On Tue, 2007-10-09 at 17:48 +0200, Nigel Henry wrote: > On Tuesday 09 October 2007 15:06, Simon Slater wrote: > > On Mon, 2007-10-08 at 19:15 +0200, Nigel Henry wrote: > > > Hi Simon. This is probably no help whatsoever, but a bit of googling > > > brought up the same problem for Fedora 7 on fedora forum from about 3 > > > months ago. > > > > > > Someone there found that FC6 picked up their optical drive ok, but F 7 > > > didn't. Also someone found that an i686 kernel, version 2.6.21-1.3255.fc7 > > > picked up the optical drive ok (that was a testing kernel at the time), > > > whereas the earlier kernel didn't. The original kernel from my install > > > cdroms for Fedora 7 is 2.6.21-1.3228. > > > > > > What is your current kernel? Is Fedora 7 fully updated? > > > > > > I was stupidly going to suggest you tried a live cdrom, to see if the > > > drive was accessible afterwards. Doh. Not so easy with only one optical > > > drive. > > > > > > 2¢ worth of probably useless info > > > > > > Nigel. > > > > All info gladly taken on board, Nigel. The drive worked with boot.iso > > CD where I did an NFS install (see an earlier thread). The Fedora 7 DVD > > was purchased. I have not run yum update yet. It can take a long time > > on dialup. > > I know the feeling, as I too am on dialup. IIRC the updates are about 800MB, > but doesn't take as long as downloading the 5 cdrom iso's for Fedora 7 that > someone kindly made available (8-10 days). > > > > GRUB menu shows: > > Fedora (2.6.20-2925.9.fc7xen) > > and Fedora-base (2.6.21-1.3194.fc7) > > > > This problem happens when booting to either. On our system I would > > retain the Xen kernel to play with virtualization, but on the system > > that I'm setting up the base kernel is all that is needed. > > You see that could well be the problem, as your kernel is even earlier than my > original one (3228), and the guy on the fedora forum got his drive detected > using a 3255 one, which was a testing kernel at the time. > > I've just tried my earliest 3228 kernel, and the optical drive is detected ok, > but when I went to install Fedora 7 on the same machine that has FC1,2,3,4, > and 5 on it, along with Debian installs, etc, it wouldn't boot on my new > combi optical drive, although live cdroms, booted ok, and I also put the > first disk in for FC5, and that booted ok. I had to use smart boot manager on > a floppy disc to get the first disc for Fedora 7 to boot. > > Based on what I've seen on various lists, combination drives create more > problems than a drive dedicated to a specific format, and different > makes/models of the combo drives appear to compound the problem. Some just > work, others don't, but that's no help to the end user though. > > > > > > I have deliberately avoided toying with different kernels, or even > > updating the kernel for that matter, until my knowledge of Linux grows > > some more. I still haven't got ftape working with FC6 yet, it needs > > kernel modules being compiled as I recall. I suppose that I don't need > > to now with the new DVD burner. > > > > I'll have a closer look on Fedora Forum, thanks. > This is the one that I found using, optical drive not detected on Fedora7 as a > search on google. > http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=160361 > > It is the first on the list, but thought the possible kernel related problem > was worth posting to you. > > > > -- > > Regards > > Simon > > Regarding kernel updates and Yum: > > I use Apt, and Synaptic for updates, and all kernels are saved, but if you are > using Yum, it only keeps 2 kernels as default. Personally I don't like that, > and prefer to decide myself as to how many kernels I want available. > > You can change the way that Yum deals with kernels though, but Yum has been > updated on Fedora 7, so the place to edit has changed. > > Originally this was in /etc/yum/pluginconf.d, and a file named > installonlyn.conf existed. By default there are the following 2 lines. > enabled=1 > tokeep=2 > The first enables the plugin, and the second, how many kernels to keep. > > Even though I don't use Yum, I always edit the file, and set the first line as > enabled=0, thus saving all kernels. > > Some updates later on Fedora 7, Yum itself is updated, and what I've written > above no longer applies. > > As I've said, I don't use Yum, but to make sure you keep all kernels after the > yum package has been updated, you need to add a line to /etc/yum.conf as > below. ( I put it after the metadata line) > > installonly_limit=0 > That's a zero, not an uppercase o. > > Apologies for rambling on about kernels. I just don't like my kernels being > trashed by updates. > > Nigel. > As I said, I know very litle about the kernel side of things so feel free to ramble. I guess my kernel lerning starts now. -- Regards Simon
