[TriLUG] Strange problem when burning CD-ROMs

[Tom Bryan]

I'm having a strange problem when burning CDs where my machine locks hard.  
For example, today I was burning a KNOPPIX ISO to CD-R.  I was logged in 
under KDE.  I was doing the burn from a Konsole (as root) using cdrecord.  
Just after the burn started, I moved the mouse to switch to another desktop.  
I couldn't find the mouse pointer.  Then I noticed that the console was no 
longer showing progress on the CD burn.  I looked down, and caps lock  and 
num lock lights were blinking.  The machine seemed to be frozen hard.  I 
couldn't even ping it and had to power down (/me happy that ext3 is a 
journalled file system).  Of course, the CD image was corrupt.  

Anyway, I've had this problem a few times, and it only seems to happen when I 
have X up (always running KDE at my house).  I have successfully burned CDs 
from KDE before, sometimes at the command line and sometimes with xcdroast.  
I'm not sure when this problem started...possibly after a particular version 
of Red Hat.  (This machine has run 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3.)  I'm not sure because 
after the machine locked a couple of times last year, I started doing all of 
my burning from a console.  I was hoping that perhaps the problem would go 
away with the new year. :)

I'm running a stock RH 7.3 machine, with the following hardware (cut from 
dmesg output) 

scsi0 : Adaptec AIC7XXX EISA/VLB/PCI SCSI HBA DRIVER, Rev 6.2.5
        <Adaptec 19160B Ultra160 SCSI adapter>
        aic7892: Ultra160 Wide Channel A, SCSI Id=7, 32/253 SCBs

  Vendor: YAMAHA    Model: CRW2100S          Rev: 1.0H
  Type:   CD-ROM                             ANSI SCSI revision: 02

The last messages in /var/log/messages are 
Jan  1 10:57:35 fezzik kernel: cdrom: This disc doesn't have any tracks I 
recognize!                                                                            
Jan  1 10:58:06 fezzik last message repeated 31 times                           
Jan  1 10:59:07 fezzik last message repeated 59 times                           
Jan  1 10:59:25 fezzik last message repeated 18 times                           
Jan  1 10:59:34 fezzik kernel: attempt to access beyond end of device           
Jan  1 10:59:34 fezzik kernel: 0b:00: rw=0, want=34, limit=2                    
Jan  1 10:59:34 fezzik kernel: isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev=0b:00, 
iso_blknum=16, block=16

I'm not sure whether those are before I started the burn or after it had begun 
or after the machine locked.  I'm not certain on the timing.

Any ideas?

---Tom