Supported Hardware

# 3 Supported Hardware

Contents of this section

This section lists the CD-ROM drivers and interfaces that are currently supported under Linux. The information here is based on the latest Linux kernel, which at time of writing was version 1.1.46 (and changing by the minute).

## 3.1 SCSI CD-ROM Drives

SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) is a popular format for CD-ROM drives. Its chief advantages are a reasonably fast transfer rate, multi-device capability, and support on a variety of computer platforms.

Any SCSI CD-ROM drive with a block size of 512 or 2048 bytes should work under Linux; this includes the vast majority of CD-ROM drives on the market.

You will also need a supported SCSI controller card; see the SCSI HOWTO for more information on interface hardware.

Note that some CD-ROMs include a controller with a modified interface that is not fully SCSI compatible (e.g. does not support adding other SCSI devices on the bus).

## 3.2 Proprietary CD-ROM Drives

Several CD-ROM drives using proprietary interfaces are available; the interface is often provided on a sound card. Simple interface cards equivalent to that provided on the sound card are also available. These drives generally tend to be lower in cost and smaller than SCSI drives.

The following proprietary CD-ROM drives are supported by the Linux kernel (drives listed together are compatible):

- Matsushita/Kotobuki/Panasonic/Creative Labs models CR-521, CR-522, CR-523, CR-562, CR-563
- Mitsumi/Radio Shack
- Sony CDU31A and CDU33A
- Sony CDU535 and CDU531 (driver is available as a kernel patch)
- LMS/Philips CD205/225/202 (driver is available as a kernel patch)

The following sound card interfaces are supported:

- SoundBlaster/Pro
- SoundBlaster/16 (both the proprietary interface and SCSI versions)
- Galaxy
- SoundFX
- Spea Media FX sound card (Sequoia S-1000)

The following interface cards are also supported:

- Panasonic CI-101P
- LaserMate
- Aztech (see below)
- WDH-7001C

Note that only the older Aztech drives compatible with Matsushita/Panasonic are supported; newer models use a different interface and are not supported.

The Matsushita/Kotobuki/Panasonic/Creative Labs kernel driver supports multi-session, PhotoCD, and up to 4 drives with one controller card. A maximum of 4 controller cards is also supported.

Drivers for some additional devices are in development and may be available as kernel patches. They can most likely be found on sunsite.unc.edu in the directory /pub/Linux/kernel/patches/cdrom. Check the Linux Software Map for availability.

## 3.3 IDE CD-ROM Drives

CD-ROM drives based on a modified version the IDE hard disk (ATAPI) standard have recently been introduced. One such drive is the NEC CDR-260. An alpha release of a Linux kernel driver for it is available on sunsite.unc.edu. It was written by Scott Snyder (`snyder@fnald0.fnal.gov`).

Note that the proprietary interfaces are sometimes erroneously referred to as IDE interfaces, because like IDE, they use a simple interface based on the PC/AT bus.

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