Hi,

I hope that one or more of you can help me please. I have spent ages trying to get my Ubuntu Edgy and now Feisty installs to let me use my DVD player. It's not a codec or library problem.

I installed the Feisty beta and watched a DVD to check the installation of libraries and codecs and also inserted a game DVD to see if it was able to recognise the contents of the DVD, which it did. So I thought Edgy problem solved, I'll just migrate 100% to Feisty once the RC is out and stick with that.

But no. I installed Beryl or some system change from system updates has changed something to ensure that the DVD now no longer works in Feisty either. Whether the problem is system upgrades changing some settings or whether it is the presence of Beryl on my system I can't say. The DVD on /computer has disappeared to be replaced by CD-ROMs 1 and 2, neither of which exist if I click on them. The DVD is a slave to the CDROM-RW.

Here's my /etc/fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda2
UUID=2bbb59fd-98d7-426e-8a46-62bbe0836505 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda5
UUID=f3c4e737-e179-4a09-a4cf-96ff59ce11d9 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/scd1 /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0


Any comments/questions? Are there any diagnostic checks I can run to see where the problem might be? Has anyone had the same problem? If so, how did you solve it? I have a feeling that something in this file needs to be changed so that it points to the drives in question but don't know how to change it.

Ubuntu is great and I love working with it but this problem is bugging me and making me think for all its disadvantages I should go back to XP just so I can use the equipment on my PC.

Anyone help please?

Thanks much in advance

Gackk!! LOL, this seems a relatively minor issue, and definitely not a reason in and of itself to go back to WinXP
I'm not sure what beryl may have done to the system, but I can't really imagine it causing the DVD drive to not be accessible.
In any event, here's where to start, in my humble opinion, (and on the initial assumption that you don't actually have SCSI devices on the system) for the time being:
Check the file /var/log/dmesg or /var/log/messages and identify the hard disk and CD/DVD devices by device name, for example, you'll see some lines like:
IDE hda1 Seagate hard disk.. blah blah.
IDE hdb ATAPI DVD-ROM device DVP1546a blah blah
IDE hdc ATAPI CD-R/RW blah blah...

etc etc.. What we want are the hda, hdb, hdc, hdd, sda, sdb, etc etc, and which device they are, like is it the DVD, a CD drive, a hard disk, etc... So make note of or just post in here what you have for devices.
Also, post for us where these devices should be mounting to. For eaxmple, you want the DVD to mount on /media/computer..
Thanks We'll go from there as far as editing your fstab file to make it right.
Meanwhile, if you like as a test, on your desktop, you should have in your right-click menu the option of 'Create Link to Device'.. Try that and see if the list presented of devices included the correct nodes (hda, hdb etc) for the devices you are looking for. Set up a device link, and try accessing it.
If this doesn't work, or you have trouble with it, don't worry. The first half of this post is more important.

GrapefruiTGirl, thanks for that. here's the output from /var/log/dmesg, which I've edited to show devices. I guess you could do without all the boot information. This is from my Edgy installation. Not sure how to find out where they should be mounting to - is that in the fstab file?

Please let me know if you need anything more. Thanks in advance for your help.

[17179574.492000] Capability LSM initialized
[17179574.904000] ICH5: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:1f.1
[17179574.904000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.1[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 169
[17179574.904000] ICH5: chipset revision 2
[17179574.904000] ICH5: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
[17179574.904000] ide0: BM-DMA at 0xf000-0xf007, BIOS settings: hdaio, hdbio
[17179574.904000] ide1: BM-DMA at 0xf008-0xf00f, BIOS settings: hdcio, hddio
[17179574.904000] Probing IDE interface ide0...
[17179575.192000] hda: ST3320620A, ATA DISK drive
[17179575.472000] hdb: ST380011A, ATA DISK drive
[17179575.528000] ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
[17179575.536000] Probing IDE interface ide1...
[17179576.272000] hdc: SONY CD-RW CRX230ED, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
[17179577.056000] hdd: ASUS DVD-E616P2, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
[17179577.112000] ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
[17179577.124000] hda: max request size: 512KiB
[17179577.164000] hda: 625142448 sectors (320072 MB) w/16384KiB Cache, CHS=38913/255/63, UDMA(100)
[17179577.188000] hda: cache flushes supported
[17179577.188000] hda: hda1 hda2 hda3 < hda5 >
[17179577.232000] hdb: max request size: 512KiB
[17179577.232000] hdb: 156301488 sectors (80026 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=16383/255/63, UDMA(100)
[17179577.232000] hdb: cache flushes supported
[17179577.232000] hdb: hdb1 hdb2 < hdb5 >
[17179577.284000] hdc: ATAPI 52X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)
[17179577.284000] Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
[17179577.288000] hdd: ATAPI 15X DVD-ROM drive, 512kB Cache, UDMA(33)
[

Hey cool, your setup is remarkedly similar to mine, in fact we have the *exact* same 320GB Seagate hard drive nice isn't it?.. So working on the assumption that the problem you have stems from the fstab file, Here's mine for you to reference:
It's pretty self explanatory I think.. I have:
HDA = Main hard drive
HDB = CD-R/RW
HDC = Second Hard drive
HDD = DVD-ROM
FD0 = Floppy drive
Items in order of appearance are:
boot partition, root partition, swap, backup partition on drive 2, another OS on /stockslack, devpts, proc, DVD mount point, Floppy drive mount point, CD-R/RW mount point, packet-writing device linked to HDB (the CD-R/RW)

If you need some further help editing your fstab, let me know And yes, the fstab file is what determines where devices mount onto.

