Users with Linux host operating systems running kernels 2.2.16-3 and 2.2.16-22 need to be aware of a bug in the IDE CD-ROM driver ide-cd.c that causes the capacity of the CD-ROM on the host machine to be reported incorrectly. This makes VMware GSX Server (for Linux) unable to read from the CD-ROM drive.
Each guest operating system interprets this problem in different ways. Data CD-ROMs under Windows 9x and Windows Me guest operating systems appear as audio CDs; under Windows NT and Windows 2000 the CD-ROM drives are unreadable; and in Linux guest operating systems mounting CD-ROM drives fail.
Further, the bug also causes IDE DVD-ROM drives to behave incorrectly under Windows guest operating systems.
You are not affected if:
VMware has implemented a workaround in VMware GSX Server. However, if another program is accessing the CD-ROM drive (Gnome's auto-mounting feature is the most common culprit), then the workaround fails.
If you are running a Linux host operating system with kernel 2.2.16-3, 2.2.16-22 or any of the variants, you can experience problems with IDE CD-ROM drives if:
To resolve this problem, you should upgrade either your kernel (to version 2.2.17) or your ide-cd.c driver (to the one included in kernel 2.2.17 - drivers/block/ide-cd.c). If you do not want to upgrade your kernel, you can disable Gnome's auto-mounting and auto-playing features. Then, determine whether any other programs are accessing your CD-ROM drive; if so, shut down the offending program or programs and reboot the host operating system. Instead of rebooting, you can unload and reload the ide-cd.c driver.
On systems that use Linux kernels prior to 2.2.4, VMware GSX Server can cause the CD-ROM drawer to close rapidly and automatically. This behavior can be annoying, and if it occurs when you are loading a CD-ROM into the drive, it may cause the media to become trapped in the drawer. Please exercise caution when placing media in the CD-ROM drive.
We recommend upgrading your Linux kernel to version 2.2.4 or later. Alternately, you can disable CD-ROM autoplay.
If you experience frequent pausing or slowdown in virtual machines running Windows guest operating systems, which corresponds to the virtual machine window's CD-ROM activity LEDs when no CD-ROM media is in the drive, or if you get hints upon startup that your kernel does not support the Linux Uniform CDROM Driver, you should upgrade your kernel to at least Linux 2.2.4. With this upgrade, the pauses should go away, the CD-ROM drive should spin down when idle and a lot of other quirky CD-ROM behavior should be fixed.
If you are unable to upgrade your Linux kernel, it may be possible to work around the pausing or slowdown by disabling the CD-ROM.
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