On Saturday 25 Oct 2003 6:37 pm, Tom Brinkman wrote: > > Let me add some caution here. First the problem seems to be > software (kernel patch, from kernel.org) that can adversely affect > cheap substandard corner cutting hardware. The trend appears that > this is happening mostly on ready made systems. Those OEMs are > infamous for arm twisting vendors into providing 'special edition' > OEM ONLY hardware built to accommodate their specs, again usually > always corner cutting, substandard and proprietary. Often made to > work in their system thru 'special' firmware and drivers, and thus > not upgradeable or fixable. Often hardware that's OEM ONLY Spec > will not take (or it has no effect) a firmware flash the vendor > releases later to fix bugs. > > Mandrake is responsibly an aggressively trackin what's going on. > BUT, it'd be irresponsible an premature to start just collecting > model numbers to blacklist, till it can be sorted out whether OEM > ONLY spec hardware/firmware (ready mades) is the real problem. LG's > only input to Mandrake so far is "According to LG Electronics, > their ODD (Optical Disc Drive) products do not support Linux nor do > they test with Linux." IMO, it's cheap junk win-hardware that's > the problem. > > I checked one of the most often reported problem LG drives at > Mwave, a very reputable and popular online hardware vendor. The > drive was $17.90 http://direct.mwave.com/mwave/doc/a11810.html > Note: " OS Compatibility : Windows 2000/98/95/ > Dell probly buys this drive, at their even lesser spec, in lots of > 10,000's from LG for under $4 a unit. > > Actually I suspect Mandrake has done a favor to users who get > their drives fried. It's about the only way that many users will > wake up to the fact that there's a lot of cheap junk hardware out > there, specially in ready mades. An not suitable for use with a > real OS that doesn't tolerate sloppy win-hardware too well. BUT, > that's just my MNSHO > > Since Linus himself accepts or rejects kernel patches, I > suppose those with fried drives can write him to issue a $4 credit > for their destroyed drive. Or thank him for pointin it out.
Tom - I'm not out to cause scaremongering - the opposite in fact, but I do think it's wise to say on the TWiki that if you have one of these drives it is better to wait until the issue is resolved or stated to be unresolvable before installing 9.2. Perhaps you would like to have a go at wording that? Anne -- Registered Linux User No.293302 Have you visited http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org yet?
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