Cannot open blank DVDs under 14.04

[Peter Smout]

On 19/09/14 10:21, Phil wrote:
> On 09/19/2014 06:07 PM, Colin Law wrote:
>> 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.
>>
>
> Thanks KW and Colin for your replies, much appreciated.
>
> Dmesg shows the following:
>
> [  178.279530] usb 2-3: USB disconnect, device number 3
> [  347.084187] usb 2-3: new high-speed USB device number 5 using ehci-pci
> [  347.221066] usb 2-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0e8d, idProduct=1806
> [  347.221077] usb 2-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2,
> SerialNumber=3
> [  347.221084] usb 2-3: Product: MT1806
> [  347.221091] usb 2-3: Manufacturer: MediaTek Inc
> [  347.221098] usb 2-3: SerialNumber: R8RZ6GAC600AYT
> [  347.225267] usb-storage 2-3:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
> [  347.225543] scsi7 : usb-storage 2-3:1.0
> [  348.234393] scsi 7:0:0:0: CD-ROM            ASUS     SDRW-08D2S-U
>   F301 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
> [  348.261948] sr1: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer dvd-ram cd/rw
> xa/form2 cdda tray
> [  348.262239] sr 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr1
> [  348.263008] sr 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 5
>
> Is there anything there that points to a problem?
>
> As I said, I can read pre-recorded discs but not blank discs. Resting
> the mouse over the status bar USB icon shows "No device available".
>


Hi,

The line "[  348.261948] sr1: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer dvd-ram 
cd/rw " shows cd/rw (CD Read / Write) but only dvd-ram NOT dvd-rw or 
dvd/rw which leads me to think it IS NOT a DVD burner just a player try 
with a writeable CD to see if that works!!

If the burning of DVD's was possible using the same hardware on Vista, 
then to my thinking the drive is not being recognised as a burner 
(except for CD's), and that is a whole other 'can o worms'

Lets eliminate the obvious and work down...

Pete S