# can't find dvdrw drive [solved]

## mystified

k3b can't detect my dvd drive.  I can't play audio cd's cause the programs can't find /dev/hdc.  I've been googling but so far no luck.  I really need to get this working.  Help greatly appreciated!Last edited by mystified on Sat Dec 16, 2006 1:12 am; edited 1 time in total

----------

## wah

Does it work outside of K3B?  If so, you may need to run k3bsetup and adjust the permissions - also, make sure your user is a member of the cdrw and cdrom groups...and plugdev as well.

----------

## mystified

No, it doesn't work for any programs.  The odd thing is it worked until yesterday.  I rebooted and then it quit.  I can't think of anything that could have caused this to happen.

----------

## wah

 *mystified wrote:*   

> No, it doesn't work for any programs.  The odd thing is it worked until yesterday.  I rebooted and then it quit.  I can't think of anything that could have caused this to happen.

 

if you examine your dmesg output, do you find any indication that the kernel is picking it up?  Anything else you may have done that would affect it?

----------

## mystified

From dmesg - hdc: SONY DVD RW DW-D22A, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive

And then this:

```
hdc: command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }

hdc: command error: error=0x54 { AbortedCommand LastFailedSense=0x05 }

ide: failed opcode was: unknown

end_request: I/O error, dev hdc, sector 0

Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 0

hdc: command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }

hdc: command error: error=0x54 { AbortedCommand LastFailedSense=0x05 }

ide: failed opcode was: unknown

end_request: I/O error, dev hdc, sector 0

Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 0

```

I recompiled my  kernel but the only thing I changed had to do with alsa.  It was the same kernel and the rest of .config was not changed.

----------

## wah

I've seen this output before - once with a SATA Hard Drive and once with a very new DVD-RW drive.  In the first case, it turned out that my VIA ATA controller was dying (rma'd the board), and in the second, it went away at some point.  I would check your ATA cable against another one, and maybe if you have another drive lying around, you could swap it out and see if the errors persist.  However, that output typically points to some sort of hardware issue.

----------

## batistuta

this really sounds like a drive or something dying in there. But you can easily check this: try out with a liveCD and see if it works. CD/DVD drives are usually very well supported by live distros

----------

## mystified

Well that's certainly not good news but I'll check it out.  Thanks for the help.

----------

## mystified

It's not a hardware problem.  I booted into Mandriva and the drive worked fine.  Any ideas?

----------

## swp6499

i had this same problem with both my internal cd drive and my external dvdrw drive...my fstab was set wrong..and my drives were mislabeled..post the info from /etc/fstab

----------

## mystified

/etc/fstab

```
/dev/hda7               /               reiserfs        rw,noatime   0 0

/dev/hda8               /home           reiserfs        rw,noatime   0 0

/dev/hda1               /mnt/mandrake   reiserfs        rw,noatime       0 0

/dev/hda6               /mnt/mandrake/home reiserfs     rw,noatime       0 0

/dev/hda9               /mnt/lfs        reiserfs        rw,noatime       0 0

/dev/hda5               none            swap            sw      0 0

/dev/hdc                /mnt/cdrom      auto            unhide,noauto,ro,user  00

#/dev/fd0               /mnt/floppy     auto            noauto          0 0

```

----------

## swp6499

have you tried changing line

/dev/hdc                /mnt/cdrom      auto            unhide,noauto,ro,user  00 

to

/dev/hdc                /mnt/dvd      auto            unhide,noauto,ro,user  00

----------

## batistuta

 *mystified wrote:*   

> cause the programs can't find /dev/hdc

 

this means that this is a problem before mounting. Fstab shouldn't be the issue here. Plus, the mount point is something arbitrary, that shouldn't be the issue.

I would guess something more in your kernel configuration, or problems with the new kernel. I would check the run-time parameters with hdparm. Also check the kernel build options for your controller and chipset. Maybe stick to the old kernel. I mean, do you have a reason to upgrade?

