Problem burning/mounting discs, ruled out hardware issue

Cultist · 10-17-2011, 06:20 AM

This is a problem that I've known about for a while, but since I don't burn cds that often I haven't worried about it. But I need to do a lot of burning soon, so I want to try to resolve this.

When I try to burn a disc, it goes through the motions - says its burning, has an xfer rate, says Burning Complete when its finished. The disc even has the visible circle where data was written.

But the disc is unusable after burning. If I tell it to Verify Data after burning (I use K3B), the software just freezes when it begins the verification. Inserting the disc and trying to read it just results in a lot of bad sounds from the cd tray, with the disc speeding up and slowing down.

I can write discs from Windows on virtual box using the same drive, so I know it isn't a problem with the drive itself. I think most likely its a problem with my fstab:

Code:

/dev/sda1        swap             swap        defaults         0   0
/dev/sda2        /                ext4        defaults         1   1
/dev/sdb1        /home            ext4        defaults         1   2
#/dev/sdc1        /external.1      ext4        defaults         1   2
#UUID=F8D8CF61D8CF1D2E        /external.media  ntfs-3g     fmask=111,dmask=000 1   0
#/dev/cdrom      /mnt/cdrom       auto        noauto,owner,ro  0   0
/dev/fd0         /mnt/floppy      auto        noauto,owner     0   0
devpts           /dev/pts         devpts      gid=5,mode=620   0   0
proc             /proc            proc        defaults         0   0
tmpfs            /dev/shm         tmpfs       defaults         0   0
UUID="50cde5f5-f7b9-4f99-b680-ec2dc81f7df3"     /external.portable      ext4    defaults       $
UUID="2123303e-4813-4a10-93a2-c4c9e140fe02"     /external.portable3     ext4    defaults       $

Not sure if there's something new I need in there or what, or if the fstab is completely irrelevant in this case. Would love to hear any suggestions. Thanks!

allend · 10-17-2011, 06:38 AM

As you are using K3B, try setting Multisession Mode to No Multisession on the Misc tab in the Burn dialog.

BCarey · 10-17-2011, 09:09 AM

I have had similar problems with k3b in the past. I switched to xfburn (available at slackbuilds.org) and it worked.

Brian

Cultist · 10-17-2011, 10:09 AM

Tried both of the above suggestions, no luck with either

disturbed1 · 10-17-2011, 10:23 AM

Verify that the underlying tool(s) are working properly. Create an ISO image with your favorite tool (K3B, mkisofs, Graveman ...) then use cdrecord to burn that image.

Code:

cdrecord dev=/dev/sr0 fs=32M -v -eject big.file.iso

dev=/dev/sr0 - for the first optical drive
fs=32M - set a (high!) fifo buffer size of 32MiB
-v - verbose output
-eject - take a guess what that does

Quote:

I can write discs from Windows on virtual box using the same drive

Considering the above is true, this appears to be a simple software/options problem. I'm using K3B Version 2.0.80, with cdrecord Cdrecord-ProDVD-ProBD-Clone 3.01a02, on 32bit, and 64bit, with SATA and PATA recorders.

-----
There are known issues with some chipsets and libata. Plus some weird issues certain optical drives and Linux.
For completeness and to help the search engines -
Kernel version?
IDE/SATA chipset?
Optical Drive Model, and is it PATA or SATA?

allend · 10-17-2011, 06:46 PM

I have found that lowering the burn speed may be necessary to get reliable disk writes.
Are there any clues in the log file that K3B generates?

ReaperX7 · 10-17-2011, 11:48 PM

I've never had this issue myself but it does help to create a group "burning" just to be safe and then add your users to the group as needed. K3b seems to be very picky about this.

For most isos I usually just have it burn them using the default settings but on the lowest possible speeds (usually 4x/6x/8x if supported) due to the fact some disks can handle high speed burns but often not due to hardware being a variable in quality.

I often will click Verify Writes and let it run and it runs without issue. Low speed burning is probably your best bet here.

Also if you burn a CD/DVD for storage purposes use the default Linux+Windows option for burning method so it writes as a normal data disk.

Cultist · 10-18-2011, 06:04 AM

@disturbed: Having trouble actually mounting a cd at all apparently (I don't use my disc drive often). It detects the blank disc when I have a burning app open though.

@allend: Where do I find the K3B log file at? I prefer xfburn now that BCarey introduced it to me, but they both have the same problem right now.

@reaper: I just tried adding the group and burning again, with no luck.

Could someone post the parts of their fstab that deals with the disc drive? I still think that's part of the problem, especially now that I realise I can't even properly mount a pre-burned disc.

disturbed1 · 10-18-2011, 06:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cultist

@disturbed: Having trouble actually mounting a cd at all apparently (I don't use my disc drive often). It detects the blank disc when I have a burning app open though.

If the disc is blank, there's nothing to mount

HAL (or udisks) takes care auto-magically mounting removable media.
There is no need to put anything in the fstab for optical disks.

Cultist · 10-18-2011, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by disturbed1

If the disc is blank, there's nothing to mount

I mean the app detects when there's a blank disc in, but when I put a non-blank disc (my slackware disc for example), it isn't detected.

edit: Correction, I just tested in KDE and inserting a disk works fine as far as mounting. So this is an xfce-specific problem, apparently

disturbed1 · 10-18-2011, 08:31 AM

Stock Xfce? Or Robby's Xfce 4.8.x?
Some people have some issues with Xfce 4.8.x, depending on if they're using startx from init 3, or a different DM besides KDM. Seems the problem has to do with the way policy-kit/udisks/something is initialized.

