Arch Linux

stmok

Member

From: Sydney, Australia

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 72

Odd problems with reading DVD media [concluded]

There is an odd problem I've encountered...(I'm not sure if its a bug with Arch Linux or Linux in general).

Firstly, the details:

* I've updated the systems (using "extra", "current", and "community" respositories). So its the current one (0.80 "Voodoo"). I'm NOT using "Unstable" respository.

* I've already added the user to the "optical" and "storage" groups. So there's no problems in relations to permissions.

* My fstab entries for the CD and DVD drives are default (I didn't touch them)...That is, "iso9660" and "udf" respectively.

* My desktop environment is KDE 3.5.5...And I have changed the behaviour of the desktop icons such that DVD media, CD media, and USB devices will have an icon pop-up as soon as you plug them in.

* I have "hal" loaded in the DAEMONS of /etc/rc.conf

* I'm using 4 different Linux systems with the following DVD burners.
=> Pioneer DVR-108
=> Sony DW-Q120A
=> Hitachi-LG GCC-4240N (DVD-ROM/CD-burner combo)

* There are three Sempron 2800+ (Socket 754, 1.6Ghz) boxes and the last one is on an IBM R40 ThinkPad, and I know you can't read DVD-R media on that. But it should be able to read DVD+R media without issue.

* Two of the Semprons are running Arch, as well as the ThinkPad. The final Sempron box is running Ubuntu 6.06.1

* When I installed K3b I did: pacman -S k3b dvd+rw-tools

* All the DVD media is Verbatim DataLifePlus ones.

Here's what I've done...

I've burnt two DVD media (they're just video files from last year's Blender 2006 conference thing, so its legal stuff).

One is a DVD+R and the other is DVD-R media. Both were done on a Windows 2000 Pro SP4 box using Nero 6.6.1.4

What's the problem?

Well, KDE in the Arch Linux boxes doesn't recognise the media!...There is no DVD icon that automatically pops up on any of the Arch Linux boxes!

When I run dmesg on the Arch boxes, the only relevant info I get is:

ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
ISOFS: changing to secondary root

Now if I re-insert these DVD media onto an Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS box...The DVD+R works perfectly! While the DVD-R does not.

When I run dmesg on this box, I get the following:

[17179654.808000] hdc: cdrom_decode_status: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplet e Error }
[17179654.808000] hdc: cdrom_decode_status: error=0x40 { LastFailedSense=0x04 }
[17179654.808000] ide: failed opcode was: unknown
[17179654.808000] hdc: cdrom_decode_status: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplet e Error }
[17179654.808000] hdc: cdrom_decode_status: error=0x40 { LastFailedSense=0x04 }
[17179654.808000] ide: failed opcode was: unknown
[17179654.808000] hdc: cdrom_decode_status: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplet e Error }
[17179654.808000] hdc: cdrom_decode_status: error=0x40 { LastFailedSense=0x04 }
[17179654.808000] ide: failed opcode was: unknown
[17179654.812000] hdc: cdrom_decode_status: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplet e Error }
[17179654.812000] hdc: cdrom_decode_status: error=0x40 { LastFailedSense=0x04 }
[17179654.812000] ide: failed opcode was: unknown
[17179654.812000] hdc: DMA disabled
[17179654.812000] hdc: ide_intr: huh? expected NULL handler on exit
[17179654.860000] hdc: ATAPI reset complete
[17179655.364000] ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
[17179655.412000] ISOFS: changing to secondary root
[17179725.140000] Unable to identify CD-ROM format.
[17179729.348000] Unable to identify CD-ROM format.
[17181395.032000] ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
[17181395.032000] ISOFS: changing to secondary root

If I re-burn the data onto a DVD+RW, Arch and Ubuntu immediately sees it, and KDE (or Gnome in Ubuntu), will have a DVD icon popping up! I can view the video clips without issue!

Now here's the really odd part...

When I load up K3b on either Arch OR Ubuntu, they recognise all DVD media! (As in, they can read the media disc information!)...Tools => DiskInfo

If I click on the PIONEER - DVD-RW DVR-108 on the tree menu on the left side in K3b, (to view the contents of the DVD-R or DVD+R media), it can't read and pops up an error message informing about a read problem. It suggests I try dmesg|tail to see what's wrong.

When I do that, I get...

# dmesg|tail
grow_buffers: requested out-of-range block 18446744073708569376 for device hdc
UDF-fs: No partition found (1)
grow_buffers: requested out-of-range block 18446744073708569376 for device hdc
UDF-fs: No partition found (1)
grow_buffers: requested out-of-range block 18446744073708569376 for device hdc
UDF-fs: No partition found (1)
grow_buffers: requested out-of-range block 18446744073708569376 for device hdc
UDF-fs: No partition found (1)
grow_buffers: requested out-of-range block 18446744073708569376 for device hdc
UDF-fs: No partition found (1)

I repeat the same procedure on DVD+RW, and it works perfectly!

Should I use another burning application instead of Nero on the Windows box?

Could it be the way I burn things?
(Some DVD+R and DVD-R are burnt with multisession while others aren't.)

Has anyone else experienced similar issues?

What are your "workarounds" or fixes?

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The most important thing the hacker community does is write better code. Our deeds are the best propaganda we have. -Eric S. Raymond

stmok

Member

From: Sydney, Australia

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 72

Re: Odd problems with reading DVD media [concluded]

I think it could be because of the "Microsoft Joliet" extension format...Maybe there is a bug somewhere in the implementation in Arch?

Don't do multisession with Nero?
(Unless the media is Re-writeable.)

I tried another DVD-R with multiple files burnt in one go...Works fine.

Still...I wonder what's actually causing this issue from a technical point of view. As I can view a video on DVD+R in K3b but not in KDE!

