From: SMTP%"john@argent-software.com" 28-AUG-1997 18:35:31.54 To: EVERHART@GCE.COM CC: Subj: CDD2600 info Return-Path: john@argent-software.com Received: by arisia.gce.com (UCX V4.1-12C, OpenVMS V7.1 VAX); Thu, 28 Aug 1997 18:34:27 -0400 Received: from grape.Argent-Software.com ([205.133.96.3]) by bort.mv.net (8.8.5/mem-951016) with SMTP id SAA04661 for ; Thu, 28 Aug 1997 18:10:00 -0400 (EDT) From: john@Argent-Software.com Received: by Argent-Software.com (MX V4.2 VAX) id 1; Thu, 28 Aug 1997 18:09:34 EST Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 18:09:21 EST To: EVERHART@GCE.COM Message-ID: <009B9765.F9190FAE.1@Argent-Software.com> Subject: CDD2600 info Glen, >As it happens, I just bought one of these drives (Philips CDD2600) >myself. If you use SHOW DEV/FULL you will see the number of blocks >is way low. Evidently the drive is refusing to mount file structured >because it insists on using a blocksize of 2048. > >I have not (yet anyway) been able to use cdwrite on it from my >3000-300LX; could be I really DO need to use gkdriver instead >of dkdriver. Anyone have the SCSI manual for the thing? I wrote >Philips, got a message "have you downloaded the scsi manual from >our site...?" but have no idea where "their site" is (seeing >ftp.philips.com has nothing that looks right). > I have used a CDD2600 on a 3000-300 WITHOUT the GK driver. I had to change the original CDWRITE13_VMS to get it to work and eventually made major changes to it. I'll send you the source in a separate E-mail. I sent E-mail to Phillips requesting the SCSI manual and got a photocopied copy in the mail a few weeks later. I can't find anything at ftp.phillips.com but the document number on the manual is AHR-34-xxxx so the filename may be similar. It's 160 pages long but if you have some idea what you need I can FAX it to you. >Dealing with the blocksize issue will be simple and I WILL do that. >If you look in my compressing virtual disk files on the sigtapes >you'll note that there's a host process there which is able to >present a compressed disk image to the system as a readonly disk. > >I will add another switch to this and when the switch is set, I'll >have the program just compute the 2048 byte block number and read >that into its buffer, instead of figuring out which compressed image >of a 32 block buffer to read and reading/decompressing it. The geometry >will have to be hoked up, no problem for CDs since they are 6 by 4 by >n, with n large enough to cover the maxblocks. However I want to >solve the problem of using the gadget as a CD-R first. Has anyone >been able to get this model working? If so, on what iron and VMS >version? (There are a few odd things about the 3000-300, notably a >lack of mapping registers, but I suspect that when DKdriver tries to >get the device set up as a disk, it messes up some mode pages that >it wants to have for use as a CD-R. With no SCSI manual for the >CDD2600 I'm a bit at sea. > I've had it working on: AlphaStation 3000-300 under V6.2 and V7.1 AlphaStation 200 4/166 Under V7.1 VAXStation 3100-30 under V6.2 and V7.0 It now fails under OpenVMS/VAX V7.1 with SYSTEM-F-BADPARAM (maybe you have some insite into that problem?) >It is fortunate that the non-512 read path DOES seem to be working >(hah! I put some fixes into dkdriver to allow this but this is the >first I've had a chance to see that they by golly DO work!). that >means that my software hack will allow the thing to be used. I will >of course give it out...or somebody else can do what I've described >if they like. The code already knows how to read large buffers, >cache them, find blocks, and so on. > >Anyone with info about the SCSI manual or the rest, please reply >to me at either Everhart@gce.com or Everhart@mitre.org. Here is the README for CDWRITE20_VMS (my new and improved version): CDWRITE V2.0 CDWRITE20_VMS is a major rewrite of CDWRITE13_VMS. CDWRITE20_VMS has been tested with OpenVMS/VAX V7.0/VAX C V3.4, OpenVMS/VAX V6.2/DEC C V5.5 and OpenVMS/Alpha V7.1/DEC C V5.5. The major changes are: - More robust I/O. I/O is now overlapped and async which helps avoid buffer underruns and ruined CD-R's. - Adjustable buffers. You can adjust the number and size of the buffers used. I'm not sure what the optimum buffer size is but the general idea is to use as much buffer space (i.e. memory) as you can WITHOUT paging. - Source can be a device. The source for a CD-R can be either a file created with a virtual disk driver or a disk device. You can even copy CD to CD-R. - No restrictions on input size. If the source is not an even multiple of CD-R blocks (2048 bytes) padding will be added to fill out the last block. - GK driver no longer needed. CDWRITE20_VMS has been tested on OpenVMS/Alpha V7.1 with the standard DK driver. There is no need to GK driver although it can still be used and may be required in older versions of VMS. - There are lots of command line options. Use the -h option to list them. To compile and link under OpenVMS/Alpha or OpenVMS/VAX with DEC C: $ CC CDWRITE20_VMS $ LINK CDWRITE20_VMS To compile and link under OpenVMS/VAX with VAX C: $ CC CDWRITE20_VMS $ LINK CDWRITE20_VMS,SYS$INPUT/OPT SYS$LIBRARY:VAXCRTL.EXE/SHARE Ctrl/Z $ John Vottero John@Argent-Software.com