[SOLVED] Optical drive only sees disks as data. Music CDs don't even show up and movie DVDs show up as files.

hikinrory · 09-15-2018, 11:38 AM

From what I've read, the reason I have an old kernel is because I'm running Debian stable and the kernel doesn't upgrade until the next release, unless you go through a backport or something. Is this true?

hikinrory · 09-15-2018, 11:47 AM

I'm running a mini-ITX case. The drive is basically a laptop drive, so if the drive is bad, I may just go with an external optical drive and put an SSD in it's place. I don't have room for both. I rarely use an optical anymore.

hikinrory · 09-15-2018, 11:51 AM

I'm thinking it's a loose cable or intermittent drive failure. I think we have about exhausted everything else.

AwesomeMachine · 09-15-2018, 12:11 PM

You just tell vlc to play the dvd. You don't open the files on it. Same with music CDs. You don't need to open the files. You just tell it to play the CD.

hydrurga · 09-15-2018, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hikinrory

I'm thinking it's a loose cable or intermittent drive failure. I think we have about exhausted everything else.

Probably. I would still test it with a live USB boot though.

hikinrory · 09-15-2018, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AwesomeMachine

You just tell vlc to play the dvd. You don't open the files on it. Same with music CDs. You don't need to open the files. You just tell it to play the CD.

It has never worked that way on my machine. Even a movie shows up as a directory of files. I hunt randomly until I find the menu, then start the movie. I understand how it is supposed to work.

hydrurga · 09-15-2018, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hikinrory

It has never worked that way on my machine. Even a movie shows up as a directory of files. I hunt randomly until I find the menu, then start the movie. I understand how it is supposed to work.

That could be due to your file manager's media handling (autoplay) settings.

hikinrory · 09-15-2018, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hydrurga

That could be due to your file manager's media handling (autoplay) settings.

Until I can figure out why it quit working at all, I'm kinda dead in the water. I thank you for all your suggestions and guidance.

ondoho · 09-16-2018, 12:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hikinrory

From what I've read, the reason I have an old kernel is because I'm running Debian stable and the kernel doesn't upgrade until the next release, unless you go through a backport or something. Is this true?

no.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hikinrory

I'm running a mini-ITX case. The drive is basically a laptop drive

those are also a dime a dozen.
honestly, ask some friends for discarded laptops, or go to the place where they recycle electronics, rip out a few and see if they don't work better.

and the loose or dirty cable (or coupling) is quickly tested, have you even tried that?

fatmac · 09-16-2018, 04:21 AM

Try playing them from a terminal command, it will often tell you why it can't.

Code:

vlc /dev/dvd/* &

might work.

hikinrory · 09-16-2018, 11:24 AM

It wound up being a loose sata cable. though the odds seemed against it, I guess it just happened to be not making connection when I was putting in a prerecorded audio CD and making connection when I put in a data disk.

I would like to thank everyone for their time.

Rory

hikinrory · 09-16-2018, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

no.

those are also a dime a dozen.
honestly, ask some friends for discarded laptops, or go to the place where they recycle electronics, rip out a few and see if they don't work better.

and the loose or dirty cable (or coupling) is quickly tested, have you even tried that?

I don't have any friends with discarded laptops. I live a long way from any place that recycles electronics. This mini-ITX takes a bit of disassembly to get down to the board and this isn't the only project I have going on at the same time.
Did you even think of that?

ondoho · 09-17-2018, 12:29 AM

^ you are welcome.