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Title: CDROM: older Mitsumi drives (FX001-D)

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CDROM: older Mitsumi drives (FX001-D)

Symptom:

Already at the first boot of the Linux installation from CD, everything appears to be correctly detected by kernel (the CD-ROM drive too), but the installation gets stuck at the root images' load from the CD.

Cause:

Older Mitsumi drives apparently cannot always start or react fast enough either to the kernel's enquiries in the correct (short) time during the bootkernel's seeking process on the CD.

Solution:

There is a kernel parameters' extension, mcd, with which the driver can wait longer for the CDROM.
One declares therefore the following parameter:
```
mcd=0x340,10,5
```
This means (from left to right): port address 0x340, interrupt 10, wait parameter 5. The wait parameter is important. Raise this value if necessary. Please adjust the other two parameters to your hardware situation.
If this does not still help, boot from disk. It is enough for it to build a bootdisk. Declare as kernel parameter e.g.:
```
ide5.cd onlycd=mcd mcd=0x300,10,5
```
As well, you can turn off during the booting the turbo key, so everything will go a little slower and the CDROM driver will have enough time.
A customer found out by chance another solution, that uses the search mechanism for the root images.
One declares the following kernel parameter:
```
rootimage=/dev/mcd/emil
```
This seems apparently to be wrong, it must have been really called
```
rootimage=/dev/mcd:/suse/images/root
```
The missing colon provokes the autotest in the different devices. As a result, the time required for this is apparently enough for the Mitsumi to start.
This solution is however a hack, and should not be standarized!
Another solution from one of our customers:
Copy the root image (CDROM:\suse\images\root) into your DOS drive C: (e.g. C:\root) and declare the kernel parameter rootimage at booting-time as follows:
```
rootimage=/dev/hda1:/root
```
The colon before /root is important!
At this point it is supposed that your DOS drive C: is the first partition on the first IDE disk in the system.
The rest of the installation from CD is successful. We have NOT tested ourselves this variation!

Hint:

The described problem appears only during the installation. There are no problems if it is accessed to the CDROM while running a programme.

Keywords: CDROM, MITSUMI, FX001, FX001-D, BOOT, KERNEL PARAMETER

Feedback welcome: Send Mail to maddin@suse.de (Please give the following subject: SDB-maddin_mitsumi)

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