I have installed fedora 8 on a HP laptop and everything works but the DVD. The drive is a cd/dvd and it can read cds but not dvds. I had to use a usb dvd to install fedora 8. Anybody have aclue of how to get the dvd side of the drive working?

It may be that Fedora does not recognize your hardware correctly. Use this command:

lshw | less

to show your hardware configure as seen by Fedora. Find the entry for the CD. Does it list the vendor and product correctly? Does it list the capabilities correctly? What is the logical name (device address) of the device?

If all of that hardware information is correct take a look at /etc/fstab. Does the device appear in /etc/fstab? If so, what device name is given? If the device name in /etc/fstab is different than the configuration logical name then check /dev for a symbolic link between the two names. For example if the logical name is /dev/hdb and the /etc/fstab name is /dev/cdrom then use the ls command to make sure /dev/cdrom is a symbolic link to /dev/hdb:

ls -l /dev/cdrom

If everything checks out so far then start from the other direction. What command are you using to read the DVD and what device is the command looking for? Is that device a symbolic link to the logical device?

----------------------
Steve Stites

P.S. On some distributions you may have to log in as root to issue the lshw command.

mmmm. strange how old is the cd/dvd drive ? maybe you can find more information about the problem at the HP site.(firmeware update)
Good luck.

Below is the contents of my etc/fstab. what is the format for adding a cd/dvd drive to it and what other configuration do I need to do in order to get the dvd to work??

/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap swap defaults 0 0

Also the command lshw | less is not recognized and when I run the command ls -l dev/cdrom it shows as follows:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2008-03-19 10:14 /dev/cdrom -> sr0

Fedora thinks that your CD is on sr0. You need to check to see whether Fedora also considers sr0 to be a DVD. Use

ls -l | less

to find all of the devices which symbolically link to /dev/sr0. Could you post that list?

Did you run lshw as root? If you don't have lshw installed you can get it here:

http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/se...query=lshw-gui


-------------------------
Steve Stites

Below is the output from lshw

*-cdrom
description: DVD reader
product: CDRW/DVD SBW-241
vendor: QSI
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/cdrom
logical name: /dev/dvd
logical name: /dev/scd0
logical name: /dev/sr0
version: VX08
serial: [QSI CDRW/DVD SBW-241VX08�����PV110BA308033
capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd
configuration: ansiversion=5 status=open


ls -l does not show anything with a link to sr0

thanks for any help

oops, the command should have been:

