I want to buy a Samsung sata internal dvd writer. However, I cannot find if it is linux compatible.
Debian wiki says 'All such optical drives are supposed to be compatible with the Linux kernel and software'https://wiki.debian.org/Burner. So that's good.
But it also says 'some Linux kernels and some USB 3 controllers killed burn runs by short periods of inconsciousness'. So that's not good.

1. Before I buy hardware how can I check it's compatibility first?
2. Also, I'm running debian. So how can I confirm the hardware will be supported as 'free' as opposed to 'non-free'?
3. Once the hardware is physically installed, I presume after booting debian it will auto-detect the new hardware or I will need to detect it with 'cdrskin --devices' https://wiki.debian.org/CDDVDand create a mount point. Is this correct?

Thank you for reading.

Hi,

since you plan to buy an internal burner, it will most probably
be connected via SATA, not via USB. So USB 3 should not be an issue.
If it is indeed connected via USB and if you experience random
failure, then you should find out which of your computer's USB sockets
is still USB 2. Plug in there.

So the answer to question 1 is "Buy, try, and return to seller if not ok."

Question 2: There is no free firmware in the drives. But the burn
programs offered by Debian are all free. https://wiki.debian.org/CDDVDTools

Question 3: cdrskin --devices will show you the /dev/sr* Files
but will not mount anything. This gesture is intended for exploring
the burner landscape of a computer system.
If you have a single burner, then its address is nearly always /dev/sr0.

Mounting is not a precondition for burning, but rather in contrary it
could spoil burn runs to CD-R[W] or DVD-R[W] media. Therefore most
burn programs refuse to burn to mounted media. They rather complain that
the drive is busy. In this case use program umount to unmount the drive.

Command line examples for burning are in https://wiki.debian.org/BurnCd.
If you prefer GUI, i'd advise program xfburn.

Ask at debian-user@lists.debian.org mailing list if you experience
particular trouble with burning on a Debian system.

Have a nice day

Thomas

1 members found this post helpful.

Higgsboson,

I only use Samsung DVD writers in my PC builds.

This will do the trick:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-SH-2...bs_430533031_1

Yes, but I was wondering if there was a more simple method for finding the compatibility for hardware.
For example, if there was a list of manufacturers who make their drivers open source. That way, debian users will know they can download the drivers from the debian repos and it is 'free' as opposed to 'non-free'.

I was wondering if there were manufacturers who work with linux/GNU project so that their hardware can work seamlessly with certain distros.

For example, if the driver of a dvd player is proprietary, then I have to change my /etc/apt/sources list to include 'non-free' sources. This isn't the best debian setup.
So I was wondering if there was a dvd rw which was compatible with a 'free' debian setup.

I see. So once I've put in a new dvd player and boot the OS hopefully it will automatically detect the device as /dev/sr0.

That's good to know. I'll keep that in mind!

Which distro do you use it on?
Once installed was it detected automatically?
Also, did you install drivers from the linux repos or from a samsung site? Or were the drivers on a cd?

Higgsboson,

No drivers were required. The Samsung Writer was automatically detected.

Do bear in mind that I am talking about brand new, custom-built (by me) desktop PCs, where the DVD writer is already in-situ prior to me installing a Linux distro on the machine.

I have never had to replace a defunct DVD writer with a new one, but I doubt whether it would make any difference to it being recognised by the Linux OS.

I have used umpteen different distros on desktop PCs with the Samsung Writers, including Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Debian, Zorin OS etc.

I hope this is of help to you.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi,

(I am upstream developer of libburn and i am also the one who updated
Debian wiki recently to show the text in question.)

> if there was a list of manufacturers who make their drivers open source

Burner drives do not need special drivers. They communicate with
the operating system kernel via standard busses like SATA or USB.
The burn programs compose commands according to SCSI specs SPC and MMC
which they hand to the kernel. The kernel forwards the commands to the
burner and receives the burner's reply. This reply then goes to the
burn program.
It is a relation like between web server and web browser. Kernel
and Internet sit inbetween and just forward messages.

If you google for "MMC" you will probably get to memory card info.
That's an unfortunate name collision. I refer to MMC-1 to MMC-6
as of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCSI#S...mmand_protocol .

So the specific driver for CD/DVD/BD writing is in the burn program.
And as programmer of such a program i can safely state
'All [...] optical drives are supposed to be compatible with the
Linux kernel and software'

Of course there can be bugs and the burn programs have there own
self inflicted restrictions.

There is a buffered block device driver for optical media in the kernel.
It does the reading job for filesystem drivers or commands like dd.
On overwritable optical media (e.g. DVD+RW, BD-RE) it can also write.
Of course it uses SCSI commands, like the burn programs do.


> I was wondering if there were manufacturers who work with linux/GNU project

They don't have to and we do not need them to. It's better than
any cooperation. It's a standardized communications interface.
They do what's prescribed, we do what's prescribed, and it will work
if both sides made no mistakes.


> So once I've put in a new dvd player and boot the OS hopefully it
> will automatically detect the device as /dev/sr0.

Yep. That's what is supposed to happen with Debian 8 or any other
contemporary distro if the hardware is well.
Then udev will chime in and produce links to /dev/sr0, which are
mentioned at https://wiki.debian.org/CDDVD#Devices . Automounters
will try to be of help (cough !) with reading data on DVD. GUI burner
programs like Brasero, xfburn, or K3B may get installed to operate
the drive for writing.

Underneath the GUI burn programs, there work backends like wodim (cough !),
growisofs, or libburn. If they show problems, then i am ready to diagnose
them and to propose remedies at debian-user mailing list.

Have a nice day

Thomas

2 members found this post helpful.

Thank you very much for the helpful information! The process of replacing a dvd writer on debian 8 is now much more reassuring.