External dvdwriter fails to burn

MalasNoticias · 06-25-2007, 07:14 PM

Hello all, this is my first post, so let me introduce myself... I'm a Linux user from lot of years, about 7 or 8, mostly Debian user, and I'm Spanish, so sorry for my bad English, I'll try do my best.

My problem is with my new dvdwriter, It's killing me and I'm getting out of ideas...

When I try to burn anything (cd or dvd) the writing stops at the
beginning with error status. Well... sometimes it writes about 1/5 of the disc, but
rarel+y completes a entire writing.

I like k3b, but the same happens with gnomebaker or nero4linux...

This is the error I have: (see down for the full log)

Code:

:-( unable to WRITE@LBA=3d60h: Input/output error
:-( write failed: Input/output error

What can be happening? I think that anything, so I'll try to put some light on it...

Its an IDE dvdwriter inside an external usb2 box... lsscsi says that its that:

Code:

[3:0:0:0]    cd/dvd  HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H44N  RB00  /dev/scd0

The dvdwriter is an lg h42n (this is what says the store ticket) and the external box is a Conceptronic grab'n'go usb2.0 sotrage box 5.25''

The usb cable is plugged in a pcmcia because my laptop is not usb2, but that doesn't matter because I tried to plug in the original usb1.1 connection and too doesn't work, the same happens, but now slower.

The writer is well connected, it usually detects as a high speed device:

Code:

usb 2-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
scsi3 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 3
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
scsi 3:0:0:0: CD-ROM            HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H44N  RB00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 48x/48x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
sr 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
sr 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5
usb-storage: device scan complete

I even don't have an idea of what can be failing, any suggestions are welcomed.

The rest of the log:

Code:

System
-----------------------
K3b Version: 1.0.1

KDE Version: 3.5.7
QT Version:  3.3.7
Kernel:      2.6.21
Devices
-----------------------
SAMSUNG CD-ROM SN-124 N102 (/dev/hdb, ) [CD-ROM] [CD-ROM] [TAO]

HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H44N RB00 (/dev/scd0, ) [CD-R, CD-RW, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-R DL, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL] [DVD-ROM, DVD-R Sequential, DVD-R Dual Layer Sequential, DVD-R Dual Layer Jump, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW Restricted Overwrite, DVD-RW Sequential, DVD+RW, DVD+R, DVD+R Dual Layer, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW] [SAO, TAO, RAW, SAO/R96P, SAO/R96R, RAW/R16, RAW/R96P, RAW/R96R, Restricted Overwrite, Layer Jump]
Burned media
-----------------------
DVD-R Sequential

Used versions
-----------------------
growisofs: 7.0.1

growisofs
-----------------------
Executing 'builtin_dd if=/dev/fd/0 of=/dev/scd0 obs=32k seek=0'
/dev/scd0: "Current Write Speed" is 18.4x1352KBps.
    7471104/4550774784 ( 0.2%) @1.4x, remaining 70:56 RBU 100.0% UBU   2.9%
   19529728/4550774784 ( 0.4%) @2.6x, remaining 38:40 RBU 100.0% UBU  41.2%
   25788416/4550774784 ( 0.6%) @1.4x, remaining 38:01 RBU 100.0% UBU  47.1%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @1.4x, remaining 39:47 RBU 100.0% UBU  41.2%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 46:48 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 53:49 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 63:11 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 70:12 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 77:14 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 86:35 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 93:36 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 100:38 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 109:59 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 117:01 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 126:22 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 133:24 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 140:25 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 149:47 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 156:48 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 163:49 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 173:11 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
   32178176/4550774784 ( 0.7%) @0.0x, remaining 180:12 RBU 100.0% UBU 100.0%
:-( unable to WRITE@LBA=3d60h: Input/output error
:-( write failed: Input/output error
/dev/scd0: flushing cache
/dev/scd0: updating RMA
/dev/scd0: closing disc

growisofs command:
-----------------------
/usr/bin/X11/growisofs -Z /dev/scd0=/dev/fd/0 -use-the-force-luke=notray -use-the-force-luke=tty -use-the-force-luke=tracksize:2222058 -use-the-force-luke=dummy -dvd-compat -speed=18 -use-the-force-luke=bufsize:128m

My system is a dell latitude c810...

