Persistent errors when burning DVD from iso with K3b and growisofs

JamesHall · 01-11-2009, 05:37 PM

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to burn the DVD ISO image of openSUSE 11.1 (32-bit) to disk, and have made a total of five attempts so far without success. I don't know what's going wrong, I hope someone can help.

I have verified the ISO image and I know it is OK, the md5 and sha1 sums both check out, so the problem is definitely not with the image.

Initially, I used K3b to try and burn the image with the 'Verify written data' option selected, the disk write process completed apparently successfully, but then the verification process failed with the message "Error while reading sector [sector number]." I then tried to boot using the DVD to see what would happen, I got the boot menu OK, but on selecting 'Check installation media', not surprisingly the media check also failed. Thinking I might just have been using a bad disk, I tried again with a fresh disk, but the outcome was exactly the same.

After looking through a few posts regarding K3b disk write errors, I tried again running K3b as root, which seems to solve the problem for some people - unfortunately I got the same outcome again.

I then tried using growisofs directly, as suggested in several other posts, with the command growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/sr0=[path to iso image]. The resulting disk again failed the media check. I tried using growisofs again with the addition of option speed=1; again, the outcome was the same.

The media check fails on a different sector each time (specifically, in the order of disk production: 1380032, 1492416, 1886144, 1707184 and 1519568).

I kept the log output from the attempt to burn using K3b as root. Here's a sample of it:

Code:

System
-----------------------
K3b Version: 1.0.4

KDE Version: 3.5.9 "release 49.1" 
QT Version:  3.3.8b
Kernel:      2.6.25.5-1.1-default
Devices
-----------------------
_NEC DVD_RW ND-3520A 1.04 (/dev/sr0, ) [CD-R, CD-RW, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM,
DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL] [DVD-ROM, DVD-R Sequential,
DVD-RW Restricted Overwrite, DVD-RW Sequential, DVD+RW, DVD+R, DVD+R
Dual Layer, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW] [SAO, TAO, RAW, SAO/R96P, SAO/R96R, 
RAW/R16, RAW/R96P, RAW/R96R, Restricted Overwrite]
Burned media
-----------------------
DVD-R Sequential

K3bDataTrackReader
-----------------------
Executing 'builtin_dd if=/dev/fd/0 of=/dev/sr0 obs=32k seek=0'
/dev/sr0: engaging DVD-R DAO upon user request...
/dev/sr0: reserving 2225529 blocks
/dev/sr0: "Current Write Speed" is 4.1x1352KBps.
          0/4557883392 ( 0.0%) @0x, remaining ??:?? RBU 100.0% UBU   0.0%
          0/4557883392 ( 0.0%) @0x, remaining ??:?? RBU 100.0% UBU   0.0%
          0/4557883392 ( 0.0%) @0x, remaining ??:?? RBU 100.0% UBU   0.0%
          0/4557883392 ( 0.0%) @0x, remaining ??:?? RBU 100.0% UBU   0.0%
          0/4557883392 ( 0.0%) @0x, remaining ??:?? RBU 100.0% UBU   0.0%
    3801088/4557883392 ( 0.1%) @0.8x, remaining 419:20 RBU 100.0% UBU   1.9%
   18055168/4557883392 ( 0.4%) @3.1x, remaining 100:34 RBU 100.0% UBU  77.8%
   37158912/4557883392 ( 0.8%) @4.1x, remaining 56:46 RBU 100.0% UBU  94.4%
   56295424/4557883392 ( 1.2%) @4.1x, remaining 41:18 RBU 100.0% UBU  94.4%
   75399168/4557883392 ( 1.7%) @4.1x, remaining 33:41 RBU 100.0% UBU  94.4%

The output continues like this for a while, but occasionally a line appears where RBU is less than 100% and/or UBU is less than 99.4%, e.g.:

Code:

668336128/4557883392 (14.7%) @4.1x, remaining 13:23 RBU  99.9% UBU  94.4%

Code:

792854528/4557883392 (17.4%) @2.1x, remaining 12:44 RBU 100.0% UBU  11.1%

Code:

1137082368/4557883392 (24.9%) @4.1x, remaining 11:04 RBU  98.0% UBU  87.0%

The output concludes:

Code:

4509204480/4557883392 (98.9%) @4.1x, remaining 0:08 RBU 100.0% UBU  94.4%
 4528340992/4557883392 (99.4%) @4.1x, remaining 0:05 RBU  88.1% UBU  94.4%
 4547444736/4557883392 (99.8%) @4.1x, remaining 0:01 RBU  31.2% UBU  94.4%
/dev/sr0: flushing cache

growisofs command:
-----------------------
/usr/bin/X11/growisofs -Z /dev/sr0=/dev/fd/0 -use-the-force-luke=notray
-use-the-force-luke=tty -use-the-force-luke=tracksize:2225529 -use-the-
force-luke=dao:2225529 -dvd-compat -use-the-force-luke=bufsize:32m

For starters I don't know what RBU and UBU stand for, so if someone could explain to me what they are and what they mean, it would help me make sense of this output.

Secondly, does the nature of this problem and/or the log output above indicate where and why the fault is occurring? The only two possibilities that I can think of are that my blank DVD+R's are all no good or that there's something physically wrong with my DVD writer. Is this right? If not, what else could it be?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

For info, I'm trying to burn this image on a machine running openSUSE 11.0 with kernel version 2.6.25.18-0.2, K3b 1.0.5-0.pm.7 and growisofs version 7.1 provided by package dvd+rw-tools version 7.1-17.1-i586. My DVD writer is an NEC ND-3520A. I threw away the label from the stack of DVD+R's so I can't remember exactly what make they are.

