DVD drive not reading DVD movies on Mint 11 64bit

[toyonut]

Hi
I just installed Mint 11 64 bit on my new computer. The dvd drive read fine and installed the OS fine. No problems there. I went to try and play a movie off a dvd and it wont read. It will launch the disc creator wizard if I put in a CDR or DVDR though.

Inxi -d reads

Drives: HDD Total Size: 1140.2GB (35.2% used) 1: /dev/sda ST500DM002 500.1GB
2: USB /dev/sdb FreeAgentDesktop 640.1GB
Optical: /dev/sr0 model: HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H55N dev-links: cdrom,cdrw,dvd,dvdrw,scd0
Features: speed: 48x multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram

So far I have installed Ubuntu restricted extras, libdvdcss2, libudf0 and run the libdvdread4 sh script which just seems to install libdvdcss2. I have run regionset to set the region, but this did nothing as region had been set by previous windows install. I have tried repointing vlc to /dev/sr0 instead of /dev/dvd, that didnt work either. I have also installed the extra codecs in the sound and video menu as this was the CD install not the DVD install.

DVD drive is an IDE and is the master drive.

No media program seems to read the disc so far and /media doesnt get a file in it when a dvd is inserted, so it is not mounting. I have seen some suggestion that there is a kernel bug in ubuntu 11.04 that is stopping playback, but hopefully not.

Help please!

Thanks
Paul

[toyonut]

Looks like it is just incompatible with new 64 bit operating systems.
Drive is a LG GSA-H55N. It doesnt read dvd's, of any sort in windows 7 64 bit.

[mehtuus]

• Did you find a list showing your optical drive as not compatible? If so, then where?
• Did you replace your old drive with a new one? If so, is everything now working as expected?

I have noticed very similar problems both in Ubuntu 11.04 (64-bit) and Mint11 (64-bit) with my internal Plextor PX-760A. However, the very same drive works perfectly in Win7 64-bit. So I know that my drive does work in a 64-bit environment. Further I have noticed that while DVD movies do not load (or mount), the drive does load and play audio CDs as well as load blank CDs and DVDs.

Here is my cat /etc/fstab:

Code: Select all

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
# / was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=075e6090-70d8-4a58-b6df-430c74a68e4c /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /home was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=82700bb4-93bc-448e-8f3a-c40c924806e9 /home           ext4    defaults,user_xattr        0       2
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=31c4311b-09c4-4462-93f1-2e196beb4323 none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0


When I installed I setup three partitions, "/", "/home", and "/swap". I dual boot with Win7 64-bit.


And here is my ls /media:

Code: Select all

floppy  floppy0  My Book  My Book_  WD SmartWare


I don't know why floppy and floppy0 are listed. I don't have any floppy drives or card readers in my computer. Only USB & Firewire ports. I have connected an older Western Digital My Book (via Firewire), and a newer WD My Book (via USB, and which also loads the "WD SmartWare" virtual CD). Re-executing the above two commands after an audio CD was mounted produced the same results.

I am going on information overload from all of the different googled info, threads, and "solutions" (some of which are years old) that don't seem to work with current installations. Any suggestions on how to proceed? Anyone else still being afflicted with this problem or have actually found a workable solution?

[George-B]

have similar problem... just for the Blu-Ray Burner. My DVD is working fine.
Seems to be a 'bug' of the 64bit Version, as it works even under the Mint 32bit and both Windows (32/64-Bit).
Is there any bug reporting forum?

[DrHu]

I don't know why floppy and floppy0 are listed. I don't have any floppy drives or card readers in my computer.

The diskette (floppy) device is enabled in your BIOS, and your /etc/fstab file for auto mounting of devices (disks) has an entry for the floppy enabled..
your code..

Code: Select all

/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0

just put a hash # mark (comment) at the beginning of that line

[mehtuus]

The diskette (floppy) device is enabled in your BIOS, and your /etc/fstab file for auto mounting of devices (disks) has an entry for the floppy enabled..

Yes... I totally forgot about the floppy setting in the BIOS. It makes sense now, thanks.
I still have had no luck on the DVD issue though.

[AlbertP]

toyonut: Perhaps you have to clean the lens of the DVD drive with a lens cleaning disc, which you can buy at most computer shops.

[mehtuus]

@toyonut: Perhaps you have to clean the lens of the DVD drive with a lens cleaning disc, which you can buy at most computer shops.

I recently had an issue where I was unable to burn any disc. The error given (depending on currently booted OS) indicated a possible buffer problem or simply that the index? (that little area on the disc where the automatic test burn always occurs before before the actual burn) could not be started. I cleaned the drive with some canned air and suddenly all the burning issues disappeared.

In my case however the drive would still read discs, just not burn them - at least until I used the canned air. I am not convinced that a dirty lens would cause the problems that both toyonut and I and others are experiencing. I am beginning to think that there is a 64-bit bug in Ubuntu code that is affecting a certain section of users. My DVD drive is basically useless until I reboot into that Redmond mess. That doesn't make me feel good.