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82815 815 Chipset Host Bridge and Memory Controller Hub (rev 04)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82815 815 Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801BAM ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801BAM IDE U100 (rev 03)
00:1f.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB (Hub #1) (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 Go] (rev b2)
02:03.0 Multimedia audio controller: ESS Technology ES1983S Maestro-3i PCI Audio Accelerator (rev 10)
02:06.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
02:0f.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4451 PC card Cardbus Controller
02:0f.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4451 PC card Cardbus Controller
02:0f.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCI4451 IEEE-1394 Controller
07:00.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 43)
07:00.1 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 43)
07:00.2 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 04)

Running a debian sid linux2.6.21 (but 2.6.18 too fails)

And I hate to say that... but the writer works perfectly with ms windows.

The most rare thing I find is that:

Code:

cat /proc/interrupts 
           CPU0       
  0:   12291959    XT-PIC-XT        timer
  1:      10718    XT-PIC-XT        i8042
  2:          0    XT-PIC-XT        cascade
  5:     303872    XT-PIC-XT        Maestro3
  6:          5    XT-PIC-XT        floppy
  7:         16    XT-PIC-XT        parport0
  8:          1    XT-PIC-XT        rtc
  9:          3    XT-PIC-XT        acpi
 10:    3986560    XT-PIC-XT        ohci1394, uhci_hcd:usb1, yenta, yenta, eth1, ehci_hcd:usb2, ohci_hcd:usb3, ohci_hcd:usb4
 11:    3011037    XT-PIC-XT        nvidia
 12:       2361    XT-PIC-XT        i8042
 14:     421137    XT-PIC-XT        ide0
NMI:          0 
ERR:          0

Perhaps too many things on irq 10? Or what is doing acpi, should I try apm?

MalasNoticias · 06-26-2007, 03:25 AM

I tried with apm yesterday but It didn't solve anything.

I'm enabling scsci verbose debug to see whats is really happening.

tredegar · 06-26-2007, 04:46 AM

My guess is that there's a data bottleneck related to you using USB, and it's not even "Normal USB", but USB via pcmcia.
From your log: "Current Write Speed is 18.4x1352KBps". USB may be having trouble keeping up. Especially when
you recall that USB is CPU intensive (maybe it it is just keeping up, then some other process starts up on your CPU,
and it cannot keep up.

Suggestions:
1] Try burning at a slower speed.
2] Can you switch to single-user mode, and try a burn from the command line? That way, no other process is likely
to need CPU power.
3] LG drives have a bad record with linux - Do you remember when Mandrake 9.2 "killed" LG CD drives?
It turned out LG had bad firmware: http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?.../10/27/0218209

MalasNoticias · 06-26-2007, 12:55 PM

Looks that a combination of 1 & 2 works, I simulated sucesfully a dvd burning at 4x and runlevel 1. But failed either burning at 16x and runlevel 1 or burnign at 4x and runlevel 2 (even niced -20).

Really looks like its getting problems putting the data on the usb cable, thank you tredegar, you helped a lot by isolating the problem, but now I have no idea of how to repair it... :-(

Any tip?

lazlow · 06-26-2007, 07:25 PM

You might try switching to firewire. It is a lot faster under continuous load.

MalasNoticias · 06-27-2007, 02:31 AM

Well, this morning I sucessfully burn a dvd at runlevel 2,
I had to stop X-window and run the command in a term, then
I think gnome is lauching a lot of processes.

Thanks a lot, you helped me a lot.

JZL240I-U · 06-29-2007, 08:30 AM

You could also (re)-nice the burning command, to give it highest priority

MalasNoticias · 08-28-2007, 03:11 AM

Well, I finally solved it, The hardware was broken, I changed the external usb unit in the store for one (same model) and works perfectly, I think the small ide cable on the unit can be too folded.

Thanks a lot for the help, nice community.