cannot unmount dvd drive

lefty.crupps · 10-25-2005, 01:01 PM

I got this new program going called k9copy. It is wonderful, its like DVD Shrink for kde and its brilliant.

When I'm done, however, I cannot eject the dvd. I cannot unmount it actually, even as root. Error window says that it is busy but the k9copy program is closed (and, by extension, its subprocesses should be too). What might I need to do to really kill off all of the processes using it? This is on a MEPIS box (Debian).

kilgoretrout · 10-25-2005, 01:32 PM

The fuser command sometimes works. As root run:

# fuser -km <path to device file>

It would probably be this in your case:

# fuser -km /dev/dvd

but check your device files in /dev. Usually, /dev/dvd is just a symlink to the actual drive which is /dev/hdx where 'x' is determined by the position of the dvd drive on the ide bus.

farslayer · 10-25-2005, 02:45 PM

If you are curious what has the device open you can use lsof to find out.

lsof | grep /dev/dvd

you can try a lazy unmount to unmount the device.

umount -l /media/dvd

I usually find it's something like famd (File Alteration Monitor) that still has the device open, in cases where it doesn't want to unmount. I've been known to restart famd to release a device..

/etc/init.d/famd stop && /etc/init.d/famd start

just a couple other options.

lefty.crupps · 10-25-2005, 03:28 PM

thanks you two! I'll try those when i get to my box.

KnightHawk · 10-25-2005, 03:30 PM

What about the simple and most common answer? Or well maybe this is just me....

But usually when I can't unmount a drive its because my current working directory is a directory on the drive I'm trying to unmount.

lefty.crupps · 10-27-2005, 06:00 PM

interesting... if i'm not in a shell, how would i know my pwd? how to change it?