Mandrake Linux ate my CD drive


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Mandrake has warned users of its Mandrake Linux 9.2 to beware of a "severe problem" which totally trashes CD drives by overwriting their firmware.

The issue is caused when the kernel that ships with Mandrake Linux 9.2 and early updates sends a FLUSH_CACHE command to the CD drive. For "certain" CD drives manufactured by LG, this command overwrites the firmware and renders the drive useless.

- news source

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Mandrake has warned users of its Mandrake Linux 9.2 to beware of a "severe problem" which totally trashes CD drives by overwriting their firmware.

The issue is caused when the kernel that ships with Mandrake Linux 9.2 and early updates sends a FLUSH_CACHE command to the CD drive. For "certain" CD drives manufactured by LG, this command overwrites the firmware and renders the drive useless.

- news source

WTF?! :angry: *uninstalls Mandrake immediatly*

Thank's for that man, good job (Y)

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http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/lgerrata.php3

explains it all - it seems to be an LG mistake rather than Mandrake's

quote"A problem has been discovered with certain LG-based CD-ROM drives and Mandrake Linux 9.2. The kernel that comes shipped with Mandrake Linux 9.2 and early updates would send a FLUSH_CACHE command to the drive which would make drive inoperable by overwriting its firmware. Unfortunately, many Dell computers (possibly others) come with these CD-ROM drives. Currently, it is not believed to affect DVD-ROM/R/RW drives and some CD-RW drives; but this all depends entirely upon the firmware on the device.

We are currently working with HP to determine which systems are affected by this. Dell is potentially providing LG-based CD-ROMs since the beginning of May 2002 in laptop, desktop, workstation, and server-class machines. HP and Compaq have been installing LG-based CD-ROM devices for three years, and Compaq have also re-branded some.

The problem was that the kernel would send a FLUSH_CACHE command to the LG CD-ROM drive which would make the drive inoperable by overwriting its firmware. This is because LG CD-ROM drives are not compliant with the ATAPI specification. The specification does not require an implementation of the FLUSH_CACHE command in the driver, and returning an error (or doing nothing) would have been the correct behaviour for the drive. Likewise, reusing a command is against the specification and LG has reused the FLUSH_CACHE command to modify the firmware of the drive, but they are unwilling to disclose exactly what the command does. This FLUSH_CACHE command is supposed to be supported only by CD-RW or DVD-RW devices; the LG-based CD-ROM devices are understanding this command as the UPLOAD_FIRMWARE command.

A new kernel (2.4.22-21mdk) has been released that fixes this problem in the kernel, although the CD-ROM devices are still not up to specification. New CDs and ISOs will be available shortly to correct these problems; they will come with the new kernel.

If an updated firmware for your CD-ROM is available from LG, you are encouraged to apply the firmware update prior to installing Mandrake Linux 9.2. Unfortunately, if the drive becomes inoperable, currently only the manufacturer is able to fix it.

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Rule number 2 in hardware engineering! (1 is probably safety)

"SOFTWARE SHOULD NOT DESTROY HARDWARE!!!!!!"

even mine stuff doesn't blow up if i send it crap data. LG needs to be slapped.

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lol bangbang023 u have to spoil the fun oh well guess in not installin that anymore one of my drives it LG!

lol for a second when I first read it I had a serious sense of deja vue but thought maybe the previous report was about RedHat.

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Mandrake has warned users of its Mandrake Linux 9.2 to beware of a "severe problem" which totally trashes CD drives by overwriting their firmware.

The issue is caused when the kernel that ships with Mandrake Linux 9.2 and early updates sends a FLUSH_CACHE command to the CD drive. For "certain" CD drives manufactured by LG, this command overwrites the firmware and renders the drive useless.

- news source

WTF?! :angry: *uninstalls Mandrake immediatly*

Thank's for that man, good job (Y)

Mandrake is not at fault here. It is LG who have the defective drives. And this only happenes with the older models that have the firmware that causes this issue. Now if you do have mandrake installed and you have a LG and you are fine why worry?

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Ouch :x

Dunno how they managed to miss that nasty bug...

Because oddly enough. None of the beta testers had an LG Drive with the firmware in question that would ruin the drive. (from what I was reading on /.) Go figure :shrug:

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