Re: SATA CD- drive not picked up by system
On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 08:29:16PM +0100, AG wrote: Although I have tried addressing this previously, no-one has yet ventured to offer any suggested courses for action. Following a weekend of searches, editing config files, etc., I decided a fresh uncomplicated installation of Squeeze would be a good way to start. There are transitions happening, and so testing is not a good platform to troubleshoot system problems. Loading the Netinst CD which was correctly booted and installed from, I The Netinst CD has only the bare minimum. Maybe try with the first CD instead. Any help would be appreciated. Try with the Lenny CD (not the Netinst CD) and start from there. -- Chris. == I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. -- Stephen F Roberts -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: SATA CD- drive not picked up by system
Matthew Moore wrote: On Monday June 15 2009 2:32:18 pm AG wrote: Default DVD/CD-drive that plays media. Sorry - my poor wording. I mean the device doesn't seem to be automounted when I load an optical disk. The applications that play DVD (mplayer, kmplayer, totem) and audio CDs (kscd, goobox) cannot find the media. In one bizarre twist, kscd can read track names, but when prompted to press play claims there's no disk. Does it mount correctly for data-only discs? Are you a member of the cdrom and plugdev groups (I am not sure if this is still required)? Do you have HAL installed? Does anything (e.g. usb drives) automount in your DE? MM Hi Matthew Thierry Yes - it loads data disks just fine and also DVD disks that I have burnt myself. When testing it using k3b to burn a DVD, k3b locates the disk immediately and burns successfully. All other USB drives show up fine. As the sole user, I have permissions to load CD-ROMs and as far as I can tell I am a member of all of the relevant groups. Gnome has an easier time than Xfce4 in picking up that a disk has been loaded (i.e. an icon pops up on my desktop in Gnome, but nada in Xfce4). It is because of this inconsistency that I am confused: if it was completely dead - I'd be looking for a damaged drive/ disconnection. If no audio-CD player found it, I'd be wondering about permissions; if nothing worked (i.e. no data disks, etc.) then it may be related to something else. But, because it can automount data CDs and home-made DVDs, burn disks fine and that Gnome not Xfce4 picks up the icon, and that only Rhythmbox can play the disk that I am so confused by this. I mean, what is with kscd reading the track info but then telling me that it cannot play the disk because there is no disk loaded in the player - how does it read track info then? I am completely at sea with this ... last time I started hacking away at my /etc/fstab, changing symlinks and just generally getting myself into a mess without accomplishing anything. This time, after a fresh install, I want to leave well enough alone until I can gather some input from this community that may help deal with this in a more systematic manner. So ... any ideas, because I am clean out of any myself and Google is not throwing back anything of use and there is nothing in the Debian literature nor from user fora that I can see that is helpful. Thanks in anticipation. AG
Re: SATA CD- drive not picked up by system
On Tuesday June 16 2009 12:41:31 am AG wrote: Yes - it loads data disks just fine and also DVD disks that I have burnt myself. When testing it using k3b to burn a DVD, k3b locates the disk immediately and burns successfully. All other USB drives show up fine. As the sole user, I have permissions to load CD-ROMs and as far as I can tell I am a member of all of the relevant groups. Gnome has an easier time than Xfce4 in picking up that a disk has been loaded (i.e. an icon pops up on my desktop in Gnome, but nada in Xfce4). It is because of this inconsistency that I am confused: if it was completely dead - I'd be looking for a damaged drive/ disconnection. If no audio-CD player found it, I'd be wondering about permissions; if nothing worked (i.e. no data disks, etc.) then it may be related to something else. But, because it can automount data CDs and home-made DVDs, burn disks fine and that Gnome not Xfce4 picks up the icon, and that only Rhythmbox can play the disk that I am so confused by this. Does it always flawlessly read DVD's? I am not sure if this is the case anymore, but back when the combo drives first came out there were separate lasers responsible for reading DVD's and CD's. Suppose that the laser for reading CD's is slightly damaged. Perhaps short data bursts read okay, but prolonged transfers get corrupted. Some applications may be more resistant to this corruption (rereading or doing some kind of ECC on the signal), so some applications may successfully read and some may not. Occasionally failing to read the TOC/metadata may also prevent it from getting automounted by the system. All of this is pure conjecture, but if I were you, I would try getting my hands on another SATA CD/DVD drive and seeing if you get the same symptoms. If you get the same symptoms, check to see if the SATA drive is attached to a bus all by itself. If this is the case, you could have some kind of MB failure on that bus and switching the SATA channel may fix the problem. I mean, what is with kscd reading the track info but then telling me that it cannot play the disk because there is no disk loaded in the player - how does it read track info then? Well, if the track info is written to the CD-TEXT section of the audio CD, then it could be that the drive is having trouble getting to the rest of the CD. If your CD does not have CD-TEXT, then it is probably getting the info from some cddb server. This only requires the TOC information, which is also written at the start of the disc. In either case, it could be a problem reading the rest of the CD. Perhaps you should try transferring a bunch of data from a CD/DVD and md5summing it to see if there is some kind of corruption going on. MM -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: SATA CD- drive not picked up by system
