Hello everyone,

I am trying to make a bootable DVD in RHEL5 but it wont let me write to DVD.

I have tried following command to write to DVD:

cdrecord dev=/dev/hdc -v -eject /root/inst/images/boot.iso
dvdrecord dev=/dev/hdc -v -eject /root/inst/images/boot.iso

I am getting the following error message when I run the above commands:

Error trying to open /dev/hdc exclusively... retrying in 1 second.
cdrecord: For possible targets try 'cdrecord -scanbus'
cdrecord: Device or resource busy. Cannot open '/dev/hdc'. Cannot open SCSI driver.

I have also checked /dev/ directory and cdrom is linked to hdc and cdrom-hdc.

Please advice.

I doubt your DVD drive is /dev/hdc...what makes you think that's your DVD drive? It's normally /dev/dvd, or /dev/sr0. Have you tried what the error message says, and run "cdrecord -scanbus"?

And since you're using RHEL, have you contacted RedHat support, since you're paying for it with your RHEL subscription??

do cdrecord -scanbus. You'll see something like this:

0,0,0 0) 'Optiarc ' 'DVD+-RW AD-7200S' '102A' Removable CD-ROM

Then use the following to burn:

drecord -v -dao dev=0,0,0 /root/inst/images/boot.iso

Obviously the dev=0,0,0 will change depending on the output of the scanbus command.

Hi TBone/jcalzare,

I have checked /dev and found that cdrom is linked with hdc

it is showing as follows:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 Jan 15 00:45 cdrom -> hdc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 Jan 15 00:45 cdrom-hdc -> hdc

Also now I am getting different error. This error I am getting after rebooting the machine:

cdrecord dev=/dev/hdc -v -eject /root/inst/images/boot.iso

cdrecord: No write mode specified.

cdrecord: Asuming -tao mode.

cdrecord: Future versions of cdrecord may have different drive dependent defaults.

cdrecord: Continuing in 5 seconds...

Cdrecord-Clone 2.01 (cpu-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 J�rg Schilling

Note: This version is an unofficial (modified) version with DVD support

Note: and therefore may have bugs that are not present in the original.

Note: Please send bug reports or support requests to http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla

Note: The author of cdrecord should not be bothered with problems in this version.

TOC Type: 1 = CD-ROM

scsidev: '/dev/hdc'

devname: '/dev/hdc'

scsibus: -2 target: -2 lun: -2

Linux sg driver version: 3.5.27

Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'.

cdrecord: Warning: using inofficial libscg transport code version (schily - Red Hat-scsi-linux-sg.c-1.83-RH '@(#)scsi-linux-sg.c 1.83 04/05/20 Copyright 1997 J. Schilling').

SCSI buffer size: 64512

atapi: 1

cdrecord: Warning: controller returns wrong size for CD capabilities page.

cdrecord: Warning: controller returns wrong page 0 for CD capabilities page (2A).

Device type : Removable CD-ROM

Version : 0

Response Format: 1

Vendor_info : 'NECVMWar'

Identifikation : 'VMware IDE CDR10'

Revision : '1.00'

Device seems to be: Generic CD-ROM.

cdrecord: Warning: controller returns zero sized CD capabilities page.

cdrecord: Warning: controller returns wrong page 0 for CD capabilities page (2A).

cdrecord: Warning: controller returns zero sized CD capabilities page.

cdrecord: Warning: controller returns wrong page 0 for CD capabilities page (2A).

cdrecord: Sorry, no CD/DVD-Recorder or unsupported CD/DVD-Recorder found on this target.

cdrecord: Warning: controller returns zero sized CD capabilities page.

cdrecord: Warning: controller returns wrong page 0 for CD capabilities page (2A).

Using generic SCSI-2 CD-ROM driver (scsi2_cd).

Driver flags :

Supported modes:

Drive buf size : 92274721 = 90112 KB

Drive DMA Speed: 322560 kB/s 1832x CD 232x DVD

FIFO size : 4194304 = 4096 KB

cdrecord: Drive does not support TAO recording.

cdrecord: Illegal write mode for this drive.


Also I have tried with sao and raw mode but it is not working. Same error message.

Please advice.

Well, again, we will advise you to run "cdrecord -scanbus", as we've both done, and the error message asked you to. Have you DONE IT? What were the results??

And the message you posted indicate that you're running this on a virtual machine...are you? What is the host OS, if that's the case?? And have you tried to contact RedHat support, since you're using RHEL??

Hi TBone,

Sorry I forgot to post the output of the cdrecord -scanbus. Following is the output:

root@localhost dev]# cdrecord -scanbus

Cdrecord-Clone 2.01 (cpu-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 J�rg Schilling

Note: This version is an unofficial (modified) version with DVD support

Note: and therefore may have bugs that are not present in the original.

Note: Please send bug reports or support requests to http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla

Note: The author of cdrecord should not be bothered with problems in this version.

cdrecord: Invalid or incomplete multibyte or wide character. Cannot open SCSI driver.

cdrecord: For possible targets try 'cdrecord -scanbus'.

cdrecord: For possible transport specifiers try 'cdrecord dev=help'.
'.

Yes I am running RHEL5 in VMware. Host machine is Windows 7.

I do not have the installation number so I cannot contact Redhat for support. I have installed this machine for practicing for my RHCE exam.

As RHCE is now on RHEL6 I will start practicing for it once I will be comfortable with RHEL5. Also I would appreciate if you can please let me know about the books that I can use for preparing for RHCSA+RHCE on RHEL6.

