Arch Linux

onexused

Member

Registered: 2009-10-07

Posts: 117

[fixed] DVD burning problems "Unable to open a new session."

I'm using a blank DVD (Yes, it really is blank. See below.) I tried to burn an iso on it. k3b fails, complaining "Unable to open a new session. Probably a problem with the media."  If I use cdrecord, the same thing happens. Changing the burn speed (from the auto 8x to the minimum supported by the drive: 6x) doesn't help. The same thing happened when I ran cdrecord as root, with a priority of -20. (My user is in the optical group anyway.)
I tried burning the same iso to several different blank DVDs. cdrecord and k3b say the same thing for each. I tried burning the same iso to the same/first disc on another computer. It worked.
So what's wrong with this machine?
I have not tried using another DVD drive. I have not tried using a different iso.

Last edited by onexused (2014-08-27 12:40:54)

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: [fixed] DVD burning problems "Unable to open a new session."

If no applications work and no discs work then the drive might be broken. But before you spend money / bug your friends to borrow a disc drive, here's one more simple test:

Boot into a live environment of a "stable" Linux distribution, such as Linux Mint or Puppy Linux or whatever, and try burning a disc.

onexused

Member

Registered: 2009-10-07

Posts: 117

Re: [fixed] DVD burning problems "Unable to open a new session."

Yep, it was the drive. Thanks for the help.