Ondrej Kubecka <nobody@nospam.cz> wrote in message news:<pan.2004.06.04.20.16.32.116498@nospam.cz>...

> It might not be worth the effort. Try
> /usr/sbin/hdparm -i /dev/cdrom
> and it should (among other things) tell you your firmware version under
> "FwRev=" so that you can see whether it is up to date or not.
> Also they usualy say what issue (which media) did they address with the
> update. (At least NEC - I have one of their drives - does that. I actually
> was lucky for they provided DOS flash utility for their ND1300. I am not
> lucky any more with ND2500 now.)
>
> I do not understand it since Win seems a lot less safe and stable for
> flashing firmware then anything else. And DOS would be better choice for
> it can be booted from a single floppy... Wine is a good project usable for
> many tasks but this one, I am afraid, is not among them. The only
> solution I could think of (however shameful is that) was taking the drive
> to someone else and use his computer to flash it. Well at least you can
> say if anyone picks on linux and HW (flashing is drive producer's problem
> anyway) is that it was first to provide USB 2.0 support and unlike win..
> it's bin released for x86-64 platform quite a while ago. Not that it
> would really help with the drive.
>
> I do not have any DVD+R at hand, but will try and let you know if I come
> across some.

I tried:
root@tycho:/home/jesp# /usr/sbin/hdparm -i /dev/cdrom2

/dev/cdrom2:

Model=Hewlett-Packard DVD Writer 200, FwRev=1.36
Config={ Fixed Removeable DTR<=5Mbs DTR>10Mbs nonMagnetic }
RawCHS=0/0/0, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=0
BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=0kB, MaxMultSect=0
(maybe): CurCHS=0/0/0, CurSects=0, LBA=yes, LBAsects=0
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:240,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: sdma0 sdma1 sdma2 mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 *udma2
AdvancedPM=no
Drive conforms to: device does not report version: 1 2 3 4

root@tycho:/home/jesp#

On HP website, latest firmware:

date: 2004-03-25
Version 1.72

So, I'm a little behind there. Strange that it all worked ok under
RedHat. But, as I said earlier, I might have a spindle of future
coasters.

I tried upgrading my dvd+rw-tools from version 5.9.4.4.4 to
5.19-1.4.9.7, but I'm still making Memorex DVD+R coasters.

I received an automated email from HP "How did we rank on helping
you?", so I responded accordingly.