----------

## batistuta

I would also, for the sake of it, completely comment out the fstab line and remount the whole thing (or reboot) and see if this works. Some people have reported problems about accessing removable drives. Although I don't know the underlieing problem, just try it. And search around, I'd swear I've seen problems with this reported by others. Are you running KDE or gnome? If this is the case, you don't even need to use automount at all

----------

## mystified

I think it's kernel related also but I don't know enough about kernels to figure it out.  I did a new install which meant a new kernel.  

Here's the output of lsmod

```
Module                  Size  Used by

snd_pcm_oss            26944  0

snd_mixer_oss          12480  1 snd_pcm_oss

snd_seq_oss            21696  0

snd_seq_midi_event      3616  1 snd_seq_oss

snd_seq                32368  4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event

snd_seq_device          4364  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq

rtc                     8660  0

nvidia               4226036  0

intel_agp              15292  1

ata_piix                8036  0

agpgart                17888  2 nvidia,intel_agp

e100                   24036  0

i2c_i801                6060  0

snd_intel8x0           21852  1

snd_ac97_codec         63424  1 snd_intel8x0

parport_pc             26788  0

libata                 39884  1 ata_piix

parport                21832  1 parport_pc

mii                     3008  1 e100

i2c_core               10560  2 nvidia,i2c_i801

snd_ac97_bus            1248  1 snd_ac97_codec

snd_pcm                45156  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec

snd_timer              14212  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm

snd                    30564  11 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer

snd_page_alloc          6024  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm

ehci_hcd               21608  0

uhci_hcd               16328  0

usbcore                80288  3 ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd

```

Can you tell anything by that?

----------

## batistuta

could you please try without any cdrom line in your fstab? That is, without automount involved? Then try to use a program that accesses the device directly (that it doesn't require mounting)

----------

## mystified

Ok, I removed it.  Same results.

----------

## mystified

It seems that it can find data cds.

```
localhost mystified # mount -t auto /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

mount: block device /dev/cdrom is write-protected, mounting read-only

localhost mystified # cd /mnt/cdrom

localhost cdrom # ls

i586  release-notes-fr.txt  release-notes.txt  x86_64

```

EDIT:  I just discovered I can play audio cds and k3b works as long as I launch them as root.  So it seems to be a permissions problem.

----------

## batistuta

ok, we are getting somewhere. You are not supposed to mount audio CDs, so everything is cool there. Now what's the problem with k3b? Are your permissions ok? if you start k3b as root, do you see anything?

----------

## mystified

I've had this problem with k3B before.  If I launch it as root everything seems normal.  The only thing I get in the terminal is the following:  k3b: ERROR: (K3bDevice::Device) Unable to do inquiry.

----------

## Gentree

 *Quote:*   

> I can't play audio cd's cause the programs can't find /dev/hdc

 

what programs ? what does "cant find" mean? Unless we have specifics we cannot guess from your vague interpretations of what is happening.

 *Quote:*   

> I think it's kernel related also but I don't know enough about kernels to figure it out. I did a new install which meant a new kernel.

 

Again, details please. What kernel was replaced by what? How did you configure the new kernel.

If you try to explain clearly and precisely what is wrong there's a good chance you'll realise yourself and more chance others will be able to follow and help you.

Be specific, quote actual output , errors etc , not "cant find".

HTH   :Cool: 

----------

## StifflerStealth

This is a kernel 2.6.29 issue. Can you try downgrading to a 2.6.18 kernel and see if that fixes your CD troubles? I have read a lot of reports about people having trouble with CD burning programs after an upgrade to 2.6.19. It might have something to do with the SCSI and libata updates that were done. They completely broke a lot of things, iirc. I know Morpheous had the same trouble and he was able to resolve it by reversing out a feature on .19, maybe you can ask him and share it with the rest of us.  :Smile: 

Cheers.

----------

## mystified

Ok, when I say /dev/hdc cannot be found that's because I get that basic error message when I tried to start any cdplayer and it cannot find the cdplayer.  I can't be anymore specific than that.

