[paranoia] Generic SCSI interface questions

[Monty]

> I hope my questions won't be too naive, I've read the docs, but it's not so
> clear.
> 
> Why cdparanoia does need to use the generic SCSI interface ? Precicely I don't
> understand why the cdrom has to be considered as a generic SCSI device when
> ripping audio data.

Becaue the packet command interface for ripping audio was only recently
standardized, and only recently do most new cdroms use the 'standard' command
set. Even those that do tend to get a number of the details wrong
(manufacturers often don't bother getting the firmware 100% right if the
problem can be 'fixed' with a windows driver).

The ATAPI cdrom driver in Linux does not deal with these issues, and in fact
probably shouldn't.  Thus, giving an application a raw packet interface to the
device family in question makes sense until a specialized interface becomes a
more sensible alternative.

> Incidentaly, I always use cdparanoia as root (under Red Hat 6.1), because of the
> permisions of the /dev/sg* family. I don't like to be root for such task (maybe
> I'm wrong ?). Changing theses devices parmissions doesn't seem to be a good
> idea. Is there any other workaround ?

Sure.  The first is making cdparanoia setuid root.  I don't actually recommend
that (not that I don't trust cdparanoia, but that it leads to file accidents
more easily).

Second is adding 'allowed' users to a specific group, and setting the 
appropriate group ownership on the desired /dev/sg*.

There are a few variants on the above two ideas, most notably among them is
making cdparanoia setgid (not setuid) and then changing the generic device(s)
group ownership.

Monty

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