I installed Debian ( ver 6.0.5 ) and my DVD drive is recognized as a CD-ROM rather than DVD

[ 2.328037] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: setting latency timer to 64
[ 2.328297] scsi2 : ata_piix
[ 2.328395] scsi3 : ata_piix
[ 2.328462] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xfe00 ctl 0xfe10 bmdma 0xfea0 irq 20
[ 2.328467] ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xfe20 ctl 0xfe30 bmdma 0xfea8 irq 20
[ 2.336414] ata1.00: ATAPI: HL-DT-ST DVD+/-RW GWA4164B, E112, max UDMA/33
[ 2.352321] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
[ 2.355378] scsi 0:0:0:0: CD-ROM HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GWA4164B E112 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5

The device manufacturer and model numbers are correct but why is it "scsi 0:0:0:0: CD-ROM" ?

Later in dmesg I see that the generic CD-ROM driver is attached:

[ 4.204872] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 48x/48x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
[ 4.204879] Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
[ 4.205363] sr 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
[ 4.211711] sr 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 5
[ 4.212072] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0

The BIOS shows it as a PATA device and it is attached with an IDE ribbon cable.

Why isn't the kernel recognizing it as a DVD? I can access CDs with the drive
but I get nothing with data DVDs (that work fine in another computer).

I checked to see if any DVD specific packages were missing from my install but
nothing obvious came up.

The SCSI layer in the Linux kernel is servicing all block devices, regardless of physical bus and controller type (IDE/SATA/SAS/USB/FireWire/etc). "SCSI 0:0:0:0" means "SCSI adapter 0, channel 0, device 0, LUN 0".

The fact that the driver identifies all DVD drives as CD-ROM drives is of no consequence, as the actual functionality of the drive is not affected by this. No specific "DVD driver" is required, just the file system drivers (ISO 9660/Joliet/Rock Ridge for CDs and UDF for DVDs).

Have you tried mounting a DVD from the command line? Does anything appear in the logs when you insert a DVD?

Also, DVDs and CDs use different laser wavelengths, and DVD drives are actually equipped with two separate lasers in order to read both types of discs. If one laser is broken, the drive will be unable to read the corresponding disc type.

Nothing appears in dmesg when I insert a DVD. I get this this when I try to mount from command line

[11749.211222] sr0: CDROM (ioctl) error, command: Xdread, Read track info 52 01 00 00 00 02 00 00 08 00
[11749.211240] sr: Sense Key : Aborted Command [current] [descriptor]
[11749.211250] sr: Add. Sense: No additional sense information
[11749.312334] sr0: CDROM not ready. Make sure there is a disc in the drive.
[11789.914171] UDF-fs: No VRS found
[11789.914176] UDF-fs: No partition found (1)


A data CD is automounted by OS. This is what I see in logs

[11789.956291] ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
[11790.040276] ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A


Thanks for the explanation. I will install this DVD drive in a computer that has a different distro and a working
DVD drive. This seems to be the easiest diagnostic.

Looking at the distros listed under your handle, i know that vector comes with libdvdcss installed, but im not sure about redhat. Is this problem occuring under redhat or vector or both?