Subject: -47- Can I use a non-SGI CD-ROM on my SGI? Date: 06 Feb 1997 00:00:01 EST 4D20, 25, 70, 80 and 85s and most Power Series machines can boot only from SGI CD-ROMs or later Toshiba 3401s which have SGI firmware activated by the modification described below. (Newer Toshiba models don't have that firmware and won't work.) Older SGIs can boot only from a local tape drive or over the network. Newer machines (4D30 and 35s, Indigos, Challenges, Onyxes, Indys, Indigo^2 etc.) have smarter PROMs and can boot from at least some third-party CD-ROMs, for example the Sony and Toshiba drives intended for Suns. Dave Olson of SGI says, The basic requirement for Indigos is that the drive be set to use a 512 byte block size. Since Indigos don't reset the SCSI bus on reboot or halt, you *might* be able to boot your machine in some other way, set the CD-ROM's blocksize with a devscsi program while the system is up and then install from it, but I won't swear to it. Late R4K Indigos, Indys, Indigo2s, and Onyx/Challenges all know how to set the block size if the drive identifies itself as a CD-ROM, reports the block size as something other than 512 bytes in the block descriptor and accepts the new block size in the block descriptor. Rob Silvers reports that he has been sucessfully using a third-party dealer's Toshiba TXM3401E1 on an Indigo. It cost about $760. It is physically larger than an external Apple or Next drive. It is double speed and handles multi-session photo-CDs. 'cdromd', 'inst' and 'cdman' work, but he has not tried to boot from it as of 12 June 93. Bart Richards of Thunderstone Software writes, The following minor surgery makes a run of the mill Toshiba 3401[B|E] CD-ROM drive SGI [Indigo] or Sun-compatible. I got it straight from an anonymous Toshiba Tech. guy, and it worked for me. There are two solder pads located on the circuit board at the back right corner of the drive's aluminum housing when viewed from the top with the SCSI connector facing away from you. These may or may not be labeled as '0' & '1', but '0' is on the left and '1' is on the right (or closest to the edge of the circuit board). The normal state for these solder pads from the factory is for both of them to be closed. With an Exacto Knife or soldering iron (whichever is appropriate for the desired configuration), cut or solder these pads to match the entries in the following table: +++___++++++++__ |power SCSI | '0' '1' O=CUT/OPEN S=SHORTED/SOLDERED | 01| ---------- |----------------| S S Toshiba Default (2048 byte block) | | S O 512 byte blocks | TOP | O S SGI ( Bootable ) | OF | O O Sun / Integraph | DRIVE | | | | | | | |________________| DOOR Darrell A. Gentry points out that if '0' is on the right and '1' on the left, you should believe the numbers, not the locations, and that although 3401s can no longer be bought new, they can be bought cheaply on misc.forsale.computers.storage for about $30. Ramani Pichumani says that Toshiba's XM3701B 6.7X CD-ROMs with recent ROMs (look for "Version No. 005, ROM Version NA60123" on the bottom) work well on Indigos for both data and audio. Tobias Kunze confirms that they can be booted from. You may be able to get a ROM upgrade from Toshiba, but be sure not to mention that you want to use the drive on an SGI. Robb Masters summarized information on many third-party drives; see ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/hardware/cdrom/3rd-party. Jerry Fountain provided info and software for an NEC-3Xe; see ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/hardware/cdrom/NEC-3Xe/. Carsten Koch's writeup on CD-ROM writers (see below) also has some useful comments on CD-ROM usage under IRIX in general.