grant@torque.net
Thu, 10 Jun 1999 07:41:33 -0400 (EDT)
> Having given up on the idea of installing Caldera OpenLinux 1.3 from my
> parallel port Freecom IQ CD-RW, I came up with a new idea. Install using
> a different method then configure the CD-rom. According to the manual,
> Freecom parallel port CD-rom drives are supported by the 2.0.35 kernel. It
> states that the drive must be initialised with power-cd.sys in DOS first,
> then boot to linux. The module needed is pwcd. Below is the output when I
> tried this by booting with loadlin (but didn't know how to load
> power-cd.sys first...):
Which manual are you referring to ? Please understand that we (the developers)
don't always get to see what the distributors are doing with our software.
This seems to be an interestingly confused case.
First the facts: There are two different Freecom products. The old
"Power CD" and drives based on the "IQ cable". There were also a few
of the IQ cables made with a Power adapter in them. Only the (current)
IQ cable has ever been available in large numbers outside Germany, as
far as I know. (Maxtor and Panasonic are using the IQ cable, and the US
based "Computer Connections" is distributing their products.)
There are several different drivers. "pwcd" was an old experimental
driver that works with early models of the Power CD. It was never an
official part of the kernel, and has not been distributed for a long time.
Is it on Caldera's disk ?
The PARIDE suite was introduced about 18 months ago and provides a
framework for most of the parallel port _IDE_ type devices on the market.
PARIDE has two protocol modules for Freecom devices. "frpw" supports the
Power adapter and "friq" supports the IQ cables. Since the IQ cable
came on the market relatively recently (and it takes me time to obtain the
devices and develop the modules), the friq driver did not appear until
after 2.0.36 was released. It _is_ in 2.0.37 (which was never released)
and in the 2.2 kernels.
> Could anyone tell me what I am doing wrong + how to load the driver before
> booting to linux?
Some of the early Power CD drives require a download from the DOS driver
before Linux can access them. This is no longer an issue with the IQ
cable.
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Grant R. Guenther grant@torque.net
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu 10 Jun 1999 - 07:44:10 EDT