AG wrote: Matthew Moore wrote: On Monday June 15 2009 2:32:18 pm AG wrote: Default DVD/CD-drive that plays media. Sorry - my poor wording. I mean the device doesn't seem to be automounted when I load an optical disk. The applications that play DVD (mplayer, kmplayer, totem) and audio CDs (kscd, goobox) cannot find the media. In one bizarre twist, kscd can read track names, but when prompted to press play claims there's no disk. Does it mount correctly for data-only discs? Are you a member of the cdrom and plugdev groups (I am not sure if this is still required)? Do you have HAL installed? Does anything (e.g. usb drives) automount in your DE? MM Hi Matthew Thierry Yes - it loads data disks just fine and also DVD disks that I have burnt myself. When testing it using k3b to burn a DVD, k3b locates the disk immediately and burns successfully. All other USB drives show up fine. As the sole user, I have permissions to load CD-ROMs and as far as I can tell I am a member of all of the relevant groups. Gnome has an easier time than Xfce4 in picking up that a disk has been loaded (i.e. an icon pops up on my desktop in Gnome, but nada in Xfce4). It is because of this inconsistency that I am confused: if it was completely dead - I'd be looking for a damaged drive/ disconnection. If no audio-CD player found it, I'd be wondering about permissions; if nothing worked (i.e. no data disks, etc.) then it may be related to something else. But, because it can automount data CDs and home-made DVDs, burn disks fine and that Gnome not Xfce4 picks up the icon, and that only Rhythmbox can play the disk that I am so confused by this. I mean, what is with kscd reading the track info but then telling me that it cannot play the disk because there is no disk loaded in the player - how does it read track info then? I am completely at sea with this ... last time I started hacking away at my /etc/fstab, changing symlinks and just generally getting myself into a mess without accomplishing anything. This time, after a fresh install, I want to leave well enough alone until I can gather some input from this community that may help deal with this in a more systematic manner. So ... any ideas, because I am clean out of any myself and Google is not throwing back anything of use and there is nothing in the Debian literature nor from user fora that I can see that is helpful. Thanks in anticipation. AG Hi, I too have a sata dvd/cd drive, I had trouble installing Etch, but since then all never versions worked fine. But on another machine, with the same model I had to do a firmware upgrade before the drive could be used reliably. Before the upgrade the drive would work for reading, but any burning attempt was failing. FWIW, but maybe your drive is having such a problem too. The bad bad part is I wasn't able to upgrade the firmware on Debian, had to remove the drive and take it to a computer with a well known proprietary OS installed. I don't know where flashrom is standing on that matter now. Hope it helps, Tom -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: SATA CD- drive not picked up by system
Matthew Moore wrote: On Tuesday June 16 2009 12:41:31 am AG wrote: Yes - it loads data disks just fine and also DVD disks that I have burnt myself. When testing it using k3b to burn a DVD, k3b locates the disk immediately and burns successfully. All other USB drives show up fine. As the sole user, I have permissions to load CD-ROMs and as far as I can tell I am a member of all of the relevant groups. Gnome has an easier time than Xfce4 in picking up that a disk has been loaded (i.e. an icon pops up on my desktop in Gnome, but nada in Xfce4). It is because of this inconsistency that I am confused: if it was completely dead - I'd be looking for a damaged drive/ disconnection. If no audio-CD player found it, I'd be wondering about permissions; if nothing worked (i.e. no data disks, etc.) then it may be related to something else. But, because it can automount data CDs and home-made DVDs, burn disks fine and that Gnome not Xfce4 picks up the icon, and that only Rhythmbox can play the disk that I am so confused by this. Does it always flawlessly read DVD's? I am not sure if this is the case anymore, but back when the combo drives first came out there were separate lasers responsible for reading DVD's and CD's. Suppose that the laser for reading CD's is slightly damaged. Perhaps short data bursts read okay, but prolonged transfers get corrupted. Some applications may be more resistant to this corruption (rereading or doing some kind of ECC on the signal), so some applications may successfully read and some may not. Occasionally failing to read the TOC/metadata may also prevent it from getting automounted by the system. All of this is pure conjecture, but if I were you, I would try getting my hands on another SATA CD/DVD drive and seeing if you get the same symptoms. If you get the same symptoms, check to see if the SATA drive is attached to a bus all by itself. If this is the case, you could have some kind of MB failure on that bus and switching the SATA channel may fix the problem. I mean, what is with kscd reading the track info but then telling me that it cannot play the disk because there is no disk loaded in the player - how does it read track info then? Well, if the track info is written to the CD-TEXT section of the audio CD, then it could be that the drive is having trouble getting to the rest of the CD. If your CD does not have CD-TEXT, then it is probably getting the info from some cddb server. This only requires the TOC information, which is also written at the start of the disc. In