu31a_irq=5

If you use "modconf" (the module configuration menu) use the arguments

	cdu31a_port=0x340 cdu31a_irq=5

Thanks

Bruce

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From: Paul Seelig <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996 02:23:23 +0200 (MET DST)

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> 	cdu31a_port=0x340 cdu31a_irq=5
Yeah, wow! This did the trick! But why is it not documented in the help
text which is accessible at boot up of the installation disks by pressing
the key F4? It wrongly suggests to add as parameter "cdu31a=0x3XX,X" or
something like that. This even sounds rather plausible if you know this
already from other more or less broken distributions! This is definitely a
bug in the installation routine! What a pity that i lost so much time
trying to find it out...

Well, i think it's time to compose some kind of an Debian-Installation-FAQ
just for these kind of cases. An FAQ of this kind would have saved me and
probably others lots of time and frustration. Anybody interested in
contributing to such an FAQ? Let's see if i can manage to maintain it and
learn from it!

BTW, i didn't succeed installation anyway. :-( 

After my CD drive was recognized and the bad-links-fix package from
i-Connect (i received a broken Debian-1.1.5 CD from them) was installed as
described in their README i could use dselect to select my packages and
everything. (This 'dselect' is to my mind a rather awkward program and i
didn't enjoy installation with it very much...) But after completion of
all selections when i started 'Install' i just got following error
message (i wrote it down at home and went to our institute for mailing
it):
- -----------------cut-here----------------------------------------------
Running dpkg -iGROEB /tmp/Debian-1.1.6/stable/binary-i386
find: /tmp/Debian-1.1.6/stable/binary-i386/admin/sudo_1.4.4-2.deb: No such
file or directory
find: /tmp/Debian-1.1.6/stable/binary-i386/base/mount_2.5l-1.deb: No such
file or directory
dpkg: subprocess find returned error exit status 1
installation script returned error exit status 1.
Press RETURN to continue.
- -----------------cut-here----------------------------------------------

Well, i tried continuation and repeated everything various times. The
files which are not found by find are definetely there right in the place
as reported in the error message. They are just there waiting for 'find'
and this damn 'find' just chooses to ignore them for whatever reason there
is!!!!!? Can't 'find' handle symbolic links on a CD ROM?  At this point i
just had to give in. Looks like a case for i-Connect anyway...

I think this is just incredible! When i was a complete clueless newbie who
didn't even know how to pronounce UNIX or Linux and was a complete Windoze
addict one and a half year ago i managed to setup a Slackware based system
due to proper documentation in little more than a day. And up to this
moment i barely managed to install a Debian-1.1 base system since friday
evening being stuck again on monday morning... This ain't no good!

I'd really wish it to be easier for a non informatics guy like me! Maybe i
should switch to Redhat, but i like the idea behind Debian and GNU and
actually want to install it on two Linux boxes which i am maintaining at
our institute. But these frustrating experiences with my testdrive at my
private box give me something to think about...

Well, now it is almost 2:30 in the middle of the night and i am tired,
pretty desillusioned and rather frustrated about my Debian experiences so
far. I'll go home to sleep now and hope to get my Debian system up and
running some time really soon. I depend on a Linux box and i definitely
want it to be a GNU/Debian machine in any case! 
                                                  Good night, Paul *8^)
__ 
   Paul Seelig                         [email-masked]
   African Music Archive - Institute for Ethnology and Africa Studies
   Johannes Gutenberg-University   -  Forum 6  -  55099 Mainz/Germany
   Our AMA Homepage  in  the WWW at  http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bender/

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From: "Susan G. Kleinmann" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 08 Sep 1996 22:17:21 -0400

Hi Paul --

> contributing to such an FAQ? Let's see if i can manage to maintain it and

Have you found the FAQ (published on any Debian site in the directory
doc/FAQ) to be inadequate?  If so, can you suggest some changes?
(This is not meant tongue-in-cheek.  I don't know if you missed it,
or if it just didn't help.)
Susan Kleinmann

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From: Paul Seelig <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996 17:59:30 +0200 (MET DST)

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Hi Susan!

> doc/FAQ) to be inadequate?  If so, can you suggest some changes?
The FAQ you mention is great for a general overview regarding Debian. 
Actually i downloaded the old and the new version of the FAQ prior to
nuking my old Linux setup and read it. Not every line of it but at least
the stuff that was important to my mind. 

Right now at this moment i got my Debian system at least running with X
and PPP, so that i can at least access the net. At last! Dselect was so
nice as not to install the software after selection as described before
but i tried installation from the command line using dpkg and switching
back to dselect for choosing what i wanted to be installed. This dselect
may be a great invention technically but for easy installation by a newbie
it definitely is a nuisance! Sorry if i hurt somebody's feelings... 

The kind of FAQ i was suggesting would be supposed to cover more specific
installation topics and traps like the one i escaped with Bruce's tips
after a too long period of anger trying to get it running. You know, there
are these small details which make a debuting Debian user get stuck
already upon installation and i'd propose to cover these topics in an
"Debian-Installation.FAQ". 
                                           Thanks a lot, Paul *8^)
__ 
   Paul Seelig                         [email-masked]
   African Music Archive - Institute for Ethnology and Africa Studies
   Johannes Gutenberg-University   -  Forum 6  -  55099 Mainz/Germany
   Our AMA Homepage  in  the WWW at  http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bender/