[AlbertP]

Toyonut also had problems on Windows. That's why I suggested to clean the lens.

Your problems are limited to Linux. His problems aren't.

By the way, I can just play DVD's on my Mint 11 64-bit without any problem. The DVD reader is a PATA one from (EDIT) Pioneer, built-in into my laptop. My desktop can't run 64-bit.

[mehtuus]

Toyonut also had problems on Windows. That's why I suggested to clean the lens.

Your problems are limited to Linux. His problems aren't.

By the way, I can just play DVD's on my Mint 11 64-bit without any problem. The DVD reader is a PATA one from Plextor, built-in into my laptop. My desktop can't run 64-bit.

That is a good point. Although, he did say that he was able to install Mint 11 64-bit from that drive, and without any problems throughout the install. At any rate, I hope he replies back soon. I am curious to find out if he has had any luck in correcting his issues.

[AlbertP]

Perhaps he used the CD version of Mint 11 instead of the DVD version.

[mehtuus]

In further testing I did the following:

• I put in a blank DVD and Mint recognized it.
• I burnt a Pardus linux ISO image to DVD.
• The system was unable to eject the disc after burning, so I pushed the button on the drive.
• I closed the disc tray with the freshly burnt disc still in there.
• Mint properly recognized the DVD, and let me explore it.

Yet, I am unable to mount or view/watch DVD movies.

[AlbertP]

Make sure the codecs, including libdvdcss, are properly installed.

[mehtuus]

I'm gonna be honest, I don't know the manner in which to verify whether or not the codecs are properly installed. However, libdvdcss is installed. I even re-installed it just in case it was somehow corrupted. I also installed ubuntu-restricted-addons and ffmpeg. The URA install removed two files (libavcodec52 and libavutil50) but installed a load of other files (including: libavcodec-extra-50 and libavutil-extra-50). ffmpeg did not remove any files upon install.

There has been no noticeable change to my system, and I am not sure of what else to check. So in the metaphoric and eternal words of Mel Brooks, I am going to continue to "Comb the desert."

[AlbertP]

Are you sure that nothing happens when you double-click the DVD icon in computer?
Perhaps it's set to open Totem by default instead of browsing the DVD's contents.

[mehtuus]

Are you sure that nothing happens when you double-click the DVD icon in computer?
Perhaps it's set to open Totem by default instead of browsing the DVD's contents.

Yes, I am sure (from a Front-end perspective anyways). And it has nothing to do with whichever software player I happen to be using. I can say this with confidence because I have had some advancement in diagnosing my problems. A definable solution however, is at the moment still out of my grasp.

- My internal Plextor drive can only be connected to the single IDE port on the MB, so I am unable to move it to another port for testing. I do not have any SATA disc drives with which to test (I am budgeting for one now). The system no longer boots successfully from this drive (it gets hung up for a couple minutes trying to read the disc before it times out and reverts to the boot loader on the HDD). From within windows, if I put in a DVD movie the system will correctly recognize the disc and play the movie. From within Linux, DVD movies do not load (or mount) although DVD data discs do seem to load correctly, the drive does load and play audio CDs as well as load blank CDs and DVDs.

- My external USB DVD drive has been tested on other computers and has been found to be working from within both Linux and windows. I have been using the front USB ports on my system in question here, because...well...they are conveniently accessible. And those ports have worked fine in the past. However, over the past year there have been some ...inconsistencies... with the two front USB ports. Which has resulted in virtually identical behavior to the Plextor above. Those inconsistencies did not used to be there. So I plugged the external drive into a hardwired port on the back of the system and like magic everything worked perfectly. I had full DVD movie and DVD recordable performance. As well as being able to boot from the drive.

There are some conflicting results from my testing. So as I have mentioned above I have yet to find a definable solution. But further testing is still underway. I will try re-seating the front USB cables on the MB just to make sure that the connection has not gotten corrupted. I am also going to take out the Plextor and test it with one of my other systems. At the same time this will allow me to reverify that the ribbon cable is also in proper working order. Once I have a chance to perform these tests I will report back with my findings.

---------------------------
MY SYSTEM:

• Motherboard: P6T Deluxe v2
• Internal CD/DVD drive: Plextor PX-760A
• External USB CD/DVD drive: LG GP08LU10

[mehtuus]

This is just an update. I am now running Mint 14 "Nadia". Initially I was using Cinnamon, but that had issues with dual monitor setup. So I wiped and re-installed using KDE. It was then that I noticed my DVD was working perfectly fine, that was GREAT! What wasn't great is that I cannot stand KDE4, but I stuck with it until Cinnamon had some updates for dual monitor setups. Then I wiped again and re-installed with Cinnamon. I love to use my computer now, however my DVD once again doesn't work and I am having the same issues as I reported above.

In regard to my DVD issue, don't know what is different between the two desktops, but something there seems to be causing the problem.

[AlbertP]

Probably the Cinnamon edition has an older kernel. You could try installing kernel updates from Synaptic Package Manager: Status > Installed (upgradeable) at the left, then right-click linux-headers and linux-image > Mark for Upgrading, and click Apply at the top.