# [SOLVED] Writing CD/DVD is blocking system

## Massimo B.

Everytime I write CDs or DVDs under KDE using k3b the complete system is blocked and not responsive anymore. Sometimes I still can switch virtual desktops but no application is usable. I even can't switch to console like CTRL+Alt+F1. After CDs are written completely the system responses as usual.

What could be the issue for this blocking?

It is a PowerPC laptop with internal IDE Double Layer writer.

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## Sadako

Just a guess, but your system probably only has one ide interface (rather than the two you see on most motherboards), with the hard drive as the master and optical drive as the slave.

Under such setups, what you're experiencing is normal, you can have two hard drives or two optical drives on the same interface without issue, but if you mix them you run into this problem.

Can't remember why exactly, but I think it has something to do with switching dma modes or similar, hard drives are usually set to udma5 or 6, whereas any ide cd drive I've seen has been limited to udma2.

Of course, it could just be a ata/dma driver or kernel config issue, but I'm betting it's the above.

Any idea if it's the same behaviour under windows?

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## Massimo B.

I'm quite sure it is not the case on its native operating system MacOSX.

As I remember when I opened an iBook, the single IDE bus with harddrive being master and CD drive being slave was exactly like you describe, no idea what the configuration on the PowerBook is like.

Is there any way to figure that out on /sys? udev has named the harddrive hda and the dvd drive hdb.

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## Rexilion

I'm not sure if the kernel has drivers for this. But you could use the libata (sdX) counterpart of the IDE driver (hdX) you are using now. These are called PATA drivers and are located in the kernel under the SATA driver menu.

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## Massimo B.

Seems that there is no libata module for this hardware:

```

--- ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support

...

<*>   generic ATA/ATAPI disk support

[*]     ATA disk support

<*>   Include IDE/ATAPI CDROM support

[*]   IDE Taskfile Access

[*]   legacy /proc/ide/ support

[*]   Probe IDE PCI devices in the PCI bus order (DEPRECATED)

<*>   Generic PCI IDE Chipset Support

<*>   PowerMac on-board IDE support
```

I still wonder, why the DVD drive is mapped to letter letter 3 by udev:

```

# ls -al /dev/{dv,cd}*

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 29. Mär 07:42 /dev/cdrom3 -> hdb

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 29. Mär 07:42 /dev/cdrw3 -> hdb

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 29. Mär 07:42 /dev/dvd3 -> hdb

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 29. Mär 07:42 /dev/dvdrw3 -> hdb
```

Here is what logs say about the ATA hardware:

```
# zgrep -e "hd\(a\|b\)" /var/log/everything/current

[kernel] hda: SAMSUNG HM160JC, ATA DISK drive

[kernel] hdb: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-846, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive

[kernel] hda: UDMA/100 mode selected

[kernel] hdb: UDMA/66 mode selected

[kernel] hda: max request size: 512KiB

[kernel] hda: 312581808 sectors (160041 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=19457/255/63

[kernel] hda: cache flushes supported

[kernel]  hda: [mac] hda1 hda2 hda3 hda4 hda5 hda6 hda7 hda8

[kernel] ide-cd: hdb: ATAPI 24X DVD-ROM DVD-R CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache

[kernel] EXT3-fs: hda4: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240).

[kernel] EXT4-fs (hda4): barriers enabled

[kernel] kjournald2 starting: pid 430, dev hda4:8, commit interval 5 seconds

[kernel] EXT4-fs (hda4): delayed allocation enabled

[kernel] EXT4-fs (hda4): mounted filesystem with writeback data mode

[kernel] EXT4-fs (hda4): internal journal on hda4:8

[kernel] EXT3 FS on hda7, internal journal

[kernel] hda: UDMA/100 mode selected
```

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## VoidMage

 *Massimo B. wrote:*   

> Seems that there is no libata module for this hardware

 

I think PATA_MACIO says otherwise.  'lspci -k' would be useful too.

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## Massimo B.

```
The following options are known to maximize burning and playback performance:

hdparm -d1 -c1 -a8 -u1 /dev/dvd
```

The bus is freezing after hdparm -c1 /dev/hdb or hdparm -c3 /dev/hdb. Sysreq forced reboot is then the only way...

```
# lspci -k

...

0001:10:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc. Intrepid2 PCI Bridge

0001:10:17.0 Class ff00: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid Mac I/O

        Kernel driver in use: macio

0002:24:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Computer Inc. Intrepid2 PCI Bridge

0002:24:0d.0 Class ff00: Apple Computer Inc. Intrepid2 ATA/100

        Kernel driver in use: ide-pma

...
```

I cannot find a "PATA_MACIO" substring in my kernel configuration.

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## Jaglover

```
 Symbol: PATA_MACIO [=n]                                                                             

  │ Prompt: Apple PowerMac/PowerBook internal 'MacIO' IDE                          

  │   Defined at drivers/ata/Kconfig:792                                                            

  │   Depends on: ATA [=y] && ATA_SFF [=y] && PPC_PMAC [=PPC_PMAC]      

  │   Location:                                                                                             

  │     -> Device Drivers                                                                                 

  │       -> Serial ATA and Parallel ATA drivers (ATA [=y])                               

  │         -> ATA SFF support (ATA_SFF [=y])                                                

```

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## Massimo B.

Looking for "PATA_MACIO" it seems that libata for the "macio" IDE controller first comes with 2.6.33...

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## Massimo B.

Forwarded to Architectures & Platforms/Gentoo on PPC: 823461.

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## Massimo B.

Solved with PATA_MACIO.

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