I used to could play all CDs and DVDs on my IBM ThinkPad T40 with Feisty (Ubuntu or Kubuntu), but in the past month or so some CDs and DVDs do not start. All I get from the drive are a few clicking sounds. With the few audio CDs that work, I am able to rip them to mp3 or ogg, whichever I choose. The DVDs that mount can be viewed. The CDs and DVDs that don't start will work on another computer (Mac OS-X) and with standard CD/DVD players.

I've checked all help with regards to codecs but nothing has helped. With Kubuntu, in System Settings=>Advanced=>Disk & File Systems I've tried to enable Optical Disk DV-18E.
Mount point is /media/cdrom0
Type is "auto"
Device is "/dev/scd0"
"Disabled"

When one of the CDs that can play is in the drive, and through "Administrator Mode" I try to enable, this is the error message.

An error occured while enabling /media/cdrom0.
The system reported: mount: /dev/scd0: can't read superblock.

If nothing is in the drive or one of the CDs that will not start is in the drive, the error is:
Return code from mount was 32. "mount failure"

Here is fstab info:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda1
UUID=07167cc7-ef50-4908-b8a3-0cf687a3e6eb / ext3 nouser,defaults,errors=remount-ro,atime,auto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 1
# /dev/sda5
UUID=4225af9d-93b4-4b95-8d9d-50507e3a13b6 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 auto user,atime,auto,ro,dev,exec,suid 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto user,atime,noauto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 0

I've checked for similar threads. One of them made the point that a problem similar to this in Mandriva could be that the drive is going bad. I don't want to go out and buy a new CD/DVD drive until I am sure that is the problem.

Since the CDs and DVDs that don't work in your machine will work in another machine then the problem is not the CDs and DVDs.

Since some CDs and some DVDs of each type will run then your problem is not codecs.

The only thing left is the CD/DVD drive. It sounds like it is having mechanical trouble that makes it more sensitive to the quality of the media in the drive. I think it's time for a new CD/DVD drive.

Since this is a notebook computer you may want to purchase an external CD/DVD drive. It would probably be cheaper than fixing the one in the computer. If you are going to get an external drive then you may as well get a dual layer DVD burner.

Thank you for the prompt response and advice.

This continuation of the thread is because I have done some more online research into the problem. It is not the drive, but it looks like it could be a problem with the kernel itself.

I have been using Ubuntu Linux for several years. Was using 7.04 (Feisty) for about 6 months, but recently reinstalled 6.10 (Edgy) because for some reason, my IBM ThinkPad T40 runs faster with it. I also have installed and tried Fedora Core 7, Mandriva, Linspire, and openSUSE 10.2. All distributions were installed through CDs (i.e., the CD/DVD drive works when not accessed through Linux). For the IBM ThinkPad T40, Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy) appears to be the best overall.

There is a problem with Edgy as well as with Feisty and the other Linux distributions I have tried: The CD/DVD ROM does not work consistently--many CDs and DVDs do not open. All that happens is a "click click" coming from the CD/DVD-ROM drive. The problem is not codecs: All codecs for playing DVDs and CDs have been added from the various repositories.

When I check hdparm with "sudo hdparm /dev/hdc" the result is:

/dev/hdc:
IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit)
unmaskirq = 0 (off)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
HDIO_GETGEO failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device

In Feisty, hcd was replaced by scd0, but results were the same.

When I searched various Linux forums for help with the "Inappropriate ioctl . . ." problem, I was able to see that others have had the problem, but that no forum directly answered how to fix the problem. I came across the cdrom.h file through a search for commands in Unix/ cdrom.h is used in the Linux kernel also.

What can be done to correct this problem?
HDIO_GETGEO failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device

It possibly has to due with cdrom.h in the kernel.

/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.17-10-generic/include/linux/cdrom.h
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.17-10-generic/include/config/sc6600/cdrom.h
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.17-10/include/linux/cdrom.h
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.17-12-generic/include/linux/cdrom.h
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.17-12-generic/include/config/sc6600/cdrom.h
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.17-12/include/linux/cdrom.h

I am a novice to computer programming but can follow clear and concise directions. Anyone out there know how to modify cdrom.h so that CD/DVD ROMS (and possibly burners) work?

In my mind, the death click says it all- you have a bad drive.