Thanks

James.

maroonbaboon · 01-11-2009, 06:28 PM

Just a guess but I think RBU and UBU refer to buffer contents and percentage fills.

As well as bad blanks or bad hardware it can also be a combination of the two. I have just seen similar and persistent problems on a new Mac Powerbook after switching the brand of disk, even tho' the same blanks work fine on an older drive.

So I would certainly try a different brand of disk. Failing that, if no-one can diagnose your problem more accurately, drives are cheap and yours is probably already several years old...

almatic · 01-11-2009, 07:36 PM

Some things you could try before you throw your discs away.

- burn with 1x speed (often worked for me)
- try a nero-linux testversion (has it's own burning engine)

if you get different results with nero then probably the free dvd-rw-tools are the problem.

lazlow · 01-11-2009, 07:37 PM

There is a known issue with k3b's disk verification and post .23 kernels. Last I heard .27 kernel still had this conflict. Which is why I am still running a .23 kernel.

JamesHall · 01-16-2009, 05:00 PM

Hi,

Thanks for all the replies.

I did try burning with 1x speed (using growisofs directly) and sadly the outcome was the same.

I'll try new blank disks and/or Nero over the weekend and see if that works any better. If not, I wouldn't be surprised if the DVD writer is faulty, it's a good few years old now and has seen some fairly heavy usage. Will post back and let you know how it turns out.

JamesHall · 01-24-2009, 10:40 AM

OK, here's the latest.

I downloaded and installed Nero Linux, but the result was the same as with K3b - the disk failed both Nero's verification process and the openSUSE media check. Hardware fault seemed to be the only remaining possibility.

I bought and installed a new DVD rewriter (LG GH22NP20), and got some new media (Memorex DVD+R's). When I restarted after installation, my BIOS flashed up:

Quote:

Secondary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable installed

After a quick Google, I found out that this indicated I need a new IDE cable - not too big a problem. I went ahead and tried to burn the image with the new drive anyway using K3b, to see what would happen - it seemed to burn OK, but when the verification step started, I got this error message:

Quote:

Internal error: verification job improperly initialised (specified track number not found on medium)

So, a quick trip back to the store, and one new IDE cable later, the BIOS message disappeared, I tried burning the image with K3b again, and SUCCESS - it wrote and verified successfully.

Celebrations were short-lived, however - I restarted the system with the disk still in the drive, but the system could not find the boot record on the disk. Further experiments showed that the new rewriter will not boot from ANY bootable DVD or CD at all (or rather, any of the two other bootable DVDs and three bootable CDs that I tried in it).

I have a secondary DVD drive on my system (an old LG DVD-ROM), so I tried the newly-burned disk in there, and it booted quite happily. Unfortunately it failed the media check again, and made some fairly unpleasant noises, from which I concluded that the old DVD-ROM is worn out and can't read properly any more.

Just to see what would happen, I reconnected the old DVD rewriter and tried the DVD in there, and SUCCESS - it booted, and the disk passed the media check. So at least now I have a 'known good' openSUSE11.1 installation DVD

, but still something of a mystery concerning my DVD drives.

It then occurred to me that the old DVD rewriter might have been OK all along, and the IDE cable might have been the cause of all the problems, so as a final experiment, I tried one last time to burn the image to one of the new DVD+R's using the old rewriter and K3b. Unfortunately the verification process failed again on sector 2122704.

So from this long series of experiments, these are my conclusions:

(a) K3b: works fine.
(b) The old DVD-ROM: will boot, can't read.
(c) The original DVD rewriter: will boot, can read, can't write.
(d) The new DVD rewriter: can read and write, won't boot.

I have removed the old DVD-ROM and replaced it with the old rewriter (as secondary slave); the new rewriter is installed as the secondary master. So I have one drive which I can use to burn disks, and a second from which I can boot disks - which is OK, but I'd really prefer one drive which actually reads, writes and boots like it's supposed to.

So now the question is, why can't my system find the boot record on bootable media in the new rewriter? Is this a configuration issue, or have I bought yet another faulty piece of hardware?

Any further suggestions, as always, will be greatly appreciated...

maroonbaboon · 01-24-2009, 07:54 PM

The cable problem suggests some pretty old hardware in use. Are there any BIOS updates available for your motherboard? Might also be worth trying the drive on the primary IDE interface.

If you can burn and verify on the one drive I would think the drive is OK. Linux can detect it and read/write just fine, but apparently the BIOS on its own can't. So, assuming all cable connections, jumpers and bios settings are OK I would suspect the BIOS is out-of-date for current hardware.

JamesHall · 01-26-2009, 11:04 AM

The motherboard is quite old, it's an MSI KT4V-L:

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?f...sc&prod_no=505

It uses AMI BIOS, not sure of the version, I'm at work now so can't check (not that it's particularly relevant).

BIOS updates for the mobo are available on the website, but the most recent one is from November 2004, so I doubt that the latest version will be any better than the current one. I did download the most recent update package to take a look, and it requires a boot floppy made using Win98 or WinMe, neither of which I have (nor do I have a floppy drive, for that matter).

Also looked on the AMI BIOS support site (http://www.ami.com/support/bios.cfm), no help there as the mobo isn't a 'true' AMI board.

I'll try putting the drive on the primary IDE channel to see what happens, but if that doesn't work, I guess my only other option is to upgrade the mobo and CPU, and that's a bit too much expense and hassle just to get a drive working. I'll probably stick with using the old drive for bootable media and the new one for reading & writing from within Linux, and reconsider my options when the old drive finally gives out.

Frankly I didn't fancy the idea of trying to upgrade the BIOS anyway, it sounds like a complete minefield!

Thanks again to everyone who's contributed to this thread, your help is most definitely appreciated