either case, it could be a problem reading the rest of the CD. Perhaps you should try transferring a bunch of data from a CD/DVD and md5summing it to see if there is some kind of corruption going on. MM Matthew Thanks again for replying. I am not questioning your logic, because what you say makes good sense. I am doubtful of your diagnosis for two key reasons - one, when I bought the machine it (of course!) came pre-loaded with a well known monopolising OS and before I installed Debian I tested the drives with an audio CD knowing that if there was anything faulty, the shop (a well known monopolising chain in the UK) would reject my complaint on the basis that it was the (Debian) software I had installed and not the hardware. The drive worked fine and again, because I installed the basic set up for a net installation using a DVD I had burnt using the same machine the drive is to all intents and purposes fine in terms of laser read/burn capabilities. Second, if the drive itself were faulty, I don't know how rhythmbox would be able to play audio CDs. But these are complex issues and way above my simple understanding, so whilst what you say may be conjecture, what I am replying is based on poor knowledge and is hence speculative at best. As for controllers ... I can't say. It may well be wise to see if I can get an alternate DVD/CD-RW just to be sure and to eliminate this as an option, but at this point in time, I'm not holding out much hope. Firmware - don't even know where to start there - but wide open to suggestions on how to proceed. Ditto on md5summing data I drop onto a disk in the drive, as I haven't done that before and don't know where to start md5summing something (i.e. setting it up). As a way forward, I will buy a sata DVD/CD-RW, install that and fire up the system again. Who knows - I may luck out and just have a dud drive in which case I will be a happy bunny. So, to be fair to you and others on this list, before taking up any more time I'll go down that route first and report back. Thanks for your continued suggestions. I'll give an update in a day or two. Cheers AG
Re: SATA CD- drive not picked up by system
thveillon.debian wrote: AG wrote: Matthew Moore wrote: On Monday June 15 2009 2:32:18 pm AG wrote: Default DVD/CD-drive that plays media. Sorry - my poor wording. I mean the device doesn't seem to be automounted when I load an optical disk. The applications that play DVD (mplayer, kmplayer, totem) and audio CDs (kscd, goobox) cannot find the media. In one bizarre twist, kscd can read track names, but when prompted to press play claims there's no disk. Does it mount correctly for data-only discs? Are you a member of the cdrom and plugdev groups (I am not sure if this is still required)? Do you have HAL installed? Does anything (e.g. usb drives) automount in your DE? MM Hi Matthew Thierry Yes - it loads data disks just fine and also DVD disks that I have burnt myself. When testing it using k3b to burn a DVD, k3b locates the disk immediately and burns successfully. All other USB drives show up fine. As the sole user, I have permissions to load CD-ROMs and as far as I can tell I am a member of all of the relevant groups. Gnome has an easier time than Xfce4 in picking up that a disk has been loaded (i.e. an icon pops up on my desktop in Gnome, but nada in Xfce4). It is because of this inconsistency that I am confused: if it was completely dead - I'd be looking for a damaged drive/ disconnection. If no audio-CD player found it, I'd be wondering about permissions; if nothing worked (i.e. no data disks, etc.) then it may be related to something else. But, because it can automount data CDs and home-made DVDs, burn disks fine and that Gnome not Xfce4 picks up the icon, and that only Rhythmbox can play the disk that I am so confused by this. I mean, what is with kscd reading the track info but then telling me that it cannot play the disk because there is no disk loaded in the player - how does it read track info then? I am completely at sea with this ... last time I started hacking away at my /etc/fstab, changing symlinks and just generally getting myself into a mess without accomplishing anything. This time, after a fresh install, I want to leave well enough alone until I can gather some input from this community that may help deal with this in a more systematic manner. So ... any ideas, because I am clean out of any myself and Google is not throwing back anything of use and there is nothing in the Debian literature nor from user fora that I can see that is helpful. Thanks in anticipation. AG Hi, I too have a sata dvd/cd drive, I had trouble installing Etch, but since then all never versions worked fine. But on another machine, with the same model I had to do a firmware upgrade before the drive could be used reliably. Before the upgrade the drive would work for reading, but any burning attempt was failing. FWIW, but maybe your drive is having such a problem too. The bad bad part is I wasn't able to upgrade the firmware on Debian, had to remove the drive and take it to a computer with a well known proprietary OS installed. I don't know where flashrom is standing on that matter now. Hope it helps, Tom Hello Tom I mangled my reply to your suggestions on firmware with my reply to Matthew. As stated in that reply, I think I will try an alternative DVD/CD-RW drive first and will report back. At the very least, it will eliminate or confirm one potential source of trouble. Thanks for your suggestions and if you wanted to expand on the firmware upgrade endeavour, I am always happy to learn more. Cheers AG
Re: SATA CD- drive not picked up by system
Hi,
AG computing.acco...@googlemail.com writes:
Matthew Moore wrote:
On Monday June 15 2009 2:32:18 pm AG wrote:
Default DVD/CD-drive that plays media. Sorry - my poor wording. I
mean
the device doesn't seem to be automounted when I load an optical disk.
