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Thread: Read this BEFORE installing Mandrake 9.2

  1. #1
    Member Xeroid's Avatar
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    Read this BEFORE installing Mandrake 9.2

    Might want to take a look at the article on the front page of http://www.usalug.org/ before installing Mandrake 9.2 on your PC. Seems that if you own an LG Electronics optical drive or a Dell PC you could destroy your drive by installing Mandrake 9.2 on it.

  2. #2
    Hired Geek fishybawb's Avatar
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    Ouch! Thanks, I was wondering about giving the new Mandrake a shot - guess what, I have an LG drive Windows may be full of holes, but at least it doesn't toast drives

  3. #3
    Senior Member Greg Harper's Avatar
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    Fortunately didn't have any such hardware. Got 9.2 on two systems and is working fine. Had a little trouble with bittorrent. It's just about as slow as using an ftp. Seems to have the usual amount of bugs to update but what can you expect for free. MS makes you pay for their bugs. Thanks for the link, there's a good article on a MS cd out trying to do a marketing bash on linux to businesses. It's a training cd for sales people.

    Wonder why they need that?
    gch306

  4. #4
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    Originally posted by Greg Harper
    Fortunately didn't have any such hardware. Got 9.2 on two systems and is working fine. Had a little trouble with bittorrent. It's just about as slow as using an ftp. Seems to have the usual amount of bugs to update but what can you expect for free. MS makes you pay for their bugs. Thanks for the link, there's a good article on a MS cd out trying to do a marketing bash on linux to businesses. It's a training cd for sales people.

    Wonder why they need that?
    Fear!
    Competitiveness.
    good business practice.
    $$$.

  5. #5
    Member Xeroid's Avatar
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    Yeah, I got 9.2 on my system with no hardware problems. I did run into the update and boot disk problem that is also listed in the Mandrake 9.2 errata page. They have a workaround posted for these problems. (click on the From Mandrake's Website: read more here on the link I posted above).
    Last edited by Xeroid; 10-26-2003 at 03:16 PM.

  6. #6
    Senior Member Greg Harper's Avatar
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    I took care of the update problem by removing the update source in software manager and reinstalling it. After that it's worked fine. Seems to be a bug on the cd but if I remember correctly 9.1 wouldn't update on cd installation either. So far I haven't seen a whole lot of difference between the two except for graphics.
    The nvidia module problems others reported having on older cards I didn't have( I have a geforce 2 fx 400) but it did give a lot clearer and more viberant display than 9.1 did. I think for the money it's the greatest thing since ham on rye . With what's available now on gpl and what it can do I don't know why any regular user would buy MS ;or business for that matter.
    Short of the newest games it's pretty well in the race with everything else.
    Now if i can only learn linux well enough to really use it!!!!
    gch306

  7. #7
    Member Xeroid's Avatar
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    Here is a list of LG drives that "work" or "fry" when Mandrake 9.2 is installed.

    fried:
    # COMPAQ CRD-8322B(CP1)
    # CRD-8400B (machine: Dell Optiplex gx1)
    # CRD-8400B (machine: IBM PC 300 PL)
    # CDR-8400B(mi)CRD-8400CCOMPAQ
    # CRD-8402BLG CRD-8480C (machine: Old Dell XPS T650r)
    # GCR-8481B (machine: Dell Optiplex gx270; rom: 1.06; date: jun 2003)
    # CRD-8482B (machine: Dell Optiplex GX1)
    # GOLDSTAR CDR-8482B (machine: HP Vectra VL400; firmware: 1.01)
    # CRD-8482B (Dell Precision 220, rom: 1.05)
    # GCR-8523B (OEM in custom build comp)
    # LG ???? (machine: HP Vectras VL4xx)
    # GCC 4480B DVD/CD-R/RW/CDROM (firmware 1.00 - upgrading firmware to 1.01 workarounds problem)
    # Compaq ‎DRN8040B DVD-CDROM (Compaq M700 laptop no upgrade found, still works on DVD )

    work:
    # LG GMA-4020B DVD-RW
    # LG GCC-4120B CDRW/DVD
    # LG CD-RW CED-8080B DVD/CD-R/RW/CDROM
    # LG CD-RW CED-8120B (motherboard: ASUS K7M)
    # HL-DT-ST GCC-4480B (machine: Shuttle SB 62 G2 - i865/ICH5; firmware 1.01 - WARNING, firmware 1.00 is reported to have the fry problem!)
    # HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4480B (motherboard: ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe)
    # HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8161B (motherboard: Soyo)
    # HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8240BHL-DT-ST GCE-8481B CD-CDRW (chipset: SIS 651/962)
    # HL-DT-ST CD-ROM GCR-8520BHL-DT-ST GCE-8520B (motherboard: ASUS P4P800)

    http://mandrake.vmlinuz.ca/bin/view/Main/LGcdrom

    Mike

  8. #8
    Member Xeroid's Avatar
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    A new page has been added at Mandrake that covers the LG drive problem:

    http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/lgerrata.php3
    The problem was that the kernel would send a FLUSH_CACHE command to the LG CD-ROM drive which would destroy the drive. 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.

    Solution: 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.

  9. #9
    Ultimate Member Ol'Tunzafun's Avatar
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    Yikes, I have at least, two of those drives. My Mandrake version though is 9.1 so I should be OK for now.
    Thanks for the heads up Xeroid.

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