Detecting media type loaded in CD/DVD writer

slinx · 03-19-2009, 11:55 AM

Hello,

Is there a way to quickly detect what type of media is loaded in a drive, and whether it is blank or not, besides using mount to see if you can mount the disc?

I found a posting that suggested using dvd+rw-mediainfo, but this tool only works for DVD media.

I have a backup script that requires using CD-Rs. I want the script to be able to check whether a CD-R, CD-RW, or DVD-R is loaded, and to check if it is writable or not, then either proceed if it is a blank CD-R, or return an error if the wrong media is loaded.

Thank you.

H_TeXMeX_H · 03-20-2009, 05:23 AM

Try:

Code:

cdrecord -prcap dev=/dev/cdrom 2>/dev/null | grep 'Current:'

slinx · 03-20-2009, 10:11 AM

Thanks, but that only shows me the read and write speeds for the media - doesn't tell me what type it is or if it's blank.

H_TeXMeX_H · 03-20-2009, 11:46 AM

Ok, try this instead:

Code:

cdrecord -media-info dev=/dev/cdrom 2>/dev/null | grep 'disk status:'
cdrecord -media-info dev=/dev/cdrom 2>/dev/null | grep 'Mounted media type'

this gives you the disk status ('empty' or 'complete') and media type, and you can further pipe these to awk to get the second column i.e. | awk '{ print $2 }'

However, the other command did work for me:

Code:

bash-3.1$ cdrecord -prcap dev=/dev/cdrom 2>/dev/null | grep 'Current:'
Current: none
bash-3.1$ cdrecord -prcap dev=/dev/cdrom 2>/dev/null | grep 'Current:'
Current: CD-R
bash-3.1$ cdrecord -prcap dev=/dev/cdrom 2>/dev/null | grep 'Current:'
Current: DVD-R sequential recording

when I put in a CD-R and DVD-R.

slinx · 03-20-2009, 12:35 PM

What version of cdrecord are you using?

I'm using Cdrecord-Clone 2.01a32-dvd (i686-pc-linux-gnu) and it reports "Bad option: -media-info"

H_TeXMeX_H · 03-20-2009, 12:51 PM

I'm using:

Code:

bash-3.1$ cdrecord --version
Cdrecord-ProDVD-ProBD-Clone 2.01.01a38 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2008 Jörg Schilling

slinx · 03-20-2009, 02:05 PM

I just built Cdrecord-Clone 2.01 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Jörg Schilling

-media-info must be in only the x64 version, because it still complains, - Or do you need the Pro version to work? I get a little farther with -atip, but -prcap still doesn't give me the information I need, -prcap only gives me the current read/write speed, and -atip only tells me if it's a DVD - it won't identify a CD-R... but that's a start... thanks for your help.

H_TeXMeX_H · 03-20-2009, 03:33 PM

I have just tested it on my Slackware 12.1 computer and it works on there too, so it's not x64 specific. If you want, try compiling this exact version or higher:
http://www.slackware.at/data/slackwa....01a38.tar.bz2
I have also tested 2.01.01a58 from the official site:
ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/al....01a58.tar.bz2
it also works.

slinx · 03-20-2009, 04:44 PM

That's the solution - the latest alpha version of cdrecord does the trick. Now I will just have to convince people we need to upgrade the tool.

Thanks for your help!

H_TeXMeX_H · 03-20-2009, 05:39 PM

No problem