computer restarts when trying to mount CD

[angeljusto]

Any cd makes the computer restart just after i close the CD driver door. A few seconds after that in fact. I tried to disable the automount service and mount them manually, but same problem.

I don't even have the time to try to mount them manually. The computer restarts before that, so i guess this is a hardware problem or some misconfiguration of the cd driver, but i don't know where to start, i am quite new to linux.

I checked the kernel booting messages and the cd driver seems to be found and configured without any problem.

Any idea will be appreciated.

I am running a RH 9 dist. on a AMD 2200+ machine. The Cd driver is IDE, master, and no more drives on that IDE channel. I've installed RedHat on this hard drive from the CD driver, so it should work.

[knute]

What's your fstab look like?

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by angeljusto

I checked the kernel booting messages and the cd driver seems to be found and configured without any problem.


Anything recorded in the system logfiles in /var/log when the computer restarts? Do you have other operating systems installed (Windows or other Linux) and if so, does it happen with those?

[angeljusto]

This is the contents of the fstab, I think it is all fine:

/dev/hdb5 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hdb1 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
LABEL=/emtpy /emtpy ext3 defaults 1 2
LABEL=/home /home ext3 defaults 1 2
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hdb6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,r
o 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0

I toke a look at the boot.log and all seems ok, no error messages. Any other log file i could check?

I don't have other OS. Do you know any other way to check if the CD driver is working properly? But as I said, I can restart the computer from there with the RH installation cd, so I thought the hardware should be fine.

Can you reinstall drivers in Linux as you do in Win? Could the driver be the problem? I understand that you can check those things in the /proc directories, but I could't find anythig helpful there.

Thanks in advance for your time.

[knute]

Could there be an issue with kudzu???

There is a way to test it.

Comment out the cdrom line with # and copy it, without "kudzu" in it.

If it is some wierdness with kudzu, the same thing may happen with floppies as well. Have you tried them yet?

The other thing that comes to mind, is the udf fs that you have set up. It is one that I'm not familiar with, so I'm mentioning it. Do you have support for udf in your kernel either as a module or compiled in? cat /proc/filesystems will give you this information, btw


HTH

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by angeljusto

I toke a look at the boot.log and all seems ok, no error messages. Any other log file i could check?


The main one should be /var/log/messages though I would suggest you review all system logfiles in /var/log.

And I agree with knute about removing kudzu.

# /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0

/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,ro 0 0

Do you have 'udf' support enabled in the kernel? If not, see if removing 'udf' helps.

[angeljusto]

Thanks for that. I deleted the "kudzu" thing and the "udf" filesystem, but no change :(

When i loaded a CD the system restarted as usual. After reboot I checked the message log and found these lines:

Apr 11 13:11:14 localhost kernel: ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
Apr 11 13:11:14 localhost kernel: hdc: ATAPI 52X CD-ROM drive, 120kB Cache, UDMA (33)
Apr 11 13:11:14 localhost kernel: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12

They appeared just after the reboot. I checked the log before that and those lines weren't there. But they don't look useful to me.

The floppies were always working OK.

I can't find a single forum message or article, neither at redhat.com or other sites about this problem! It seems quite imposible that nobody had this problem before so i guess i am not looking for the right thing. Could this be a problem with the kernel?

[knute]

This is going to sound very very strange, but I'm going to ask anyway.

Did you put this CDRom drive in yourself, or has it always been a part of the machine?

Second, Is your sound onboard, or is it a separate card?

Ok, now my reasoning. I asked myself what would cause the computer to reboot? Either hardware or software, so if the logs have a normal shutdown, how was that command issued?

So then it came to mind a few weeks ago when my foot brushed across the reset button and linux issued the reboot commands, and it rebooted normally.

Ah ha! If the internal cable between the sound card and the CDRom drive was instead connected between the CDRom drive and the reset pins......

I'm not sure if that would short out the board or not, but it is a theory that is out there, so I'm just suggesting it, because when a CD is put in and the CD spins up, power is applied to that connection (ie a closed circuit).

My 2 cents.

[JohnT]

knute, I think your in the right track......disconnect the cable from the sound card to the cdrom drive and then check the results...also check your controller cable while your in there..both ends, for any loose fit. How old is the cdrom drive?

[angeljusto]

Many thanks for your posts.

I checked the sound and IDE cables and changed the IDE for a new one, but the problem persists. I think it is not a hardware problem because I was able to install the system from this same CD driver a couple of months ago and I didn't change anything since then.

Sorry but I think i was missunderstood, perhaps because of my poor written english: The system doesn't reboot "properly". It suddenly reboots without closing apps, services, etc.

Well, any other idea will be appreciate. I don't know what to try now.

[JohnT]

Have you upgraded or patched a kernel before this started? What kernel are you using? Are you using any power-saving features..like apm, apci?

[mdwatts]

Do you have another cdrom you can temporarily swap to test?

[ph34r]

I had a similar problem with a really fast drive. Apparently, it would suck so much power spinning up that it would trip the PSU into cutting off, causing strange reboots. Changing out for a slower (16x) cd-rom fixed it for me.

[angeljusto]

Thanks for all your posts.

About the Kernel: no, i didn't upgrade it or patched it, I am quite new to Linux, that's too serious for me :) . The kernel is version 2.4.20-8. And i am not using power saving soft.

The PSU is 350 W, It should be more than necessary, shoudn't it? I just have a video card, 1 hd, 1fd and this cdroom drive.

I haven't got another drive right now, but I think i will buy one to try it, because i can't go much longer without a cd drive and I think i have tried all the other posible conflicts/solutions. I would like to try if the PSU is failing, but it doesn't seem easy.. I can't disconect anything.

[kevinalm]

The problem is almost certainly a crashing power supply. The cd drive spinning up throws an extra load. Either the supply is too small, the supply is failing, or the cd drive is bad and drawing much more current than it should.

[angeljusto]

Hi again,

The CD driver is working now, but I don't know why!!

I plugged a second HD with XP loaded. Then I tried the cd from XP and i worked, so i went back into linux and ... surprise surprise, it's working!, but why? Perhaps an IDE misconfiguration?

I had: 1 hd as slave on IDE 0 and 1 CD driver as master on IDE 1.

I hadn't got the jumper to set the HD as master, so i left it as slave, could this be the problem?

When i added the second HD, with the XP, I plugged it on the IDE 0 as master.


Any idea?

[JohnT]

I hadn't got the jumper to set the HD as master, so i left it as slave, could this be the problem? One using only one drive on a cable either use master or if instructed......cable-select and plug to the furthermost plug from the board.