1579_CDPlayer_Troubleshooting

NEXTSTEP

Title: CDPlayer Troubleshooting
Entry Number: 1579
Last Updated: 14 April 94
Document Revision: 494A

Keywords: CDPlayer, CD-ROM, SCSI

Overview

CDPlayer is a demo application and therefore isn't officially supported by NeXT. However, here is some troubleshooting information that may help if you are having trouble getting CDPlayer to work with your configuration.

Limitations

CDPlayer was written specifically to support the Sony CDU-541 CD-ROM. Unfortunately, since there is no accepted standard for CD audio interfaces, different CD-ROM drives use different commands for playing audio. Therefore not all drives work with CDPlayer.

NeXT doesn't maintain a list of compatible CD-ROMs. However, we know the Toshiba 3401 is incompatible with CDPlayer.

You can't play CD audio directly through NEXTSTEP using either the internal jumper-style connectors or internal SCSI connector present on some sound cards. Use headphones or an external amplifier with speakers to hear CD audio. (You can record CD audio into NEXTSTEP by connecting an external cable from your CD-ROM drive's audio output to your sound card's audio input.)

Troubleshooting

Don't try to install CDPlayer by copying it directly from the NEXTSTEP CD-ROM. Instead, install the Demonstrations.pkg package in /NeXTCD/Packages on the NEXTSTEP CD-ROM.

If you start up CDPlayer manually by double-clicking its icon, it can find the CD-ROM drive only if the system is using exactly one of the SCSI IDs 0 and 1. Therefore, if you boot from a SCSI hard disk with ID 0, set your CD-ROM drive and all other SCSI devices to IDs of 2 or higher, leaving SCSI ID 1 unused.

You can launch CDPlayer automatically by inserting an audio CD in the CD-ROM drive, no matter how the SCSI IDs are set. If this autolaunching doesn't work, try these steps:

1 Turn on the setuid bit for the CDPlayer executable. If you installed CDPlayer

by installing Demonstrations.pkg from the CD-ROM, this bit already should

be on already. You can check the bit by typing this command in Terminal:

ls -l /NextDeveloper/Demos/CDPlayer.app/CDPlayer

Substitute the correct pathname if you have moved the CDPlayer application. You should see something like this:

-rwsr-xr-x 1 root 57344 Aug 20 1993 ...

If the permissions are set to -rwxr-xr-x, then the setuid bit has not been set. Set this bit by typing this command:

chmod u+s /NextDeveloper/Demos/CDPlayer.app/CDPlayer

2 If the applicaton still won't launch automatically, turn on the Public Window

Server option in Preferences' Expert Preferences, then log out and log back

in. Note that this setting creates a potential security risk; see the NEXTSTEP

User's Guide for further details.

	CDPlayer was written specifically to support the Sony CDU-541 CD-ROM. Unfortunately, since there is no accepted standard for CD audio interfaces, different CD-ROM drives use different commands for playing audio. Therefore not all drives work with CDPlayer.

	NeXT doesn't maintain a list of compatible CD-ROMs. However, we know the Toshiba 3401 is incompatible with CDPlayer.

	You can't play CD audio directly through NEXTSTEP using either the internal jumper-style connectors or internal SCSI connector present on some sound cards. Use headphones or an external amplifier with speakers to hear CD audio. (You can record CD audio into NEXTSTEP by connecting an external cable from your CD-ROM drive's audio output to your sound card's audio input.)

	Don't try to install CDPlayer by copying it directly from the NEXTSTEP CD-ROM. Instead, install the Demonstrations.pkg package in /NeXTCD/Packages on the NEXTSTEP CD-ROM.

	If you start up CDPlayer manually by double-clicking its icon, it can find the CD-ROM drive only if the system is using exactly one of the SCSI IDs 0 and 1. Therefore, if you boot from a SCSI hard disk with ID 0, set your CD-ROM drive and all other SCSI devices to IDs of 2 or higher, leaving SCSI ID 1 unused.

	You can launch CDPlayer automatically by inserting an audio CD in the CD-ROM drive, no matter how the SCSI IDs are set. If this autolaunching doesn't work, try these steps:

	1	Turn on the setuid bit for the CDPlayer executable. If you installed CDPlayer
		by installing Demonstrations.pkg from the CD-ROM, this bit already should
		be on already. You can check the bit by typing this command in Terminal:

	2	If the applicaton still won't launch automatically, turn on the Public Window
		Server option in Preferences' Expert Preferences, then log out and log back
		in. Note that this setting creates a potential security risk; see the NEXTSTEP
		User's Guide for further details.