Cannot open blank DVDs under 14.04

[Gene Heskett]

On Friday 19 September 2014 08:17:42 Robert Heller did opine
And Gene did reply:
> At Fri, 19 Sep 2014 08:08:49 -0400 "Ubuntu user technical support,  not 
for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:
> > On Friday 19 September 2014 03:55:40 Phil did opine
> > 
> > And Gene did reply:
> > > 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.
> > 
> > It would help if you named the program that can't see the blanks.  I
> > use K3B here, with all its dependencies installed, and historically,
> > when I have that sort of problems, its always been because the drive
> > was failing.
> > 
> > Cheers, Gene Heskett
> 
> It could also be because the media is bad and thus not recognized.

I've had that too Robert, and if I stick another fresh one in, and its 
recognized, the one I took out goes in the round file.  On average, 
perhaps 3 out of a spindle of 100.  And it appears the brand name on the 
spindle is pretty much immaterial.  But that too seems to be slightly 
drive related.  The last drive I have installed was an emergency purchase 
from WallMart, much against my better judgement, but the drive that was at 
the instant failing was only about 6 months old and I needed a drive now, 
not after I had gone a 65 mile round trip to the big town.  That drive is 
now north of 2 years old and hasn't rejected a disk yet.

FWTW:
  3.081857] scsi 4:0:0:0: CD-ROM            ATAPI    iHAS424   B      GL1A 
PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[    3.084683]  sdd: sdd1 sdd2
[    3.085206] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdd] Attached SCSI disk
[    3.092248] scsi 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 5
[    3.109475] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 48x/48x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 
cdda tray
[    3.109860] cdrom: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
[    3.110452] sr 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0

Good drive, (and I don't have to explain that faint knocking sound I hope) 
so far... 

But I have a far worse failure rate on the optical stuff than with the now 
old crop of 4 ea 1 TerraByte drives in this machine.  They at least, will 
be complaining while I still have time to drive to town (that 65 mile RT) 
and get another to replace it.  In close to 6 years, 2 have gotten noisy 
in the logs.

But the sata connector and cable is another story, I try to keep at least 
3 fresh cables on hand.  And I have 7 or 8 of the noisy ones I need to 
bin. IMO sata was invented so they could use a cheeeeeaaaap connector.  
And boy is it ever.  A prime example of TANSTAAFL.

OTC drives from Staples OTOH, need to be checked before putting them to 
work, on the makers website to see if there are firmware updates it needs.
Not doing that is bad for ones health because it can and will eat your 
lunch, dinner & maybe even tomorrows breakfast. :(

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
US V Castleman, SCOTUS, Mar 2014 is grounds for Impeaching SCOTUS