Hey, where'd my /dev/hdc go?? {Semi-solved}

mazirian · Last edited by mazirian on Sat Dec 31, 2005 4:59 am; edited 1 time in total

I have a cd/dvd combo drive that has always been properly detected at boot and given node /dev/hdc. Suddenly, /dev/hdc is longer getting created and the drive is longer being detected at boot. I think this coincides with a recent kernel upgrade to 2.6.14-r4 (although the problem persisted after changing the kernel to 2.6.14-r5 today). ide_cd is built into the kernel. The drive is still working fine, as it will happily boot the box into knoppix using a live cd. Here is the relevant portion of my dmesg:

anonybosh · Guru Joined: 20 Nov 2005 Posts: 324

Any chance you could post your kernel config?

mazirian · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:57 pm Post subject:

Sure:

anonybosh · Guru Joined: 20 Nov 2005 Posts: 324

Have you tried rolling back to the previous kernel version running the same config file?

mazirian · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 4:30 am Post subject:

Yeah, that's the weirdest part of all. I just booted into older kernels dating back to when I know the cd drive was being detected properly, but I still get the same problem. When the kernel probes ide1 it takes about 10 seconds and then finds the hard drive on that ide cable but misses the optical drive. Occasionally I will get a "probe timed out before all ready" or some such error when it probes ide1, but other than that there's no indication what's going on. I just booted into knoppix and damn-small-linux livecds and they both have no problem detecting the drive.

The gentoo install on this particular box is almost three years old. I've pulled it through just about everything, I'd hate to let something like this kill it, but I need to be able to use my combo drive again soon.

mazirian · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 4:56 am Post subject:

Solved, but not in a completely satisfying way...

The solution came from the kernel doc file ide.txt, which suggested adding the following boot option:

anonybosh · Guru Joined: 20 Nov 2005 Posts: 324

That is rather strange. Could you (or a dead battery) have possibly changed anything in the BIOS settings?

Glad to at least appear like I'm helping! ;-)