The following information provides no explicit endorsement for any of
these products other than the fact that 'net users posted success
using them with Suns; any configuration-specific details are listed
with the comments:
]
Courtesy: mfrisch@saturn.tlug.org (Mike Frisch)
Comments: see Panasonic CR-503B. This drive is an OEM'd Panasonic CR-503B
Modification -> Dip Switch
Sun Version?: ?
Speed: 1x
Courtesy: rachel@virago.org.au (Rachel Polanskis)
Comments (Rachel's): This is a single speed first generation SCSI
CDROM drive I picked up for around AUD 60 (about $40 US). The disk
is a hand loaded caddy - the disk is inserted into a "shoe" and
then placed in a plastic sleeve. This is then inserted into the
drive as a whole and then the sleeve is extracted (leaving the
shoe and the disk inside).
On the rear of the unit is a set of dip switches, with a sticker
with a legend on the back. Peel the sticker off and you are in
trouble - as it contains the info you need to set the switches!
Set the drive ID to 6 and set the other dips to accept 512kb block
size and you can boot your Sun off it. I installed Solaris 2.5.1
with this drive onto a SPARC IPC, no problems, and it works fine
with volume manager. Do not attempt to insert a caddy to remove
a disk without first shutting off volmgt - you cannot eject these
disks with software...
Speed: 2x
Modification -> Sun: Jumper #5 IN
Courtesy: mfrisch@saturn.tlug.org (Mike Frisch)
Caddy or tray? tray
Comments: I personally used this drive to boot/install Solaris 2.5.1 on my
SPARCstation IPC. It also booted SunOS 4.1.3_U1 and 4.1.4 without problems.
100% compatible.
Speed: 8x
Modification for Sun: Jumper
Courtesy: Ned Forrester <ned@kilowatt.whoi.edu>
Caddy or tray? Tray
Comments: Confirmed bootable and operational on SPARCstation IPX running
SunOS 4.1.2
Modification -> Sun: DIP switch or jumper
Courtesy: mfrisch@saturn.tlug.org
(Mike Frisch)
Comments: I have personally used the Pioneer 12x on a SPARCstation 2
and one of my customers confirms it to work on a SPARCstation 10.
Modification for Sun: DIP switch on back for 512/2048 modes
Courtesy: dclunie@sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au (David Clunie)
Comments: 6-disk changer, can be made to work with all six
(see How can I set up my kernel and drive to mount all 6 discs from a Pioneer multi-disk CD-ROM reader? for details)
Mike Frisch adds: "I, too, was able to get my Pioneer DRM-604X
CD-ROM changer booting my SPARCstation 1+ and SPARCstation 2
systems (with Solaris 2.5.1)". This is a 4x drive and performance
was VERY good and compatibility was 100%." Recommended for those
in need of a changer on their SPARC system.
Modification for Sun: Minor modification
Sun Version?: built-in
Courtesy: zbig@junior.wariat.org (Zbigniew J. Tyrlik)
Blake Wright (bmwright@smeg.users.xmission.com) writes to report:
"There's a solder
jumper pad on the exposed circuit
board portion of the drive, it's located right by the 50 pin SCSI header
midway between pin 1 and 50 on the top side of the drive, no disassembly
required to get to it and it looks like the two small half moon shaped
pads on my Toshiba 3301 and 3401s. The pad is not bridged, in order to
get the drive into 512 byte/block mode you have to either put a small blob
of solder on it or wire up a switch and close it. I don't recall the
jumper pad # on the board, possibly 230 or 208, it should be easy enough
to find given the description above"
Ken Hansen (khansen@notes.cc.bellcore.com) also mentions of Plextor having clearance sales, etc. He picked up a 4.4x Plextor drive for less than $100 USD.
Modification -> Sun: DIP switch
Sun version?: not required
Comments: See above Plextor description. Plextor lists refurbished drives
available on their web site.
Modifiction for Sun: DIP switch
Courtesy: raquels@lava.net
Comments: Multi-speed 12x for inner edge, 20x for outer-edge. Reported to
work great on SS20.
Modification -> Sun: the pad-cutting hack mentioned above
Sun Version?: 3301U/3401U
Courtesy: jk@tools.de (Juergen Keil)
Comments: the switch allows moving from PC to Sun and back more easily
than a PROM swap, but it is a hack and voids your warranty.
Modification for Sun: Sun compatible firmware
Speed: 12x
Comments: Please note that this drive will not work on Sun without this
firmware upgrade.
Modification for Sun: Toshiba hardware hack
Sun version: unknown
Courtesy: Ken Hansen (khansen@notes.cc.bellcore.com) reports that www.gsci.com is selling these low profile 1" drives presumably from SS5s and SS20s.
(Mike adds: I have seen these drives being advertised there, but we're not 100% sure whether or not they're set at 512 byte sector size. I have never dealt with this company, so I would appreciate any feedback about this)
It has been noted that many versions of this drive cannot be modified
to work with Sun (ie. support 512 byte sector sizes). In particular,
XM4101 drives which are IBM OEM'd appear not to work even with the
hardware modification. Buyer beware!
Modification -> Sun: *unknown* (see below)
Sun Version?: XM440U (presumably)
Curtesy: elfchief@lupine.org
Comments: I am basing this on one article from elfchief@lupine.org, who
got it to work on a Sparcstation 1+. It tries to initialize the drive,
then gives "serious error in phase. " Turning off the drive breaks the
hang when he mounts it. This drive _should_ work if you turn off
synchronous I/O on the kernel level. Please add to this.
Modification for Sun: none
Courtesy: Mark Perez
Comments: Used to boot SPARCstation ELC. This drive presumably
supports the SCSI MODE SELECT command and the boot PROM
of the ELC is new enough to support it. Results may vary with
older hardware.
Modification -> Sun: none
Sun Version?: SunCD, SunCD+
Courtesy: bhepple@hk.net (Bob Hepple)
Comments: You can install Solaris 2.x from these drives with
the 2048 byte blocksize with Boot Prom Rev 2.3 or higher.
The following information provides no explicit endorsement for any
of these products other than the fact that 'Net users posted success
using them with Suns; any configuration-specific details are listed
with the comments:
Juergen Keil (<jk@leo.tools.de>) adds the following update with respect to the Sony CDU-561:
"The Sony CDU-561 is a standard "PC" type cdrom drive that uses a
default logical scsi block size of 2048 bytes/block. SunOS 5.3 used to
work without modifications but the harddisc/cdrom driver was changed in
later SunOS releases, so this isn't true any more for SunOS 5.4 and
5.5."
"Also watch out for ancient boot proms,
boot prom revisions 2.4 and older (SLC, SS2) can't boot from such a
2048 bytes/block device."
A contibutor reports that this drive successfully booted a SPARCstation
ELC without any modification to the drive. (This is a CD burner as well,
but this functionality has not been confirmed/denied to work on Sun
hardware).