Linux doesn't recognize my CD drive

joshknape · 02-15-2006, 05:46 PM

I just put in a new CD-RW drive to replace my old CD-RW, which had been destroyed by an exploding disc. When I installed Mandrake a few days earlier, I was using my spare drive, a DVD-ROM; Linux recognized it. The new drive will not work: it opens/closes, but the CD icon disappeared from the desktop, and it can't read any discs. (I shut down and put the DVD drive back in, and the CD icon reappeared next time.) Why not? The drive can hardly be too new for my Mandrake: I bought it used at EBay, and the serial number is dated January 2004. My Mandrake kernel is 2.6 (I think).

Simon Bridge · 02-15-2006, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joshknape

I just put in a new CD-RW drive to replace my old CD-RW, which had been destroyed by an exploding disc.

Wow! Did you get this on film?

Quote:

When I installed Mandrake a few days earlier, I was using my spare drive, a DVD-ROM; Linux recognized it. The new drive will not work: it opens/closes, but the CD icon disappeared from the desktop, and it can't read any discs. (I shut down and put the DVD drive back in, and the CD icon reappeared next time.) Why not? The drive can hardly be too new for my Mandrake: I bought it used at EBay, and the serial number is dated January 2004. My Mandrake kernel is 2.6 (I think).

What have you dont to try diagnose this problem?
Have you tried looking in syslog (dmesg right after boot, look for references to hdc or whatever the new drive is.)
Have you looked for the drive in /etc/fstab to see what linux thinks it should do with it?
Have you tried manually mounting the fs on a CD?

# mount -t iso9660 /dev/hdc /media/cdrecord

Have you tried booting from a CD in the drive?

Have you tried the drive in another computer?

joshknape · 02-17-2006, 08:57 PM

The explosion, which was actually more of a shattering, could not be filmed, because the disc was inside the drive. I was surprised at first, but another LQ user explained the phenomenon to me with this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD_shattering. Anyway, I'll try to retrieve the syslog and display it.