ls -l /dev | less

-------------------
Steve Stites

below is the output of the ls -l /dev | less command

total 0
crw------- 1 root root 10, 175 2008-03-21 14:50 agpgart
crw-rw----+ 1 root root 14, 4 2008-03-21 14:50 audio
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 80 2008-03-21 14:50 bsg
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 60 2008-03-21 14:50 bus
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2008-03-21 14:50 cdrom -> sr0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2008-03-21 14:50 cdrw -> sr0
crw------- 1 root root 5, 1 2008-03-21 14:51 console
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 2008-03-21 14:50 core -> /proc/kcore
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 120 2008-03-21 14:50 disk
brw-r----- 1 root disk 253, 0 2008-03-21 10:50 dm-0
brw-r----- 1 root disk 253, 1 2008-03-21 10:50 dm-1
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 60 2008-03-21 14:51 dri
crw-rw----+ 1 root root 14, 3 2008-03-21 14:50 dsp
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2008-03-21 14:50 dvd -> sr0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 2008-03-21 14:50 fd -> /proc/self/fd
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 7 2008-03-21 14:50 full
crw-rw---- 1 root fuse 10, 229 2008-03-21 14:50 fuse
crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 228 2008-03-21 14:50 hpet
prw------- 1 root root 0 2008-03-21 14:51 initctl
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 280 2008-03-21 14:50 input
crw-rw---- 1 root root 1, 11 2008-03-21 14:50 kmsg
srw-rw-rw- 1 root root 0 2008-03-21 14:51 log
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 0 2008-03-21 14:50 loop0
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 1 2008-03-21 14:50 loop1
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 2 2008-03-21 14:50 loop2
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 3 2008-03-21 14:50 loop3
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 4 2008-03-21 14:50 loop4
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 5 2008-03-21 14:50 loop5
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 6 2008-03-21 14:50 loop6
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 7 2008-03-21 14:50 loop7
crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 0 2008-03-21 14:50 lp0
crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 1 2008-03-21 14:50 lp1
crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 2 2008-03-21 14:50 lp2
crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 3 2008-03-21 14:50 lp3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 2008-03-21 14:50 MAKEDEV -> /sbin/MAKEDEV
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 100 2008-03-21 10:50 mapper
crw-r----- 1 root kmem 1, 1 2008-03-21 14:50 mem
crw-rw----+ 1 root root 14, 0 2008-03-21 14:50 mixer
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 60 2008-03-21 14:50 net
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 3 2008-03-21 10:50 null
crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 144 2008-03-21 14:50 nvram
crw-rw---- 1 root root 1, 12 2008-03-21 14:50 oldmem
crw-rw---- 1 root lp 99, 0 2008-03-21 14:50 parport0
crw-rw---- 1 root lp 99, 1 2008-03-21 14:50 parport1
crw-rw---- 1 root lp 99, 2 2008-03-21 14:50 parport2
crw-rw---- 1 root lp 99, 3 2008-03-21 14:50 parport3
crw-r----- 1 root kmem 1, 4 2008-03-21 14:50 port
crw------- 1 root root 108, 0 2008-03-21 14:50 ppp
crw-rw-rw- 1 root tty 5, 2 2008-03-21 16:25 ptmx
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 2008-03-21 10:50 pts
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 2008-03-21 14:50 ram -> ram1
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 0 2008-03-21 14:50 ram0
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 1 2008-03-21 14:50 ram1
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 10 2008-03-21 14:50 ram10
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 11 2008-03-21 14:50 ram11
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 12 2008-03-21 14:50 ram12
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 13 2008-03-21 14:50 ram13
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 14 2008-03-21 14:50 ram14
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 15 2008-03-21 14:50 ram15
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 2 2008-03-21 14:50 ram2
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 3 2008-03-21 14:50 ram3
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 4 2008-03-21 14:50 ram4
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 5 2008-03-21 14:50 ram5
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 6 2008-03-21 14:50 ram6
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 7 2008-03-21 14:50 ram7
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 8 2008-03-21 14:50 ram8
brw-r----- 1 root disk 1, 9 2008-03-21 14:50 ram9
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 2008-03-21 14:50 ramdisk -> ram0
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 8 2008-03-21 14:50 random
brw------- 1 root root 253, 0 2008-03-21 10:50 root
crw-r--r-- 1 root root 10, 135 2008-03-21 10:50 rtc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2008-03-21 14:50 scd0 -> sr0
brw-r----- 1 root disk 8, 0 2008-03-21 10:50 sda
brw-r----- 1 root disk 8, 1 2008-03-21 14:51 sda1
brw-r----- 1 root disk 8, 2 2008-03-21 10:50 sda2
crw-rw----+ 1 root root 14, 1 2008-03-21 14:50 sequencer
crw-rw----+ 1 root root 14, 8 2008-03-21 14:50 sequencer2
crw-r----- 1 root disk 21, 0 2008-03-21 14:50 sg0
crw-r----- 1 root disk 21, 1 2008-03-21 14:50 sg1
drwxrwxrwt 2 root root 60 2008-03-21 16:22 shm
crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 231 2008-03-21 14:50 snapshot
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 140 2008-03-21 14:50 snd
brw-r----- 1 root disk 11, 0 2008-03-21 14:50 sr0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 2008-03-21 14:50 stderr -> /proc/self/fd/2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 2008-03-21 14:50 stdin -> /proc/self/fd/0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 2008-03-21 14:50 stdout -> /proc/self/fd/1
crw------- 1 root root 4, 0 2008-03-21 10:50 systty
crw-rw-rw- 1 root tty 5, 0 2008-03-21 10:50 tty
crw--w---- 1 root root 4, 0 2008-03-21 10:50 tty0
crw------- 1 root root 4, 1 2008-03-21 14:51 tty1
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 10 2008-03-21 10:50 tty10
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 11 2008-03-21 10:50 tty11
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 12 2008-03-21 10:50 tty12
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 13 2008-03-21 14:50 tty13
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 14 2008-03-21 14:50 tty14
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 15 2008-03-21 14:50 tty15
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 16 2008-03-21 14:50 tty16
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 17 2008-03-21 14:50 tty17
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 18 2008-03-21 14:50 tty18
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 19 2008-03-21 14:50 tty19
crw------- 1 root root 4, 2 2008-03-21 14:51 tty2
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 20 2008-03-21 14:50 tty20
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 21 2008-03-21 14:50 tty21
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 22 2008-03-21 14:50 tty22
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 23 2008-03-21 14:50 tty23
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 24 2008-03-21 14:50 tty24
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 25 2008-03-21 14:50 tty25
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 26 2008-03-21 14:50 tty26
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 27 2008-03-21 14:50 tty27
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 28 2008-03-21 14:50 tty28
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 29 2008-03-21 14:50 tty29
crw------- 1 root root 4, 3 2008-03-21 14:51 tty3
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 30 2008-03-21 14:50 tty30
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 31 2008-03-21 14:50 tty31
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 32 2008-03-21 14:50 tty32
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 33 2008-03-21 14:50 tty33
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 34 2008-03-21 14:50 tty34
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 35 2008-03-21 14:50 tty35
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 36 2008-03-21 14:50 tty36
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 37 2008-03-21 14:50 tty37
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 38 2008-03-21 14:50 tty38
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 39 2008-03-21 14:50 tty39
crw------- 1 root root 4, 4 2008-03-21 14:51 tty4
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 40 2008-03-21 14:50 tty40
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 41 2008-03-21 14:50 tty41
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 42 2008-03-21 14:50 tty42
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 43 2008-03-21 14:50 tty43
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 44 2008-03-21 14:50 tty44
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 45 2008-03-21 14:50 tty45
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 46 2008-03-21 14:50 tty46
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 47 2008-03-21 14:50 tty47
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 48 2008-03-21 14:50 tty48
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 49 2008-03-21 14:50 tty49
crw------- 1 root root 4, 5 2008-03-21 14:51 tty5
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 50 2008-03-21 14:50 tty50
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 51 2008-03-21 14:50 tty51
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 52 2008-03-21 14:50 tty52
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 53 2008-03-21 14:50 tty53
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 54 2008-03-21 14:50 tty54
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 55 2008-03-21 14:50 tty55
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 56 2008-03-21 14:50 tty56
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 57 2008-03-21 14:50 tty57
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 58 2008-03-21 14:50 tty58
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 59 2008-03-21 14:50 tty59
crw------- 1 root root 4, 6 2008-03-21 14:51 tty6
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 60 2008-03-21 14:50 tty60
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 61 2008-03-21 14:50 tty61
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 62 2008-03-21 14:50 tty62
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 63 2008-03-21 14:50 tty63
crw--w---- 1 root root 4, 7 2008-03-21 10:50 tty7
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 8 2008-03-21 14:50 tty8
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 9 2008-03-21 10:50 tty9
crw-rw---- 1 root uucp 4, 64 2008-03-21 10:50 ttyS0
crw-rw---- 1 root uucp 4, 65 2008-03-21 10:50 ttyS1
crw-rw---- 1 root uucp 4, 66 2008-03-21 10:50 ttyS2
crw-rw---- 1 root uucp 4, 67 2008-03-21 10:50 ttyS3
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 9 2008-03-21 14:51 urandom
crw-rw---- 1 root root 250, 0 2008-03-21 14:50 usbdev1.1_ep00
crw-rw---- 1 root root 250, 1 2008-03-21 14:50 usbdev1.1_ep81
crw-rw---- 1 root root 252, 0 2008-03-21 14:50 usbmon0
crw-rw---- 1 root root 252, 1 2008-03-21 14:50 usbmon1
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 0 2008-03-21 14:50 vcs
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 1 2008-03-21 14:51 vcs1
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 2 2008-03-21 14:51 vcs2
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 3 2008-03-21 14:51 vcs3
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 4 2008-03-21 14:51 vcs4
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 5 2008-03-21 14:51 vcs5
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 6 2008-03-21 14:51 vcs6
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 7 2008-03-21 14:51 vcs7
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 8 2008-03-21 14:50 vcs8
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 128 2008-03-21 14:50 vcsa
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 129 2008-03-21 14:51 vcsa1
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 130 2008-03-21 14:51 vcsa2
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 131 2008-03-21 14:51 vcsa3
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 132 2008-03-21 14:51 vcsa4
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 133 2008-03-21 14:51 vcsa5
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 134 2008-03-21 14:51 vcsa6
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 135 2008-03-21 14:51 vcsa7
crw-rw---- 1 vcsa tty 7, 136 2008-03-21 14:50 vcsa8
drwx------ 2 root root 80 2008-03-21 10:50 VolGroup00
crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 130 2008-03-21 14:50 watchdog
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 2008-03-21 14:50 XOR -> null
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 5 2008-03-21 14:50 zero
[root@localhost ~]#