The applications that play DVD (mplayer, kmplayer, totem) and audio
CDs
(kscd, goobox) cannot find the media. In one bizarre twist, kscd can
read track names, but when prompted to press play claims there's no
disk.
Does it mount correctly for data-only discs? Are you a member of the
cdrom and
plugdev groups (I am not sure if this is still required)? Do you have HAL
installed? Does anything (e.g. usb drives) automount in your DE?
MM
Hi Matthew Thierry
Yes - it loads data disks just fine and also DVD disks that I have burnt
myself. When testing it using k3b to burn a DVD, k3b locates the disk
immediately and burns
successfully. All other USB drives show up fine. As the sole user, I have
permissions to load CD-ROMs and as far as I can tell I am a member of all of
the relevant
groups.
[snip]
So ... any ideas, because I am clean out of any myself and Google is not
throwing back anything of use and there is nothing in the Debian literature
nor from user fora
that I can see that is helpful.
I had noticed some problems with a similar setup. The symptoms were
these:
$ sdparm -C capacity /dev/dvd
/dev/dvd: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7220S 1.01 [cd/dvd]
blocks: 4097392
block_length: 2048
capacity_mib: 8002.7
$ /sbin/blockdev --getsize64 /dev/dvd
1073741312
Note the truncated size according to 'blockdev'.
(BTW, IIRC, that 1073741312 seems exceedingly like the error guess in
linux-2.6/drivers/scsi/sr.c
if (the_result) {
cd-capacity = 0x1f;
sector_size = 2048; /* A guess, just in case */
I think that's a safe guess for CDs but not for DVDs)
AG, Can you try above the above two commands and see if you get a
discrepancy between them? There may be a pattern here.
- Hari
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SATA CD- drive not picked up by system
Although I have tried addressing this previously, no-one has yet ventured to offer any suggested courses for action. Following a weekend of searches, editing config files, etc., I decided a fresh uncomplicated installation of Squeeze would be a good way to start. Loading the Netinst CD which was correctly booted and installed from, I now sit with a system that (still) does not recognise the sata DVD/CD-RW as the default media player. I really don't know what I am supposed to do to resolve this and I don't want to run the risk of just changing config files in the desperate hope that I can get something to work. I am sure that as IDE gets phased out in the UK by about next June (I am led to believe) that all PCs will be sold with sata media drives, there must be some way around this. Any help would be appreciated. AG -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: SATA CD- drive not picked up by system
On Monday June 15 2009 1:29:16 pm AG wrote: now sit with a system that (still) does not recognise the sata DVD/CD-RW as the default media player. What do you mean by default media player? MM -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: SATA CD- drive not picked up by system
Matthew Moore wrote: On Monday June 15 2009 1:29:16 pm AG wrote: now sit with a system that (still) does not recognise the sata DVD/CD-RW as the default media player. What do you mean by default media player? MM Default DVD/CD-drive that plays media. Sorry - my poor wording. I mean the device doesn't seem to be automounted when I load an optical disk. The applications that play DVD (mplayer, kmplayer, totem) and audio CDs (kscd, goobox) cannot find the media. In one bizarre twist, kscd can read track names, but when prompted to press play claims there's no disk. The only app so far that does pick it up is rhythmbox which registers it as a device. Goobox declares an invalid drive. AG
Re: SATA CD- drive not picked up by system
On Monday June 15 2009 2:32:18 pm AG wrote: Default DVD/CD-drive that plays media. Sorry - my poor wording. I mean the device doesn't seem to be automounted when I load an optical disk. The applications that play DVD (mplayer, kmplayer, totem) and audio CDs (kscd, goobox) cannot find the media. In one bizarre twist, kscd can read track names, but when prompted to press play claims there's no disk. Does it mount correctly for data-only discs? Are you a member of the cdrom and plugdev groups (I am not sure if this is still required)? Do you have HAL installed? Does anything (e.g. usb drives) automount in your DE? MM -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
