On 11/15/06, James G. Sack (jim) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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Carl Lowenstein wrote:
> I would like some suggestions for future use of Pandora2, the CD/DVD
> duplication system.
>
> Its current 60GB hard drive can hold 56 CD images, at the moment there
> are 49 installed. About half are more than one year old. The oldest
> is Fedora Core 3, dating to late 2004.
>
> I have had no requests for production of older CD images, and propose
> that the drive be treated as a ring buffer, deleting old files to make
> room for new ones.
Seems reasonable. Why would we want to worry about archiving old
distros, esp. if no one ever asks for them.
>
> There is also a 160GB drive in a carrier that can be swapped in. I
> will probably start using it to hold DVD images. Until now, I have
> just been duplicating DVDs from reader to writer, without storing on a
> hard drive.
I suppose the mobo/ROM-software only handles one drive, eh?
Yes, but I can just substitute another drive in a mobile carrier.
One hard drive. One reader. Up to 6 writers, of which 3 are installed.
>
> With the primitive "file system" implemented in the ROM-based
> firmware, each CD image takes up 1GB on a disk, each DVD image takes
> 5GB, and they can not be mixed on the same physical device.
>
> Comments are welcome.
It seems that on-demand demand has been practically zero, for some time.
Probably because our distroMeister has done such a good job of
anticipating and pre-building CDs and DVDs at home, and providing most
installfest needs from such "stock". (..thanks cdl..)
Going forward (as they say), whatever the options, I think the resources
should be used to minimize the pain of the distroMeister.
Some further observations (please correct as req'd):
1. The box, Pandora2, has one significant convenience -- the ability to
burn multiple (eg, 3) copies of a CD at once.
2. It is also reasonably transportable (light, robust), but that has
been a lesser convenience, since cdl does so much pre-building.
3. The proprietary ROM-OS software is pretty much already stretched to
its limits, and adding features/conveniences is probably not very
feasible without someone contributing a largescale hacking effort.
The support software might actually exist, but only from a Windows
host. I spent some time a while ago trying to deconstruct the "file
system" but did not learn enough to begin to write Linux-based support
software.
Q: Does Pan2 really provide any special convenience when making DVDs?
Could it make 3 DVDs if it had 3 DVD-writers? Or, might we want to
consider another simple-minded (Frys $150?) box for a separate dvd-burner?
It can make 3 DVDs at once now. I have done this occasionally.
The main feature lacking is the ability to copy disc images to the
hard drive directly without burning a "sneakernet" copy on some other
system. In principle this could be done by Pandora2's USB connection,
if connected to a suitably capable Windows box. I don't actually know
if this is USB1 or USB2.
Alternatively, it might be possible to put the 3 CD/DVD writers and
one CD/DVD reader and one or more hard drives into some Linux box, and
find some other software scheme. A variation on the 'Linux Kiosk".
In actual usage of the box, I find that there are times when it would
be much more useful to make copies of 3 different discs simultaneously
rather than 3 copies of the same one. Of course it all averages out
over the long run.
Seems to me that someone (Jim Sack?) pointed out to me a proposal for
self-serve Linux Kiosk disc burners several months ago. What I
remember is South Africa and probably Ubuntu. But I can't bring the
memory back by searching old email or by Google.
carl
--
carl lowenstein marine physical lab u.c. san diego
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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