As an overview, what are the options for using a CD-ROM drive on a Sun?
Fortunately, it appears that with the release of Solaris 2.6, a 'special' CD-ROM drive is no longer required. This means virtually any SCSI-2 CD-ROM drive will work on any machine capable (and willing) of running Solaris 2.6.
For the machines which remain running older operating systems, the options are a Sun labeled CD-ROM drive (called "SunCD" by Sun) or a compatible third-party CD-ROM drive. The former is guaranteed to be 100% compatible and will be supported by Sun. The latter will be cheaper and in almost all cases, just as compatible. Some manufacturers ( Plextor, for example) even list their drives as being Sun compatible.
See the question "What CD-ROM drives are doomed to fail?" for more information on Sun compatible CD-ROM drives.
Special thanks to all of those who have confirmed this information about Solaris 2.6 for the FAQ.
What CD-ROM drives are doomed to fail?
To ensure 100% compatibility on machines running Solaris 2.5.1 and older, it is necessary to use a CD-ROM drive capable of supporting 512 byte sectors (the Sun standard).There are exceptions to this rule on the SPARCstation IPX, SPARCstation 2, and newer machines which contain a PROM revision capable of sending the appropriate SCSI "MODE SELECT" command. This command when issued by the host machine, will cause the CD-ROM drive to change it's sector size to 512 bytes. Please note, this command is executed by the PROM itself (no user intervention is required).
In order for this "MODE SELECT" command to work, the CD-ROM drive also must support this functionality, but it is believed that virtually all later model CD-ROM drives support it.
When in doubt, ensure the CD-ROM drive is compatible based on the manufacturer's comments or by personal experience. I will not be held responsible for lost time/money/productivity caused by an erroneous recommendation in this document.
What CD-ROM drives are recommended?
The general consensus from the Sun user community is that the best third-party CD-ROM drives are the later model Plextor CD-ROM drives (4x and better). Plextor CD-ROM drives are known for their high quality, high reliability, and unbeatable performance. All of this comes at a cost- Plextor CD-ROM drives are among the most expensive available.On the lower, more affordable end, Pioneer has a low-cost line of SCSI CD-ROM drives that are also noted to be 100% Sun compatible.
Of course, to eliminate any chance of incompatibility, the best solution would be to opt for a Sun branded CD-ROM drive.
How do I know if my CD-ROM drive is not Sun compatible?
The PROM will report "bad magic number" or "data overrun" errors when attempting to boot from an incompatible CD-ROM drive.
What SCSI ID should the CD-ROM drive be?
Sun has traditionally designated SCSI ID #6 as the CD-ROM drive. This value is hardwired into the kernel of SunOS and Solaris 2.5.1 and earlier. This is probably also the case with Solaris 2.6, but it appears the CD-ROM driver has been overhauled in 2.6, so it may not be a user-configurable option.
If you are looking for more information on CD-ROM drives in general, various manufacturers have a wealth of information available on the web. Try any of the following companies:If you are interested in seeing the technical innards, the Linux CD-ROM driver and filesystem is one source. The code is available from tsx-11.mit.edu or metalab.unc.edu. The CD-ROM filesystem driver in Linux supports ISO9660 and RockRidge extensions. [Information courtesy Derek Fawkus]
If you have a question not answered by this document, you may wish to post in the USENET newsgroup comp.sys.sun.hardware.