You do not have any entries for the CD or DVD in /etc/fstab. Try adding this line at the end of your /etc/fstab file and then reboot:

/dev/sr0 /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0

Also check to make sure that you have a directory called /mnt/cdrom and if you don't then create it. Fedora should have created this directory at install but then again it should have created the fstab entry also.

---------------
Steve Stites

I have added the entry and created the /mnt/cdrom folder but still get no medium found.The dvd is now listed in the ls -l /dev | less

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2008-03-24 16:15 dvd -> sr0

and the lshw | less currently does list the cdrom (sr0)as having dvd reader capabilities

It should mount now. Put a DVD in the drive, log in as root, and issue the mount command:

mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/cdrom

---------------
Steve Stites

OK, that lets me mount the dvd if I put a movie in, but will not play the movie because of the codec. I get an error from the mount command for specifying the file type which I do not know what the file type dvds is?
It still will not mount the dvds with data on them, is that a format type problem?

Thanks for the help

A data DVD should be format is09660. As long as you are mounting /dev/sr0 on /mnt/cdrom then the mount command should pull the data type out of the fstab entry, i.e. either is09660 or udf. Is the data format something other than iso9660 or udf?

Is the problem DVD a blank DVD? Unlike CD-ROM a blank data DVD has to be formated before it can be used. It only needs to be formated once in its lifetime. Here are the commands to format your DVD (You may have to change the speed to match your DVD write speed):

umount /dev/sr0
cdrecord -format dev=/dev/sr0 speed=4 gracetime=2

---------------------
Steve Stites