Possible ways to get the media type of CD drive

VinRoh · 02-06-2012, 03:23 AM

Hi,
I am new to linux world and facing some issues using SUse Enterprize 32 bit OS. I am looking for commands in linux which can give the media type of the CDrom drive. For instance if I have CD/DVD in the drive , I would like to know if it has No/Wrong Media, cd r/cd rw, Blank Cd etc.

I tried using :

cdrecord -prcap dev=/dev/cdrom 2>/dev/null | grep 'Current:'
from the link:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...writer-712856/

But it just gives reand and write speeds for Cd and DVD.

Also , to let you know, I am using

cdrecord --version

Cdrecord-yelling-line-to-tell-frontends-to-use-it-like-version 2.01.01a03-dvd
Wodim 1.1.8
Copyright (C) 2006 Cdrkit suite contributors
Based on works from Joerg Schilling, Copyright (C) 1995-2006, J. Schilling

Please let me know if it is possible to get the current mediatype details . Thanks in advance for all the suggestions.

H_TeXMeX_H · 02-06-2012, 05:59 AM

prcap only prints drive capabilities, nothing about the current media type. Use '-minfo' or '-media-info' instead.

VinRoh · 02-07-2012, 03:00 AM

Thanks for your reply.
I used the following command for the DVD-RW and it gives the media details:

dvd+rw-mediainfo /dev/cdrom

I am still looking for commands which gives media details when CD is used and not DVD.
The above command is not supported for a CD.

Also, can you suggest me command to find if the cd/dvd has corrupted media.

Thanks once again.

H_TeXMeX_H · 02-07-2012, 03:38 AM

Here's a piece from one of my old scripts, maybe it'll help:

Code:

# more readability
source=$1
destin=$2

# get disk type and minimum writing speed
if cdrecord -prcap dev=$destin 1>/dev/null 2>&1
then
  if cdrecord -prcap dev=$destin 2>/dev/null | grep 'Current:' | grep CD
  then
    # we have a CD
    type=cd
    # get writing speed
    speed=$(cdrecord -prcap dev=$destin 2>/dev/null | grep 'Write speed' | tail -n 1 | sed 's/x/ /g' | awk '{ print $9 }')
  elif cdrecord -prcap dev=$destin 2>/dev/null | grep 'Current:' | grep DVD
  then
    # we have a DVD
    type=dvd
    # get writing speed
    speed=$(cdrecord -prcap dev=$destin 2>/dev/null | grep 'Write speed' | tail -n 1 | sed 's/x/ /g' | awk '{ print $12 }')
  else
    # cannot determine disk type
    echo 'Error: cannot determine disk type, please insert disk !'
    # fail
    exit 1
  fi
else
  # cannot determine disk type
  echo 'Error: cannot determine disk type, please insert disk !'
  # fail
  exit 1
fi

VinRoh · 02-13-2012, 05:52 AM

Thanks for the reply.
This helped me to understand better .
Any idea on DVD RAM media type and ways to know if a cd-R/cd-rw is blank or prewritten.