Could this issue be related to the folks that are having issues with burning on Arch Linux? (Maybe the same bug?)

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The most important thing the hacker community does is write better code. Our deeds are the best propaganda we have. -Eric S. Raymond

Snarkout

Member

Registered: 2005-11-13

Posts: 542

Re: Odd problems with reading DVD media [concluded]

If you pop a DVD movie disk into the drive, does that work?

Edit: hell 2/3ds of this post was useless.  Deleted it - sorry.

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Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
-Albert Einstein

stmok

Member

From: Sydney, Australia

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 72

Re: Odd problems with reading DVD media [concluded]

If you pop a DVD movie disk into the drive, does that work?

Yes...Verified with the following DVD-movies:
* Spiderman
* Gladiator
* Black Hawk Down
* Finding Nemo
* Enter the Dragon

With the DVD+R/-R media, its definitely something to do with the way you burn multisession or how Linux reads a multisession DVD media. (The problem is not Arch Linux specific, as it happens on Ubuntu as well).

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The most important thing the hacker community does is write better code. Our deeds are the best propaganda we have. -Eric S. Raymond

byte

Member

From: Düsseldorf (DE)

Registered: 2006-05-01

Posts: 2,046

Re: Odd problems with reading DVD media [concluded]

I know what you mean, hal's (or something else's) behaviour regarding optical discs has changed some time ago.
I have certain CDs that get recognized and some DVDs that don't.

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1000

Jansson

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2006-09-10

Posts: 106

Re: Odd problems with reading DVD media [concluded]

If you put "iso9660" instead of "udf" on the dvd, it should work fine.
Cheers

skale

Member

From: Atlanta, GA

Registered: 2006-08-04

Posts: 146

Re: Odd problems with reading DVD media [concluded]

If you put "iso9660" instead of "udf" on the dvd, it should work fine.
Cheers

I concurr.   mount it manually with '-t auto' and see if it works.

stmok

Member

From: Sydney, Australia

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 72

Re: Odd problems with reading DVD media [concluded]

It *should* work...But they don't.

I tried this...
mount -t auto /dev/dvd /mnt/dvd

I get this...

mount: block device /dev/dvd is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/dvd,
       missing codepage or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

I then do dmesg|tail

grow_buffers: requested out-of-range block 18446744073708569376 for device hdc
UDF-fs: No partition found (1)

If I try this...
mount -t iso9660 /dev/dvd /mnt/dvd

I get this...

mount: block device /dev/dvd is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/dvd,
       missing codepage or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

I then do dmesg|tail

Unable to identify CD-ROM format.

If I stick in a DVD-R that is burnt in one go without multisession, I get this in the dmesg

UDF-fs: Partition marked readonly; forcing readonly mount
UDF-fs INFO UDF 0.9.8.1 (2004/29/09) Mounting volume 'SW', timestamp 2006/11/07 19:37 (1000)

It reads this disc perfectly and KDE pops up a DVD icon.

I'm scratching my head as I'm not sure what is the problem.

Could it be hal or the way the DVD media was formatted?

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The most important thing the hacker community does is write better code. Our deeds are the best propaganda we have. -Eric S. Raymond

stmok

Member

From: Sydney, Australia

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 72

Re: Odd problems with reading DVD media [concluded]

I tried two DVD+R...Both were burnt using multisession.

However, one was burnt with two 2GB files. The other was burnt with twelve 350MB files.

I then tried to mount them...
mount -t iso9660 /dev/dvd /mnt/dvd

Result?

The one with the two 2.1GB files would not mount. (Same error messages as above)

The one with the twelve 350MB files DID mount, and I was able to access the videos!

In either case, KDE didn't recognise them, and thus, the usual DVD desktop icon didn't appear.

It definitely to do with multisession, and size of the files when burnt under this scenario.

Do a test...Dig around your DVD media collection. Look for one that was burnt in Windows in multisession with 2GB+ files and another with smaller sized ones (less than 2GB)...See if you can mount the DVD media in Arch Linux.

I suspect its something to do with the way Linux reads DVD media and a possible limitation or bug somewhere. (Because I was NOT able to mount the DVD media with the two 2.1GB files in Ubuntu either!)

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The most important thing the hacker community does is write better code. Our deeds are the best propaganda we have. -Eric S. Raymond

Snarkout

Member

Registered: 2005-11-13

Posts: 542

Re: Odd problems with reading DVD media [concluded]

I've had/seen/heard so many issues with multi-session burns over the years that I stopped using multisession some time ago.

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Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
-Albert Einstein

stmok

Member

From: Sydney, Australia

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 72

Re: Odd problems with reading DVD media [concluded]

I think that's the only way to go.

Either use DVD+RW/-RW media or do away with multisession altogether.

I'm gonna re-burn this "two 2.1GB file" one as a non-multisession...Just to see

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The most important thing the hacker community does is write better code. Our deeds are the best propaganda we have. -Eric S. Raymond

stmok

Member

From: Sydney, Australia

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 72

Re: Odd problems with reading DVD media [concluded]

Yeah, that one works now.
Overall, we can label this thread as concluded.

In summary,

(1) When doing multisession with DVD+R/-R, do not have files that are 2GB or bigger.

(2) If you can help it, try to avoid multisession as much as possible. Create a directory, then dump all the files into it. (Just remember your max is about 4,700,000KB for a single layer DVD-R/+R in Windows). When burning, point to the designated directory you want to burn onto DVD media in one go. (Uncheck "multisession" in Nero)

(3) If you must do multisession, use DVD+RW/-RW media instead.

This way, you'll never have a DVD media related issues with Linux.

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The most important thing the hacker community does is write better code. Our deeds are the best propaganda we have. -Eric S. Raymond