Well, the scanbus results very clearly show you don't HAVE a CDROM device. So, go into whatever virtual machine you have set up under Windows, and there should be an option there to 'slave' the CD/DVD drive to a device in the RHEL virtual box. And again, the message tells you to try the "cdrecord dev=help"...have you done it?
..and CentOS is an almost identical version of RHEL, except community-supported. You'll get updates/patches/bugfixes, which could include ones that would fix your problem. If you're just going to practice, either would be a good one to practice on. Even better, why don't you omit the virtual machine quirks, and just dual-boot your machine now? Or (since you're going to spend money on a certification), spend an extra $60 on another hard-drive, and load it fresh, from scratch, using 'real' hardware, not a VM.

Hi TBone,

Thanks a lot!!! You rocks!!

You really helped me a lot in narrowing down the issue. I manage to get the dvd-rom detected but it wont let me write as device is showing as not supported. Here is the output.

[root@localhost ~]# dvdrecord dev=/dev/dvd -v -eject /root/inst/images/boot.iso
INFO: dvdrecord's functionality is now replaced by cdrecord
cdrecord: No write mode specified.
cdrecord: Asuming -tao mode.
cdrecord: Future versions of cdrecord may have different drive dependent defaults.
cdrecord: Continuing in 5 seconds...
Cdrecord-Clone 2.01 (cpu-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 J�rg Schilling
Note: This version is an unofficial (modified) version with DVD support
Note: and therefore may have bugs that are not present in the original.
Note: Please send bug reports or support requests to http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla
Note: The author of cdrecord should not be bothered with problems in this version.
TOC Type: 1 = CD-ROM
scsidev: '/dev/dvd'
devname: '/dev/dvd'
scsibus: -2 target: -2 lun: -2
Linux sg driver version: 3.5.27
Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'.
cdrecord: Warning: using inofficial libscg transport code version (schily - Red Hat-scsi-linux-sg.c-1.83-RH '@(#)scsi-linux-sg.c 1.83 04/05/20 Copyright 1997 J. Schilling').
SCSI buffer size: 64512
atapi: 1
Device type : Removable CD-ROM
Version : 2
Response Format: 2
Capabilities : SYNC
Vendor_info : 'MagicISO'
Identifikation : 'Virtual DVD-ROM '
Revision : '1.0A'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc2 DVD-ROM.
Current: 0x0000
Profile: 0x0008
Profile: 0x0010
cdrecord: Sorry, no CD/DVD-Recorder or unsupported CD/DVD-Recorder found on this target.

I tried to dual boot my machine with Red Hat Linux but it wont detect my HDD it ask me to provide driver for it. I am using Dell workstation.

Please suggest me some books for RHEL 6. I am currently using the exam prep material which is available on Redhat site.

Ok, the device is being slaved as a read-only device, hence the type 1/CD-ROM. That's why you can't write to it. Again, you don't say what kind of virtual machine you're using, so the only thing I can suggest is to look up in the docs for whatever VM engine you're using, to see if you have any options there.

You say you're using a Dell workstation...great....but you don't bother to say what KIND of Dell workstation, or what the exact error is. No one here can diagnose anything without that. And where are you getting the error? Boot/load time? Partitioning time? What? Again, if you're going to spend the $$$ on a certification, then spend an extra $50 on a new hard drive, or check Dells website for help with a driver.

Your problem is that you use extremely outdated versions or dead abd buggy forks. Why don't you use the original software?

dvdrecord is a fork made from cdrecord in 2001 providing missunderstood results from reverse engineering DVD support. It is dead since 2002 and it did never work correctly for DVDs.

cdrecord-2.01 is from September 2004 and due to a NDA, the OSS version of cdrecord could not include DVD support before Spring 2006.

The specific version from cdrecord-2.01 is suffering from distro specific bugs in the SCSI transport code and it (if at all) includes the non-working DVD code from dvdrecord.

Why don't you use recent original software instead of destroing media with outdated and bastardized versions?

The original software is at: ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/alpha/ and has no known problems sinde many years.

Hi TBone,

Following is my system config:

Dell Vostro 200
Intel Core2Duo 2.53 GHz
Mem 4GB
HDD 320 GB
DVD writer

When I try to install RHEL on the physical machine it goes as follows:

1. Ask me to choose language. I select English
2. Ask me to choose keyboard type. I select US.
3. Installation method. I select Local CD-ROM. Here it gives me an error: No drivers found. Unable to find any devices of the type needed for this installation type. Would you like to manually select the driver or use driver disk.

When I choose driver disk it gives me couple of partitions: /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2,/dev/sda5 and /dev/sda7. When I select any of these partitions it says failed to mount the partition.

When I choose manually select driver option it gives me options like adaptec, Emulex, Compaq etc. but none of the driver matches and I have to restart the machine with no success.


Hi Schily,

I will download the tool from the link you gave me and will give a it a try. I would like to say that TBone already mentioned that the Linux is seeing my device as read only and this is not a physical machine on which I am working its a virtual machine. I also checked the virtual machine setting and it was earlier showing my cdrom as IDE-HD 1:1, I changed it to point to CDROM but still no luck. I can play CDs in the CDROM of virtual machine but I am just not able to write to it.

Well again, I can only ask you to re-read/answer/follow up to advice given to you. From a previous post:
Again, load the latest CentOS, which may fix your problem right off. You say that you are working on a VM, but say you tried the install to a physical machine..which is it? Can't be both. If you've already got Windows installed, you're going to have to shrink the Windows partition, to get free space to install to...reference one of the many tutorials you can find on how to dual-boot a machine. And you can STILL just spend a few $ on a new, fresh, blank hard drive, leave your Windows disk untouched, and load Linux straight, AS YOU WOULD HAVE TO DO FOR AN RHCE CLASS, or in a production environment.

Hi TBone,

I will try to get another hard disk to install CentOS on it.

As of now I am using Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.4. I was thinking if I can remove Ubuntu 10.4 and get CentOS installated with Windows 7 dual boot.