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    Lite-On DVD/RW and Device Notifier

    Hi Everyone,

    I am a new forum member and this is my first post. I have installed 11.04 several times now and there is one problem that keeps recurring throughout all of the various configurations that I have tried.

    The base rig is a Gateway GT5662 desktop.

    * AMD Phenom 9500 quad core 64 bit
    * 3 GB RAM
    * ATI HD 2400XT dual head and twin Dell monitors
    The ATI card is currently using the proprietary ATI drivers. Once I upgraded KDE to 4.6.3, this was necessary.
    * Lite-On EIDE DVD rewriter SOHW – 1633S
    * Western Digital SATA Caviar Green 500 GB

    There are no BIOS updates available. The onboard network and audio controllers have been disabled. In their place I am using a USB ethernet adapter (no problems that I know of) and the dreaded Audigy 2 PCI audio controller (complete with breakout panel). These hardware changes are necessary to accommodate real-world Windows projects that exist in a faraway place in my PC universe. In effect, I have the Vista Menu manager in GRUB (Legacy Version) to start Vista or XP.

    The current Kubuntu configuration that I am using is the base Desktop installation from the DVD download with the current crop of 100+ updates. The desktop has been upgraded to KDE 4.6.3. and Amarok has been upgraded to 2.4.1 through the Kubuntu Backports PPA.

    The Lite-On DVD rewriter is correctly identified in the KinfoCenter. Unfortunately, the drive is behaving very erratically in this environment. I am unable to find any web references for Ubuntu or Kubuntu 11.04 relating to the problems that I am having.

    The Device Notifier has never recognized a “-” format DVD and very rarely recognizes a “+” format DVD. CD's of all types are always recognized by the device notifier and usually handled OK.

    All optical disks with data on them are recognized by Dolphin. Formatted DVD's with no data on them are not displayed in Dolphin. Commercially recorded DVD's are playing well with Dragon and VLC. When an optical disk is displayed, files can be exchanged with other devices within the Dolphin program with no apparent problems. I am unable to format a blank DVD with K3b and have the disk recognized by the Device Notifier or Dolphin.

    No optical disks can be ejected from within Dolphin when right clicking the drive icon. Dolphin generates an error message every time this is attempted. CD's can be ejected using the Device Notifier. When an optical disk has to be ejected manually, the Dolphin window updates accordingly.

    Amarok is virtually unusable with this Lite-On drive. On a previous installation, I installed Banshee and used it to play CD's without any problems.

    I suspect that there is a hardware compatibility problem with the DVD rewriter and that there is a very strong possibility that it can't be resolved in this Kubuntu version. I started the Device Action manager, but quickly realised that some familiarity with that program was necessary before proceeding.

    So, any ideas out there? I will check this post from time to time for a response. If there are no suggestions, then I will install some different KDE distros and report my findings here.

    I would really like to see Kubuntu working well on my twin monitor system. This version is very nice and oh..so close.

    #2
    Re: Lite-On DVD/RW and Device Notifier

    Does anything funky turn up in dmesg?
    --
    Intocabile

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      #3
      Re: Lite-On DVD/RW and Device Notifier

      I knew I should have saved that dmesg listing. I would love to give you a current dmesg, but I have already been testing other KDE distributions. The first time I ran dmesg, the listings that directly related to the optical drive appeared to be OK. Later, while I was having a Linux moment with that drive, I used dmesg in anger and it spewed out the most un-dmesg listing I’ve ever seen. All the listings appeared to be about the CD device or something like that. I only saw that once, but I haven’t really tried to reproduce it either.

      I installed Fedora 15/KDE and the behavior of the Lite-On drive is identical to Kubuntu 11.04. I then installed Fedora 15/Gnome 3 and the drive worked fine. Too bad that I consider Gnome 3 to be only slightly less horrible than Unity. And, it doesn’t seem to be working correctly on my twin monitor setup. As you move from workspace to workspace, whatever you put in the right monitor, stays in the right monitor (feature?).
      I’m going to put Ubuntu 10.10 back on this computer and move Kubuntu to another and keep track of the development there.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Lite-On DVD/RW and Device Notifier

        xhalor,
        thanks for a very nice writeup of your hardware and such.

        I dunno, but I have always relied on lite-on drives, they have provided good and faithful service to me.

        I assume that you've tried some other os and it does, indeed, run correctly therewith?

        I thought that something had really messed up with my os a coupla weeks ago and it was a pin problem on the cable.

        woodsmoke


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