The kernel I'm using is  linux-2.6.17.13 and it didn't replace anything.  It's a new install so it's a new kernel.  It was working fine.  I had to recompile because alsa was not working but that's the only thing I changed.  So I don't know what happened.

----------

## Gentree

 *Quote:*   

>  I can't be anymore specific than that.

 

well you could by doing a cut and paste that shows the exact command you ran and the output you got. You are still paraphrasing and interpreting what is happening. If you are mistaken you will transmit the mistake.

also giving paste of the output of 

```
uname -a
```

 is useful. We now know that your comment about a new kernel did not imply and old kernel was replaced (that was how I understood it) but I have also seen other threads where someone "thought" he was running a certain kernel and when he postd uname output it turned out he was not.

mistified gave you a reply thinking you were using 2.6.19 because you had not said what you were using. You see what I mean.

So cut and paste from a xterm is an infallable way of communicating what is happening. someone else may pick up on a detail you thought irrelevant and therefore did not bother posting.

 :Cool: 

----------

## mystified

This is from kscd launched from terminal:   CD-ROM read or access error (or no audio disk in drive) Please makde sure you have access permissions to /dev/hdc.

In the terminal I launched it from I get the following:

```
QWidget::setProperty( "text", value ) failed: property invalid, read-only or does not exist
```

Kaffeine says: No audio cd in drive, or wrong path to device.  Please select correct drive.

k3B just shows a blank space where my drive should be. 

mystified@localhost ~ $ uname -a

Linux localhost 2.6.17.13 #2 SMP Fri Dec 8 15:28:00 UTC 2006 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

----------

## tyme

gremlins.  i blame the gremlins.

(inside joke between mysti and I)

----------

## batistuta

you are assuming audio cds don't work, data cds work. But then you mix command line mounts with GUI apps. So let's backtrack for a second:

- Can you access data CDs from Konqueror?

- Can you play an audio cd (or rip it) from the command line?

What is the error you get from kscd when running as root?

@tyme: don't mean to be rude, but I think that belongs to a private message, specially if it is an insider joke.

----------

## tyme

 *batistuta wrote:*   

> @tyme: don't mean to be rude, but I think that belongs to a private message, specially if it is an insider joke.

 You'll have to excuse me for making jokes.  I've also been helping mystified with this issue on our own board, and also on our IRC channel.  I came here to read what everyone else had suggested, and thought I'd drop in a joke - sorry you didn't find any humor in it...or that this board is just too serious for a joke every now and then.  I'll just mosey on out  :Razz: 

(it's not that much of an inside joke, most people know that "gremlins" are known for causing lots of mischief...)

----------

## mystified

 *batistuta wrote:*   

> you are assuming audio cds don't work, data cds work. But then you mix command line mounts with GUI apps. So let's backtrack for a second:
> 
> - Can you access data CDs from Konqueror?
> 
> - Can you play an audio cd (or rip it) from the command line?
> ...

 

I can access data cds from konq after I mount them.

This is the error I get from kscd

```
QWidget::setProperty( "text", value ) failed: property invalid, read-only or does not exist
```

I've never played audio cds from command line but I used to burn them using cdrecord which is apparantly not used anymore.  So I have no idea there either.

----------

## mystified

Since so many people were nice enough to help I thought I'd post back the very simple solution to this problem.  As tyme mentioned I was also posting on mandrivausers.org.  tyme said something about whether or not Gentoo used devfs and I knew it didn't, went to copy the line from lilo and noticed I made a mistake.  I don't use the Mandriva on my desktop except when I want to chroot into Gentoo.  But I have to run lilo from there because for some reason Mandriva won't boot if I have lilo in Gentoo.  Well the default editor for Mandriva is vi which I personally don't care for because it's very hard to read in my terminal for some reason.  So using nano I went to copy the following line:   append="Gentoo = nodevfs "

What I found was that I had left an o off of Gentoo.  I went, duh! Edited lilo, rebooted and problem solved.  Sorry guys.   :Smile: 

----------

