Problems reading CDROMs

2007-12-25 8:13:00

Some time ago, I said:

> Greetings, Sun Managers.

> Last month I upgraded our Sparc 1 from SunOS 4.1.1 to SunOS 4.1.3. This Sparc

> has a Toshiba CD-ROM connected to it which we have been using for some time

> to retrieve images from disks provided by NASA. (The images are from the

> Galileo spacecraft.)

> Since the upgrade we are unable to read the images from the CDROMS, although

> we can see the header labels, which are stored as short, separate ASCII files.

> When we attempt an "ls" of a directory on the CDROM, the following error

> messages scroll up on the console:

> hsfs: filetype (0x8) not supported

And on, and on, and on.....

Due to some extreme net wierdness, my original posting appeared about a week

after I had posted a solution, meaning that many people never saw the summary

and replied to my delayed original message.

Anyway, the problem is that Sun, in their infinite wisdom, decided not to

support XARs and, as a result, the hsfs driver complains loud and long about

any CDROM which makes use of them.

The solution for me was to patch the file /usr/kvm/sys/sun4c/OBJ/hsfs_node.o

as follows:

----- Begin Included Message -----

Subject: NASA CD's and SunOS 4.1.2

As you found out, Sun cannot read the guide star

catalog cdrom from NASA. This is because all of the data

files are of type RECORD, which Sun chose not to support because

there is no UNIX interface to access the RECORD structure file.

Attached is a kernel patch that you can make your Sun

machine to read the guide star cdrom. As a precaution, please

save your old kernel before applying this patch.

for SunOS 4.1.2 & 4.1.3

acuraintegra# adb -w vmunix

>>>> hs_parsedir+c0?X

_hs_parsedir+0xc0: ba0de0ee

>>>> hs_parsedir+c0?Wba0de0e6

_hs_parsedir+0xc0: 0xba0de0ee = 0xba0de0e6

>>>> hs_parsedir+1a4?X

_hs_parsedir+0x1a4: ba0de0ee

>>>> hs_parsedir+1a4?Wba0de0e6

_hs_parsedir+0x1a4: 0xba0de0ee = 0xba0de0e6

>>>> $q

Note: >>>> is added to illustrate what you should type.

You need to reboot.

You can also edit the file in OBJ/hsfs_node.o.

Feel free to pass along this patch to those who need this fix.

----- End Included Message -----

Even after implementing this patch, I discovered that many of the files on the

disk were scrambled when I tried to read them. I finally traced that error

down to a patch purchased from Young Minds, who had originally sold us our

Toshiba CDROM. The Toshiba CDROM uses a 2k buffer, while Sun decided to go

for a 512 byte buffer - this results in an inability to read CDROMs on a

Toshiba CDROM drive/Sparc combination. The patch supplied by YM (which

replaces the sr.o file) causes problems when accessing CDROMs which have

implemented XARs. I then removed the YM patch and replaced it with one I

received from this list last month and, once again, all is well with the world.

My thanks to those who replied:

Peter G.Ford

John Benjamins

David T. Hightower

Terry Forrester

Bryan Butler

Dana Macelis-Rober

Andy Feldt

Steve Hanson

Michael Harris

--
- Mike Jewison, Systems Manager
Space Astrophysics Laboratory
Institute for Space and Terrestrial Science
4850 Keele St., 2nd Floor
North York, Ontario
CANADA M3J 3K1

Internet: mjewison@nereid.sal.ists.ca

Phone: (416) 665-5451
FAX: (416) 665-5497

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Problems reading CDROMs

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