Messages in this thread | | | From | mharris@ican ... | Date | Mon, 23 Feb 1998 18:50:35 -0500 (EST) | Subject | Re: ATAPI CDROM error message |
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On Mon, 23 Feb 1998, Jon Torrez wrote:
> <WWW>I keep getting the following error when trying to change my CDROM > <WWW>motor spindown timer. Any ideas what could be causing it? > <WWW>Kernel bug? Shitty hardware? My guess is that it is the latter. > <WWW> > <WWW> > <WWW> > <WWW>3 capslock:/stuff/hdparm-3.3# hdparm -S 0 /dev/hdd > > Well my friend it seems that your saying spin down every 0 seconds after > inactivity.
No, "-S 0" means disable this feature - which is what I want. When the CDROM is accessed, after 3-5 seconds the motor stops, then the next access must wait for the motor to start up. I don't much care about the lifespan of my CDROM motor however, and much prefer access immediately rather than waiting 5 seconds every time it shuts off.
From the hdparm manpage....
-S Set the standby (spindown) timeout for the drive. This value is used by the drive to determine how long to wait (with no disk activity) before turning off the spindle motor to save power. Under such circumstances, the drive may take as long as 30 seconds to respond to a subsequent disk access, though most drives are much quicker. The encoding of the timeout value is somewhat peculiar. A value of zero means "off". Values from 1 to 240 specify multiples of 5 seconds, for timeouts from 5 seconds to 20 minutes. Values from 241 to 251 specify from 1 to 11 units of 30 minutes, for timeouts from 30 minutes to 5.5 hours. A value of 252 signifies a timeout of 21 minutes, 253 sets a vendor-defined timeout, and 255 is interpreted as 21 minutes plus 15 seconds.
Note the part 'A value of zero means "off".' I suspect my drive is not supportive of this command, or else a bug in the driver exists.
> Uh...try 2 or 3... > > I would not doubt your hardware not liking zero seconds.
I don't think it's that it doesn't like it, but rather that something is broken, either hdparm, the driver for ATAPI CDROMS, or else the firmware on the CDROM.
I'm just trying to determine which one of the three. ;o(
Thanks for your reply however.
If necessary, I will have to write a daemon that just sits there accessing the CDROM every x seconds... <sigh> ;o(
Take care..
Mike A. Harris | Homepage: http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris Computer Consultant | System/Network Administrator - John Howard Society, Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Mark should get a sound card and more ISA slots!!!!!!!! ;o)
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