CDROM Problems.

[Corrupted Sol]

Ok, I have Kubuntu 9.04 as a secondary OS using Wubi on my laptop. The first being Vista (which I am trying to get away from). But I have run into a serious problem. It seems that Kubuntu does not want to reconize my dvd drive or mount it. It also constantly spins the disk when I boot up and to eject the disc I have to use a paperclip and use the manual release. Then when I put it in it either goes back to the previous state or is silent. I have tried these follwing actions:

1. I looked online and found that mounting is controlled by the /etc/fstab. So I looked for it in the file manager and it does not appear. When I use terminal (using sudo kate /etc/fstab) to edit fstab it pops up and I may edit it from there. My fstab looks like this:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'vol_id --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 defaults 0 0
/host/ubuntu/disks/root.disk / ext3 loop,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/host/ubuntu/disks/boot /boot none bind 0 0
/host/ubuntu/disks/swap.disk none swap loop,sw 0 0

I don't know what is suppose to be in here so I appreciate the help.

2. I thought it was weird it was not being reconized so I started K3b to see if it would see the disc. When it started up, I got this message:

No CD/DVD writer found.
K3b did not find an optical writing device in your system. Thus, you will not be able to burn CDs or DVDs. However, you can still use other K3b features like audio track extraction or audio transcoding or ISO9660 image creation.

So I get the feeling that it is not reconized.

3. So after my previous action I went online and found a code (sudo lshw -C disk) and got this:

*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: ST9250827AS
vendor: Seagate
physical id: 0
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sda
version: 3.AA
serial: 5RG4Q4SB
size: 232GiB (250GB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=0b0c6e4d
*-cdrom
description: DVD-RAM writer
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/cdrom
logical name: /dev/cdrw
logical name: /dev/dvd
logical name: /dev/dvdrw
logical name: /dev/scd0
logical name: /dev/sr0
capabilities: audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram
configuration: status=open

So I am confused, it seems like it is being reconized but not reading anything.

4. Then at my last ends, I found one more code to try (sudo hdparm -y /dev/cdrom). I also used sudo hdparm -Y /dev/cdrom. The first one is suppose to put it on standby. The second one is suppose to put it in sleep mode. I get this output:

/dev/cdrom:
issuing standby command
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(standby) failed: Input/output error

This is all I have tried and there is not any real helpful articles I have found using my friend google and i am not sure what else to do.

For anything I have fogot, my laptop is an Asus N80 (I think a N80b) and my DVD drive is Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support. I hope I can get this solved. Thank you in advanced.

[lmilano]

Re: CDROM Problems.

Hi

Excellent, you did all tyour homework and more
How about you try to add this to fstab:

/dev/scd0    /media/cdrom0  udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0    0

I am not sure how it will work in Wubi (never used it), but worth a try!

[Corrupted Sol]

Re: CDROM Problems.

Hey, thanks for the reply. I went ahead and added to /etc/fstab using terminal. But the previous conditions I mentioned (the constant spinning, then manual eject, insert again and no linger spins or mounts) still happen.
Also, since you have never used Wubi I should clear somethings up. Wubi is a windows based installer that installs Kubuntu (or other variants) basically as a windows application but you cannot access it from windows, You must first reboot and then boot into Kubuntu. All the files are in windows and has no dedicated partition.

The only thing I have left to guess is some driver is required or something.

Well, I think that I will not have all that I need with kubuntu until I give it its own dedicated partition. I shall reinstall with dedicated partition and I shall post here again and see if it fixed the problem. Tomorrow, I should be done.

[13thSlayer]

Re: CDROM Problems.

Does this stuff happen on Vista? It's weird, your drive looks damaged.

[lmilano]

Re: CDROM Problems.

Hi,

Sure, my pleasure. Hope it goes well with the dedicated install, it should definitely autoconfigure the cd drive for you in fstab, and hopefully no weird spinning!

[Corrupted Sol]

Re: CDROM Problems.

Does this stuff happen on Vista? It's weird, your drive looks damaged.

Yes, my drive works in vista perfectly. Now with that zeroed out...

I have been trying to install kubuntu, but I had backup issues with vista. After I got that settled, I have tried to install kubuntu and I get all the way until it re-sizes the partitions. It sets them up, the primary and the swap drives up, but then gives me a message that says the ext3 has failed. But when I go and check the partitions in vista, the partitions have been made and is healthy. I also Think I have found out my problem with the cd drive. I think it is because I have 2 extra virtual drives on my system. I will see if it helps fix it. But, I am going to try it and I hope I may get this installed.

EDIT: I have tried 4 more times to install Kubuntu tonight. The virtual drives seem to have no effect after I have removed them. I continually get the same error of the partition failing on the ext3. But, I was wondering I saw that my hard drive and/or my DVD drive is connected with Scsi connection. I couldn't find too much about problems that would relate to this issue. I hope I can get this done, but if not, I just I will have to dust out my old Pentium 4 and just install it on there. Thank you in advaned for the input you put in this problem and I hope I can get this resolved.

[lmilano]

Re: CDROM Problems.

Here is an idea. When you boot with the installer, it looks like you are choosing the option to install directly? An alternative is to choose the option to run the Live CD. I wonder if it would work installing from the live cd (maybe the hardware would be autodetected in a different way if you install from the live CD? I am not sure, but worth a try)

Otherwise, having the exact error message you get should help (for instance if you Google for it, or post here). There may be a clue of what exactly is happening. Scsi should be fine.

[Corrupted Sol]

Re: CDROM Problems.

Success! I have successfully installed kubuntu on my laptop and everything seems to be working great! I was messing around with advanced options and changed it from sda to sda1 for installation. But it comes at a price...

I erased my vista partition...

Not a terrible loss, I have all sensitive data backed-up, but I did lose all that was important... my game save files. So, I do not know what the problem was that was preventing me from installing kubuntu previously but I think from now on, I am going to try and use a third-party partition manager. Well, I am off to download G-Parted so I may give kubuntu all of my hard drive.

Thank you everyone that has helped and I hope I can go and help the other newbies.