Cannot open blank DVDs under 14.04

[Colin Law]

On 19 September 2014 08:55, Phil <phil_lor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> Thank you for reading this.
>
> I've spent most of the day trying to install Xubuntu on a friend's laptop
> that is currently running a very sick version of Vista.
>
> I have two laptops; one runs Kubuntu 14.04 and the other Xubuntu 14.04 but
> neither will detect blank DVDs. They both will open pre-recorded DVDs, so
> the drives are not faulty. Both had version 13.04 installed previously and
> did detect blank DVDs. So either I have missed something obvious or 14.04 is
> the problem.
>
> My Kubuntu laptop has Vista installed as well and it will detect blank DVDs.
> So I installed unetbootin under Windows, which was an exercise in
> frustration in itself, but unetbootin does not see my USB DVD drive (the
> internal drive is faulty).
>
> My friend wants to throw the laptop into the bin but I'd like to show that
> Linux can save a little bit of landfill. So, can anyone suggest why both of
> my DVD drives cannot see a blank disc but can see a pre-recorded disk? One
> of the pre-recorded disks was recorded under 13.04 on the same USB disc
> drive.

What do you see added to the result of running, in a terminal
dmesg
when you plug in the USB disc and run dmesg again.

Colin