I had an external USB CD drive and the hardware died so I had to buy a new one (now Roofull model ECD829-Y). This is actually the second CD drive, the first I returned because I thought it was either defective or not compatible with Ubuntu. I tried k3b and burner and neither would burn the CD (see attached logs and screen shots). When either application runs, they write something on the blank CD (making it no long blank) and then stop with an error without writing the music (*.wav).

I also tried the Roofull CD drive on another laptop running Debian (11.3) and it didn't work there either.

Details of the Ubuntu system are listed below in my signature.

Can anyone help?

Attached Thumbnails

 

Attached Files

	ERROR, burner-session 2022-07-07.log (9.6 KB, 9 views)
	ERROR, k3b 2022-07-07.log (3.7 KB, 30 views)

Do you have wodim installed? have you tried running as sudo or root? one error log says it lost connection with the burner.

I've used k3b forever and have never needed sudo to run it. But I will try that.

I uninstalled and re-installed both k3b and wodim (on both Ubuntu and Debian) and it did not help either.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll let you know if sudo helps.

Usually your user must be in the cdrom group but if it was not strange that some type of header was written anyway.

Might be a bug but what I posted did not seem correct still looking.

Try Xfburn or Brasero instead.

Might be the disc, some burners didn't like +R/+RW, but would burn -R/-RW discs.

I do have an old USB external HP writer but it is currently connected to a debian 11 PC without an installed desktop.

I can write to a CD disk as my regular user via the command line using wodim like

The music files must be in wav format and replace /dev/sr0 with the device ID of your writer.

There are a few threads that indicate changing permissions fixes the bug:
sudo chmod -v 4711 /usr/bin/cdrdao
sudo chmod -v 4711 /usr/bin/wodim
sudo chmod -v 0755 /usr/bin/growisofs

However, the "Errno: 5 (Input/output error), write_g1 scsi sendcmd: cmd timeout" could also be due to a kernel problem with wodim.

The problem with debian could be something completely different.

Is this one of those 'slim' laptop style drives in an external enclosure? There's a good chance it's over-drawing current for the USB port and resetting. A lot of those have refurbished or used drives inside them, even if sold as 'new', and the drive will have a 5V requirement well over 500 mA (in some cases over 1000 mA), which is beyond what the USB port can provide. The short answer is: you need a way to provide the specified power input to the device. The longer answer is: this may not be easy if you're using a laptop. Don't believe me? Open the thing and up take a look.

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obobskivich: Thanks for the tip!

I believe it is an over current issue. I have a 3.1 port that I plug a short adapter cable into. When I use the adapter to connect to the drive, it dies. When I plug directly into the 3.1 port, it works fine. Then, I plugged the drive into a powered USB port expander, the CD drive works fine.

I'm going to buy a USB V/I tester (Digi-Key P/N 1528-4232-ND) just to verify. This is not only a problem with this laptop, but I have others that I want to use the USB CD drive with.

Is there a manufacturer of Optical Drives that actually uses all new parts in their products (or better said, meets the advertised power specs)?

I gave up trying to find such an external 'slim' optical drive that runs inside of 500 mA - its easier to just de-case them and put them on proper SATA connections IMO.

And to be clear: using used or refurbished parts isn't, by itself, likely the problem - its that yet again USB is getting treated as a 'do everything for all things' connection, without respecting the 500 mA current limit in the specification (yes I know one of the approx. 3209823098234 subvariants of 3.141... can do something like 900 mA, but getting the planets to align for everything to work there is not as consistent, so with the exception of devices like the Intel NUC that specifically label out a 'high current' port, I treat all USB ports as 500 mA). In other words, the drive would still need more than 500 mA because that's fairly typical for drives of this type. As far as getting 'all brand new' parts versus refurbished parts, generally the more mainstream brands (at somewhat higher prices) will do so - doesn't change that the drive will have a nameplate rating around 1A (generally speaking) though. But if the refurbished drive is a dud that's just another thing to consider in this saga, was my point in bringing that up.

"But what about Apple, don't they make a drive that does this, surely for the [probably a lot] they charge for it, it must be okay?" From what I've read, having the same thought, their device indeed exceeds the 500 mA limit as well, they just have a firmware hook that (when connected to an Apple computer) notifies upstream of the non-spec power draw, and is enabled to do so - I don't know if that would work on a non-Apple system but I wouldn't have high hopes for it.

The real 'most right' way to do this would be with a proper 5.25" half-height drive, but nobody seems to make enclosures for those anymore - you'd get more appealing speeds on the reads (and especially writes), likely quieter operation, and less concern over power because you're forced into a power brick there which will generally solve all problems.

Can you find a broken laptop? You can rip its DVD and insert it in a case to make it external. The case will likely cost you under 10 now.

I did that on my laptop (HP 650), removed the DVD and made it external, and placed a disk caddy with a disk in its place to have a second disk. I think I payed around 5-7 for each (caddy and DVD case) and it was around 5-7 years ago, bought them from ebay. And of course it works on USB2 and USB3.

I have the CD drive already, so I bought a USB 3.0 hub with an external 4A power supply (individual power switches). It is better than what I have because I don't have to plug and unplug BU HDD's, CD drive, etc., it all stays plugged in and ready to go.

If I can remember, I'll post my findings about electrical current values.

Unless the scheme stops working in the future, for me, this issue is closed.

Thanks to everyone for all the help. This is truly Ubuntu "I am what I am because of who we all are".

I have 2 different external USB connected and powered DVD drives, one is a DVD/BD drive and both are burners as well.

Both have worked reliably for quite some time (years in fact) with only being connected to a USB 3 port. Both are also LG devices.

I don't remember the brand, but the CD Drive that just died (no external PS needed) was used for over 3 years and I created well over 300 CD's with it (about 2 per week/year). I only hope the new one is at least as good.

Here are my electrical current measurement results. The instrument is new to me so I don't know yet how to get actual max recordings. So these are just observed on the little screen:
It's interesting how high current happens in places you wouldn't expect and yet it makes sense.

I can't seem to find specs on the CD Drive (Roofull ECD829-Y).

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