SGI: Hardware

Hello,
I'm about to purchase a panasonic LF-D291 scsi dvd-ram.
Does anyone have any experience with this model?

Update:

I finally got the DVD-RAM. Upgraded the firmware (from A-130 to A-150) on a pee-cee. Drive works great in the pee-cee. I will attach it to the o2 and start making tests.

there's a document in techpubs that I found a while ago that had, iirc, some good tips about dvd-ram use. I posted it here somewhere, but that's all I remember.

Update:

I installed the LF-D291 on a Sun 611 case and hooked it up to the o2 (6.5.22).



Yes, that's an Adaptec FireConnect on PCI slot3 (sadly, unrecognized since I'm only at 6.5.22).



Nice, DVD-ROM and 9.4GB DVD-RAM !



I tried CDs, DVDs...all worked fine.
Then I tried a DVD-RAM cartridge. Desktop icon seemed to have mounted, but double-clicking it gave a message "still not able to determine type of filesystem" or something along those lines.
So I tried to format, but it would spit out messages about how to use the command.
Tried command line "formatRMedia", with HFS, and FAT, but it would only do something if format type was xfs or efs. It would start to format, then spit out some error message.
Turns out both sides of the cartridge were formated as FAT32. I hooked the drive to a pee-cee (can I call it mactel??) and formated both sides as UDF 2.0.

Hooked the drive back to the o2, and inserted the cartridge. It mounted right away!
Drag and drop works fine, I moved several files to the DVD-RAM without any trouble at all.
Seems like this drive is "irix friendly" !!

Total success so far! I believe there's one for sale on eBay right now. Mine is beige (black looks nicer!)

zahal wrote: I hooked the drive to a pee-cee (can I call it mactel??) and formated both sides as UDF 2.0.

Hooked the drive back to the o2, and inserted the cartridge. It mounted right away!
Drag and drop works fine, I moved several files to the DVD-RAM without any trouble at all.
Seems like this drive is "irix friendly" !!

Total success so far!

Cool!; So, this was the trick, huhh? ...I've used a Toshiba DVD-RAM without too much success on my O2, and I've always wondered what could be the result if instead of use the IRIX tools, were formating the media on a PeeCee... now, you confirms my suspictions! Good to know!, Then one only has to recall to buy UDF 2.0 preformatted media, or just to format then on a PeeCee!
Nice investigation work, Zahal!

I did a quick benchmark test:
Copying the following file (81mb) from hard drive to DVD-RAM:

81032646 Aug 7 00:10 visit1_4_4.irix6.tar.gz

GeneratriX wrote: I've used a Toshiba DVD-RAM without too much success on my O2, and I've always wondered what could be the result if instead of use the IRIX tools, were formating the media on a PeeCee... now, you confirms my suspictions!

I don't know if using "fx" one can format a DVD-RAM. I have used "fx" to format 230MB MOs (on a olympus 230mb MO drive), and it worked fine on a o2. I'm getting some more DVD-RAM cartridges tomorrow, and I'll try to format them with "fx" and see if that works (I already filled up the one that came with the drive). I also have 640MB MO drives (Fujitsu MCE3064SS) which I haven't hooked up to the o2 yet (I installed one internally on my maxed out Mystic ColorClassic replacing the floppy drive).
Buy you are right, using a peecee for a few tasks is inevitable. I finally sucumbed and got me a PC. Seems it was the only way (or easiest way) to upgrade firmware in the DVD-RAM, and also on some PCI cards...

http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi ... z&srch=udf
that might help, couldn't find the one I remember.

I picked up a LaCie SCSI DVD-RAM drive with a Matshita (Panasonic) LF-D201 mechanism <the drive comes in a blue case that looks like it was meant to go w/ an o2 or 02k > . I ran up on this tread and found zahal had already done all the heavy lifting necessary to get the drive working under IRIX.

One minor <non-functional> addition. Some of the Panasonic LF-D2xx series require a DVD-RAM cartridge in order for the drive to function in write/re-write mode. Locally the cartridge disks are somewhat harder to come by and more expensive.

While searching for a firmware update, I discovered Panasonic has a downloadable utility that will allow LF-D2xx and LF-D3xx (4.7gig) drives to write to non-cartridge DVD-RAM disks. There's also a UDF format utility, a tool to set dvd region and test/copy DVD-RAM disks. The software is windows only, the XP version is here:
http://panasonic.co.jp/psec/support/dvd ... ownxp.html

<zahal - where did you find you firmware update?>

recondas wrote: I picked up a LaCie SCSI DVD-RAM drive with a Matshita (Panasonic) LF-201 mechanism <the drive comes in a blue case that looks like it was meant to go w/ an o2 or 02k > .

Ahh, so *you* bought that drive. Good going, we need more people to take risks with unknown equipment and report back

So far I can tell you that a firewire LaCie external on a Fuel at 6.5.21 doesn't work

hamei wrote: Ahh, so *you* bought that drive. Good going, we need more people to take risks with unknown equipment and report back

I picked it locally - as noted above 'drag and drop' copying works flawlessly. IRIX (6.5.22) identifies it as a CD-ROM on the desktop and via hinv - tho it does load a dvd icon when I put a disk in and "get info" shows the correct disk size. The right click menu evens offers a 'format dvd' menu option, and warns "you can create only a UDF filesystem on a DVD-RAM". XCDRoast <a fairly old 0.98alpha revision> identifies it as a DVD-RAM but doesn't allow it to be selected as a writer.

So far I can tell you that a firewire LaCie external on a Fuel at 6.5.21 doesn't work

I have a smal variety of external firewire devices - if I can find the 'correct' pci firewire card I'll test it in the o2k just to see what happens. <it's running 6.5.28>

recondas wrote:
While searching for a firmware update, I discovered Panasonic has a downloadable utility that will allow LF-D2xx and LF-D3xx (4.7gig) drives to write to non-cartridge DVD-RAM disks. There's also a UDF format utility, a tool to set dvd region and test/copy DVD-RAM disks. The software is windows only, the XP version is here:
http://panasonic.co.jp/psec/support/dvd ... ownxp.html

<zahal - where did you find you firmware update?>

Yes, and some DVD-RAM cartridges have removable disks which can be used on drives that dont physically accept a cartridge.
Where did I find that firmware update....I must have googled a while before finding it. I'm almost sure I must have found the firmware in one of those pages that have loads of rpc-1 firmware for all kinds of dvd drives. Actually, I *think* this was the page:

http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php

yup, that's the page.

zahal wrote: Actually, I *think* this was the page:

http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php

yup, that's the page.

Got it - and thank you on both counts