Why so hard to configure cd-rom

[Matt_H]

With 3.2, the only thing you need to do to get a CD drive working is to adjust the tooltypes on SYS:Storage/DOSDrivers/CD0. For an A4000 with plain IDE it will be scsi.device and unit 1. Drag CD0 into SYS:Devs/DOSDrivers, reboot, and you’re done.

IDEFix is only for 3.1 (and older?). All newer OSes incorporate its functionality.

[Matt_H]

Can a small extender be put on one connector to give the few inches needed if something like that even exists?

Yes it can! 

[Matt_H]

Odd that the ONLY thing that worked to me was to use the setup from IDEFix97 on my A1200 I am restoring.  Tried AtapiMagic, tried AmiCDFS and just a plain old mountlist for CD0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and on.  I have three different brand CD rom drives that work.    If I use IDEFix, they all work just fine, any other method the system 'sees' the hardware and I can pull up the device ID and information, even open and close the trays, but will not put icons on the Workbench under 3.2 for some reason nor can I access them via CLI or other means.

*Forgot to mention, I have tried using the IDE connection and now am using the Blizzard PPC connection.  Using IDE, I use SCSI.device.  Using SCIS, I am using Blizzppc.device.   BOTH exhibit same issues with all three drives but they work on other systems under different OS versions so I know drives are fine.. just missing something I take it with 3.2 and the differences.

I don't know what happened that it ended up being so complicated. I think there's a lot of old, obsolete information out there about setting up a CD drive on the Amiga and applying that advice on newer OS versions can break things. With 3.2, no additional software needs to be installed unless you have a 4-way IDE splitter.

The other issue I am still trying to figure out as well, is why internal CD drives will not open the tray properly every time.  Sometimes it acts like it is stuck closed with a clicking sound, cycles a few times and then sometimes finally opens, most of the time does not.  I can open all three drives manually using the pinhole but obviously that is not what I want to do.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on this?

This one is simple: the CD drive mechanics are broken. I have this problem on one of my drives. Just started happening one day. A component wore out. It's annoying, but I haven't bothered to install a replacement drive.

[Matt_H]

As I said, I have tried just plugging it in on WB3.2 and HDToolbox does not even find it let alone place an icon on WB.    Second, this is also the case trying it with those other tools I mentioned EXCEPT for IDEFIX for some reason.

Next, as I also said, I have three drives ALL work perfectly on all other Amiga's that do not run 3.2 rather are 1.3, 2.04 or 3.9.  But besides that, one of these drives is an external panasonic drive with a manual flip up door that can also run on batteries as it is portable.   That drive ALSO is found just fine but does not place Icons on the WB, just like the other two.  This one happens to be on SCSI.   One of the other drives is IDE and the 3rd is also a SCSI internal style.

If I plug these back into any of the other Amiga's, they operate without a problem.  The irony of all this is that I moved from an A2000 attempting to get HD's working right under the latest 3.2 and was not able so I gave up and decided I would try all over again on an A1200.  Now I get the HD's working fine but the moment I plug in a CD drive, again EITHER IDE or SCSI, the system is not placing Icons on the WB.. and before you ask, this is a clean install from original CD to the HD, which I had to do on another machine.

I said there's no other software that needs to be installed, but there is software configuration that has to be done.

From my first post in this thread:

With 3.2, the only thing you need to do to get a CD drive working is to adjust the tooltypes on SYS:Storage/DOSDrivers/CD0. For an A4000 with plain IDE it will be scsi.device and unit 1. Drag CD0 into SYS:Devs/DOSDrivers, reboot, and you’re done.

On a 1200, assuming the hard drive is master/unit 0 and the CD drive is slave/unit 1, the config will be the same.