Problem with USB DVD writer
 

Hi there,

I am running Ubuntu 11.10 and have some problem with USB DVD writer. I got an imation DVD writer, and I connect it via a single cable to the notebook, which the cable is short and thick I am sure it can supply enough power to the writer, actually I burn and read disc without problem. The only thing is, when I insert a disc to the writer there is no pop up open dialog, but if I remove and reconnect the cable the pop up works, what's wrong ??

I looked at this yesterday and drafted a post, but decided against it because it was kind of vague. Since no one else has jumped in, I'll jump now. No solutions, just some ideas for troubleshooting.

1. Insert the disk, then start the disk burning program (I think it's called Brasero) and check whether it sees the blank disk, even though there's been no pop-up.

2. Run the lsusb command in the terminal before plugging in the device, after plugging in the device, after inserting the disk, then after unplugging and replugging the device. Look for differences in the output.

Thanks for the tips and I tried, the only difference with and without the drive plug in is the system sees it and not see it.

Bus 002 Device 008: ID 0718:4002 Imation Corp.

No difference at all with and without disc, but Brasero does see the disc although no pop up.

Have you tested both with blank disks and with disks containing data? Blank disk have no data and cannot be mounted; they won't show as drives.

If you want to pursue the "seeing disk" issue, you could run the dmesg command from a terminal and see how dmesg sees the device. My external shows up like this:

I don't use a GUI that does pop-ups, but I'm wondering whether this might be a pop-up issue, rather than a "seeing the drive" issue.

Here is mine :

[ 1363.833134] scsi 9:0:0:0: CD-ROM Slimtype DVD A DS8A5S WP57 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[ 1363.874255] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
[ 1363.874572] sr 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
[ 1363.874870] sr 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5
[ 1458.623202] UDF-fs: Partition marked readonly; forcing readonly mount
[ 1458.698699] UDF-fs INFO UDF: Mounting volume 'NE-94440', timestamp 2010/08/26 20:52 (11e0)
[ 1463.804599] usb 2-1.1: USB disconnect, device number 9
[ 1465.281897] usb 2-1.1: new high speed USB device number 10 using ehci_hcd
[ 1465.396835] scsi10 : usb-storage 2-1.1:1.0
[ 1466.446667] scsi 10:0:0:0: CD-ROM Slimtype DVD A DS8A5S WP57 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[ 1466.540262] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
[ 1466.540578] sr 10:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
[ 1466.540842] sr 10:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5
[ 1486.625193] UDF-fs: Partition marked readonly; forcing readonly mount
[ 1486.670993] UDF-fs INFO UDF: Mounting volume 'NE-94440', timestamp 2010/08/26 20:52 (11e0)
[ 1489.137824] usb 2-1.1: USB disconnect, device number 10
[ 1490.359568] usb 2-1.1: new high speed USB device number 11 using ehci_hcd
[ 1490.474535] scsi11 : usb-storage 2-1.1:1.0
[ 1491.524250] scsi 11:0:0:0: CD-ROM Slimtype DVD A DS8A5S WP57 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[ 1491.562004] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
[ 1491.562322] sr 11:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
[ 1491.562617] sr 11:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5
[ 1501.660723] UDF-fs: Partition marked readonly; forcing readonly mount
[ 1501.706532] UDF-fs INFO UDF: Mounting volume 'NE-94440', timestamp 2010/08/26 20:52 (11e0)

It is getting weird that, no matter there is blank disc or data disc in the drive, there is no pop up any more, before the problem it worked like this, when I insert the disc, the light flash for a while and turn off, nothing happened, if I re-plug the cable, the light flash the same way, but will flash again after the short break, then the pop up occurs. Even there is no pop up Brasero still recognize the disc if I try to make a copy, so there is nothing to do with the drive itself, may be I messed up something after install and uninstall apps, btw I am using the Gnome 3 desktop to replace the default Unity, and it worked fine for some time.

I am fresh out of ideas. I'll try to test my Gnome 3 sometimes this week, but can't promise how soon I can get to it, since I seldom boot my Fedora.

Thanks take your time, as least I know how it will work !

After you insert a disc containing data into the drive, check the /media directory from the terminal or the file manager. If Ubuntu does see the disc and mounts it then it would be mounted to a sub directory in the /media directory.

I just did a little testing in Gnome 3 on Fedora using a Pioneer USB DVD/CD RW machine.

After hooking it up, I:

1. Inserted a data disk with Nautilus open. New Nautilus window showing disk contents opened.
2. Inserted a data disk with Nautilus closed. New Nautilus window showing disk contents opened.
3. Inserted a blank CD. Got pop-up offering to open disk burning program.

In Gnome Control Center-->Hardware-->Removable Media, I set all options to "do nothing." Repeated the above and received no notifications, but the appropriate items appeared in the Nautilus sidebar. I reset the notifications to my normal settings and the pop-ups returned.

I selected "safely remove" and removed the cable with the data disk still loaded in the drive. When I plugged the cable back in, I got a /dev/sr0 already mounted error (go figure), but the disk was still in the data drive.

I ejected the disk through Nautilus, unplugged the cable, reloaded the disk, and replugged the cable. Once again, I got the notification and the Nautilus window.

Unless somehow your settings in Control Center somehow got changed, I am fresh out of clues.