[ILUG] Do not ever do what I've just done, and can someone help me undo it?

[Declan Moriarty]

Was it Ronan Cunniffe who wrote on Wednesday 13 February 2002 21:12:
> Hi all,
>         I've just managed to wedge my RH7.1 box *solid*.  Not even Ye-Olde
> three fingered salute broke it out.  How did I achieve this?

[TALE OF WOE SNIPPED]

> So, having burdened you with tedious narrative, the real question is:
>    How do you unconditionally reset an ATAPI device (or a SCSI or an IDE
> one for that matter)?

No, you did the right thing to kill the power and take the pain.

Being a Hardware type, and if you ***really*** wanted to avoid the ext2 fsck, 
I might have gambled, opened the box, and disconnected the power lead from 
the offending drive. If it's dead tight, you can't do it, as you may make 
contact again. What kills the hardware is the sudden or poor connect, not a 
sudden disconnect. I presume the software process would eventually crap out, 
or could be killed. You are unlikely to kill devices outside the drive: It's 
not impossible, just quite unlikely. Personally, I would grab it in a pliers 
and heave. Then close off, power off, reconnect your drive and go again. 


Don't give me the flames about what this will or could do - I'm in Electronic 
hardware: I know the risks, it IS a gamble, and probably more than most jobs 
are worth.  From experience watching fools in action, one usually wins this 
one. I've never intentionally tried this. I've seen A/D buses disconnected 
without damage. I think it's the only way. The other options don't bear 
thinking about, and AFAIK, there's no way into that software system once 
you've locked it. There is a reset line up the ide cable, but you would want 
a modified system or a fool to use it. That solution relies on polarities: If 
it's normally high (I think it is), you can pull it low for a reset safely 
enough. If it's low, you can't pull it high. The approach then would be to 
stick a pin through the correct lead in the ribbon (!!), after grounding 
yourself, and ground it.  But there's no telling how much of the box you 
would reset. Like I said - totally mad.


Maybe a patch for cdrecord to time out on such errors after 30 secs and go 
home? Even 5 minutes would be OK.

-- 
	Regards,


	Declan Moriarty




Applied Researches - Ireland's Foremost Electronic Hardware Genius

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