Yep, nice drive. Don't think I'll be needing any more storage space for a week or so!

so if I change the fstab to be the same as yours then the problem should be solved?

sorry for the dumb question but can I just change it in gedit? and if so what's the command to summon the writeable file?

You're a star - I find little problems like this won't leave me alone until they're solved.

Next one up is my troublesome panels in Beryl that just won't do what they're told.

Hehehe.. Well, If you *want* to, with the exception of the packet-device, you could make yours similar to mine, but not exactly. For example, my HDB is my CD device, and YOUR HDB is a hard disk.. So you have to align that sort of thing according to YOUR system. Some things to note:
1 - A mount point must EXIST before mounting anything to it. So, in my case, I like to have devices mounted in the /media folder. So, I create the needed folders with whatever access-permissions I need for them in /media, and THEN stuff can be mounted there..
2 - devpts and proc are standard and are present on *virtually* all systems. I've not yet seen a different setting for devpts or proc.
3 - You cannot just change it just like that, in gedit. The fstab file is owned by root, so you need root priveleges to edit or save it. Use su and enter the root password in a console, to gain root priveleges. Then, if you like, type mc to use Midnight Commander to locate and edit the file and save it again. You could also probably use 'sudo gedit /etc/fstab' and that would start gedit as root, so you could edit the file that way.
Then exit mc and exit su mode (type exit) and all should be done and saved. mc will tell you if it cannot save the file, but if you're su'd to root, it should work fine.
4 - As for beryl, I've never used it, so I cannot help with configuring that.

thanks for that.

Sorry if these seem like dumb questions...

how do I create a mount point?

My folders in /media all seem empty....(maybe that's the problem?)

A mount point is simply a folder (a location).
In /media, just create the folders you want, or use the existing ones.
They are all empty likely because nothing is mounted onto them yet
If you have devices in fstab that are set to mount AUTO, then they will mount at boot.
Other stuff, like a DVD drive for example, when you mount it, the contents will appear to be in the /mount/folder.

Also, the location /mnt is another standard mounting location. Your system may use that place by default, but either should work fine.

sorry to appear slightly more dense than I actually am, but how do I make a drive mount to a particular location, is that through changing of the fstab file?

LOL, no problem... We all start out rather dumb-feeling with a new system, and I'm still new too, so don't feel bad
OK, You know how to use the man pages? In a console, just type 'man mount' for the manual page. For any given function, jjust type 'man command' for the given command, and it will show you the basic help file for it.
Now basically, once you have your fstab file set up properly, it does not need regular editing for any reason, unless you change a piece of hardware, of want something to mount to a different place.
So using the mount command in a console is how you mount stuff. Also, you can use properly connected Desktop-Icons, just like in windows, to mount and view devices.
Finally, devices labelled as 'AUTO' in fstab will be mounted by the system during boot.
If they are specified 'noauto' then they must be mounted by you or someone else, at some time, if you want to use them.

thanks GrapefruiTgirl for your help - this is about the 6th thread I've opened on this issue in various forums and you're the only one who's helped! So thanks again.

BTW I reported this issue as a bug a day or two ago and it seems to have been confirmed so hopefully it will be fixed at some point in the future others won't have to spend the time sorting this out.

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source....17/+bug/97529

Now on the assumpiton that we can work a fix around this issue, I created a folder dvdrom in /media and amended the fstab for hdd to mount to there. But it doesn't. So I assume I have to delve a bit deeper into the command line to square the circle, so to speak.

so would the syntax be something like mount -t [insert other stuff here]. I'm not sure what the text to follow mount -t should be.

Also as my dvdrom is read only, do i need to amend mtab as well?

OK, I have read that bug report page, and from what I can see, there's nothing there indicating a hardware issue.. There is **potential** for a kernel misconfiguration, however assuming you are using the kernel that came with Ubuntu, let's disregard that angle for the time being.
I have had many occurrences of the I/O errors , sense key errors, and other read errors from both of my optical drives on occasion, and in 100% of the cases, it was due to either incorrect mounting or filesystem identification, misconfiguration of the device-node I was using to communicate with the device.
There is a VERY SMALL chance that part of the cure could be had by recompiling the kernel, but as I say, let's disregard that issue for the time being and see if we can get the drive working. After all, it doesn't make sense that one day it works just fine, and the next day it doesn't.

Your fstab entry for the DVD drive should pretty much be exactly like mine. If your DVD-drive is HDD then it should likely be EXACTLY like my DVD line in fstab.
Now, if that line is correct, then when you use the MOUNT command in a terminal, you only need to specify either the /dev/hdd OR /mount/dvdrom. The fstab file is there so the system can reference what MOUNT should do with the items you give to the mount command. So:
should be enough for the system to mount the device. You dont need to give the rest of the options, because they are already there in fstab.
As for the DVD drive being ro (readonly) you dont explicitly need to specify anything, but it doesn't hurt to add 'ro' to the options area in fstab. so you would have something like:
And it would be just fine.
I'm going to read over the thread again, and get back to you shortly if I see anything else particular, and if you have anything further to add, please do.

It all works now!

Thanks again for your help, much appreciated.

edit: Well, I think I spoke too soon. I got a DVD movie playing took it out and then put a data DVD one in and back to the same old message again.

ok, so movies can be played in VLC but no other and I can forget about my game dvd which I want to copy on to my HDD for an experiment with wine.

But progress has been made for sure.

Thanks again GrapefruiTgirl.

A virtual grapefruit is yours.

OK, keep in mind, if you MOUNT something, you need to UNMOUNT it before mounting something else..
I'm just having breakfast, but will be back soon.. My MSN is on my profile if it would help you chat while trynna fix this. I think you're very close Its just a matter of semantics now