Starting Xfce from KDM has never showed an issue here.

Did you ever try cdrecord from the command line? Did it work?

Cultist · 10-18-2011, 08:42 AM

stock xfce.

I couldn't get a disc to mount to copy an image but I downloaded Puppy Linux and tried to burn it.

Command and output were:

Code:

sh-4.1$ cdrecord dev=/dev/sr0 fs=32M -v -eject lupu-528.iso 
cdrecord: No write mode specified.
cdrecord: Assuming -sao mode.
cdrecord: If your drive does not accept -sao, try -tao.
cdrecord: Future versions of cdrecord may have different drive dependent defaults.
Cdrecord-ProDVD-ProBD-Clone 3.01a02 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2010 Joerg Schilling
TOC Type: 1 = CD-ROM
scsidev: '/dev/sr0'
devname: '/dev/sr0'
scsibus: -2 target: -2 lun: -2
Warning: Open by 'devname' is unintentional and not supported.
Linux sg driver version: 3.5.27
Using libscg version 'schily-0.9'.
SCSI buffer size: 64512
atapi: 1
Device type    : Removable CD-ROM
Version        : 5
Response Format: 2
Capabilities   : 
Vendor_info    : 'HL-DT-ST'
Identifikation : 'DVDRAM GT30N    '
Revision       : 'AS02'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc2 DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM.
Current: CD-R
Profile: DVD-RAM 
Profile: DVD+R/DL 
Profile: DVD+R 
Profile: DVD+RW 
Profile: DVD-R/DL layer jump recording 
Profile: DVD-R/DL sequential recording 
Profile: DVD-RW sequential recording 
Profile: DVD-RW restricted overwrite 
Profile: DVD-R sequential recording 
Profile: DVD-ROM 
Profile: CD-RW 
Profile: CD-R (current)
Profile: CD-ROM 
Profile: Removable Disk 
Using generic SCSI-3/mmc   CD-R/CD-RW driver (mmc_cdr).
Driver flags   : MMC-3 SWABAUDIO BURNFREE 
Supported modes: TAO PACKET SAO SAO/R96P SAO/R96R RAW/R16 RAW/R96P RAW/R96R LAYER_JUMP
Drive buf size : 327680 = 320 KB
cdrecord: Warning: Cannot read drive buffer.
cdrecord: Warning: The DMA speed test has been skipped.
FIFO size      : 33554432 = 32768 KB
Track 01: data   129 MB        
Total size:      148 MB (14:41.94) = 66146 sectors
Lout start:      148 MB (14:43/71) = 66146 sectors
Current Secsize: 2048
ATIP info from disk:
  Indicated writing power: 5
Disk Is not unrestricted
Disk Is not erasable
  Disk sub type: Medium Type A, high Beta category (A+) (3)
  ATIP start of lead in:  -11634 (97:26/66)
  ATIP start of lead out: 359846 (79:59/71)
Disk type:    Short strategy type (Phthalocyanine or similar)
Manuf. index: 3
Manufacturer: CMC Magnetics Corporation

    Capacity  Blklen/Sparesz.  Format-type  Type
      359846             2048         0x00  Unformated or Blank Media
Blocks total: 359846 Blocks current: 359846 Blocks remaining: 293700
Starting to write CD/DVD/BD at speed 24 in real SAO mode for single session.
Last chance to quit, starting real write    0 seconds. Operation starts.
Waiting for reader process to fill input buffer ... input buffer ready.
BURN-Free is ON.
Turning BURN-Free off
Performing OPC...
Sending CUE sheet...
cdrecord: WARNING: Drive returns wrong startsec (0) using -150
Writing pregap for track 1 at -150
Starting new track at sector: 0
Track 01:  129 of  129 MB written (fifo 100%) [buf  71%]  15.3x.
Track 01: Total bytes read/written: 135467008/135467008 (66146 sectors).
Writing  time:   92.692s
Average write speed   9.5x.
Min drive buffer fill was 68%
Fixating...
Fixating time:    6.357s
cdrecord: fifo had 2134 puts and 2134 gets.
cdrecord: fifo was 0 times empty and 1602 times full, min fill was 99%.
sh-4.1$

Same result with this burn. Disk written but unusable.

allend · 10-18-2011, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Vendor_info : 'HL-DT-ST'
Identifikation : 'DVDRAM GT30N '
Revision : 'AS02'

You may want to investigate a firmware update.

Quote:

Manufacturer: CMC Magnetics Corporation

You may want to try disks from a different manufacturer.
From http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=8000

Quote:

We see far too many people having problems with RITEK, CMC, RICOH media etc and I can assure you that it isn't just fluke when we suggest the user give Verbatims a try and their issues magically disappear!

Cultist · 10-18-2011, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allend

You may want to investigate a firmware update.

You may want to try disks from a different manufacturer.
From http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=8000

discs aren't the issue. Like I said I've had this problem for months, using other spindles. I've only recently needed to actually fix it.

Firmware might be a good idea though, I'll look at updating

allend · 10-18-2011, 10:01 AM

Quote:

cdrecord: WARNING: Drive returns wrong startsec (0) using -150

I think that you cannot discount the possibility of a media problem.