If MakeCD does not automatically select a driver for your CD-ROM drive or your CD writer, or if MakeCD shows it as unknown, then read the following hints from Patrick:
MakeCD selects a suitable SCSI driver based on the vendor and drive ID of a SCSI or ATAPI drive. If your drive is marked as "unknown" this only means that you have to select the correct driver manually.
These are hints to find the correct driver:
- For CD writers the CDR_SCSI3_ATAPI.driver is usually the right choice if it is a modern (MMC compatible) SCSI drive or ATAPI drive.
- The CD_ROM.driver is suitable if you are absolutely sure that your CD-ROM does not support CDDA extraction with any of the other CD_#?.drivers.
- The CD_ATAPI.driver should be the right one for all ATAPI CD-ROMs, however, not all drives support audio reading (e.g. some Mitsumis don't). Please tell us if yours doesn't.
- The CD_ATAPI.driver might work for new SCSI CD-ROMs, too, because the commands used are part of the SCSI 3 standard. So if the driver you use at the moment allows CDDA extraction, but not speed settting, then you might try CD_ATAPI.driver.
Sometimes the same driver is able to accomplish something on different ways. Alternative ways might be necessary to work around problems of specific drives. For most known drives the driver already chooses the correct way automatically, but for unknown drives or drives with so far unknown bugs you can choose yourself. This is done by setting environment variables, e.g. with
setenv MAKECD_READ_MODE2_RAW=1or adding the same string to the tooltypes of MakeCD.The following options are supported by all or some drivers:
- MAKECD_READ_MODE2_RAW (all drivers)
- Some drives deliver invalid data with block size 2336 (Sony 928E), others report checksum errors although they shouldn't use the checksums (Plextor PX-20TS). In both cases reading raw data still works, so MakeCD can read mode 2 tracks raw and throw away the unnecessary bytes alternatively. This workaround is enabled only for the Sony 928E, but not for any other drive, because some drives might read raw data slower and the additional processing requires more CPU time. On slow computers with fast drives the computer might perhaps even appear to be locked.
- MAKECD_UPDATE_EJECT (all drivers)
- Some CD writers remember tracks that have been written in test mode even after being asked to update their view of the CD-R. This options causes MakeCD to force an update by ejecting the disc. Drives with a tray will close it automatically, but caddies have to be inserted manually.
- MAKECD_NO_MCN (all drivers)
- Asking some drives to read the Medium Catalog Number didn't work and caused locks. If you have problems when setting up a copy project or appending a CD that you didn't have with MakeCD versions before V3.0 then try this option and also disable ISRC reading and index scanning in the MakeCD GUI.
- MAKECD_SONY_PLEXTOR_SPEED_YES, MAKECD_SONY_PLEXTOR_SPEED_NO (CD_Sony_Plextor.driver)
- In V3.2 the Sony and Plextor driver have been merged because the only difference was that the Plextor driver could also set the speed. The capability of a drive to do that is now recognized automatically, but if this test should fail these options can be used to enforce or disable speed setting.
- MAKECD_ALLOW_TAO_INDICES (CDR_Philips_2000/2600.driver)
- Setting indices in TAO has caused SCSI problems on some systems. Therefore this feature is now disabled by default. If you want to use it again you have to set this option.
- MAKECD_MITSUMI_FIXATE
- Enable a workaround for crashes after fixating a disc with a Mistumi ATAPI writer.
- MAKECD_WRITE_MODE2_MIXED_DAO
- Recent Plextor firmware revisions failed to write PSX discs correctly in DAO. MakeCD works around this problem by using a slightly different data mode. MAKECD_WRITE_MODE2_MIXED_DAO enables this mode (which is on by default for the Plextor drives) and MAKECD_WRITE_MODE2_MIXED_DAO_NO overrides this default (for testing purposes).
- MAKECD_RETRIES
- Can be used to increase the number of automatic retries in case of read errors from a CD. The default is 2, because most drives do retries themselves already.
The following options can be used to change some general aspect of MakeCD:
- MAKECD_BUF_MEM_TYPE (all drivers)
- You can restrict the memory MakeCD uses for reading and writing to a certain type of memory. Use
setenv MAKECD_READ_MODE2_RAW=xwithxbeing the decimal representation of the memory attributes you want to be required. Restricting this is hardly ever necessary. It might increase the performance if you have a SCSI controller that works faster with certain memory and slower with the default memory. Examples:
- Amiga 4000, CyberStormPPC (32MB), GVP A2000-HC+8 Series II Rev II (4MB) => use MAKECD_BUF_MEM_TYPE=256 (MEMF_LOCAL)
- for other GVPs: MAKECD_BUF_MEM_TYPE=512 (MEMF_24BITDMA) (unconfirmed)
- MAKECD_PRI_READ, MAKECD_PRI_CONV, MAKECD_PRI_WRITE
- The task priority of read, conversion and write process during time critical operations. Default is 6. Changing them probably doesn't help much in cases of general system performance deficiencies.
You can help us and other users by telling us your drive's ID, the correct SCSI driver for it and any of the workarounds above you had to use. MakeCD displays the complete ID in the settings window and the device selection requester. If you cannot snap the string there, you might also go to these windows, return to the main window and save the debug log with the menu item "Project/Write logfile...". It will contain the ID.
Please write to
patrick@core.de. Please tell me also if you have done tests with other drivers -- otherwise I won't know if e.g. the Plextor driver doesn't work while Sony does or if Plextor just wasn't tested. Thanks for your help!Patrick Ohly, 9.6.98
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