1st DVD/CD-writer burns OK, 2nd only as root

brunomcl · May 9, 2009, 2:12am

I’ve two DVD/CD writers installed in a box with 2 SATA ports and one IDE port, running OS 11.0 and KDE 3.5.9.

/dev/sr0 in the second SATA port
/dev/sr1 in the single IDE port, as slave.

Both devices belong to user root, group disk.

My user belongs to group disk also.

The first SATA port is connected to the main HD.
A backup, second HD is connected as master to the IDE port.

Up to a few days ago (probably before the last reboot 6 days ago) both where able to write CDs and DVDs with the user account.

Now, as a normal user, I can read and write CD-Rs from the SATA drive (sr0), but can only read from the IDE (sr1). If trying to record on it K3b goes trough the preparation phase, writes the lead-in and stops with an access denied error (don’t recall the exact wording), and a shiny new coaster for me :(.

If I su to root in a terminal and start K3b /dev/sr1 can burn CDs without problems. I didn’t test with DVDs.

At first I thought it could be due to a XP VM on the background, but had the same problem after closing VMPlayer.

hwinfo shows these drives as /dev/sg* also, and those are not links. Never noticed this before:

# hwinfo --cdrom
21: SCSI 201.0: 10602 CD-ROM (DVD)
  [Created at block.238]
  UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_model_HL_DT_ST_DVDRAM_GSA_4167B
  Unique ID: nOPI.0hAg8NHheX9
  Parent ID: H0_h.0nwD7DPbe_A
  SysFS ID: /class/block/sr1
  SysFS BusID: 2:0:1:0
  SysFS Device Link: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:06.0/host2/target2:0:1/2:0:1:0
  Hardware Class: cdrom
  Model: "HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4167B"
  Vendor: "HL-DT-ST"
  Device: "DVDRAM GSA-4167B"
  Revision: "DL12"
  Driver: "pata_amd", "sr"
  Driver Modules: "pata_amd"
  Device File: /dev/sr1 (/dev/sg3)
  Device Files: /dev/sr1, /dev/scd1, /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:06.0-scsi-0:0:1:0, /dev/cdrom, /dev/cdrw, /dev/dvd, /dev/dvdrw
  Device Number: block 11:1 (char 21:3)
  Features: CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+DL, DVDRAM
  Drive status: no medium
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #11 (IDE interface)
  Drive Speed: 48

22: SCSI 100.0: 10602 CD-ROM (DVD)
  [Created at block.238]
  UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_model_PIONEER_DVD_RW__DVR_216D
  Unique ID: KD9E.r6eTSZfpRz1
  Parent ID: RE4e.5_YtdYWeBEB
  SysFS ID: /class/block/sr0
  SysFS BusID: 1:0:0:0
  SysFS Device Link: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.0/host1/target1:0:0/1:0:0:0
  Hardware Class: cdrom
  Model: "PIONEER DVD-RW  DVR-216D"
  Vendor: "PIONEER"
  Device: "DVD-RW  DVR-216D"
  Revision: "1.08"
  Driver: "sata_nv", "sr"
  Driver Modules: "sata_nv"
  Device File: /dev/sr0 (/dev/sg1)
  Device Files: /dev/sr0, /dev/scd0, /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:08.0-scsi-1:0:0:0, /dev/cdrom1, /dev/cdrw1, /dev/dvd1, /dev/dvdrw1
  Device Number: block 11:0 (char 21:1)
  Features: CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+DL
  Drive status: no medium
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #9 (IDE interface)
  Drive Speed: 40

Owners and groups.

# ls -l /dev/sr*
brw-rw----+ 1 root disk 11, 0 2009-05-02 16:30 /dev/sr0
brw-rw----+ 1 root disk 11, 1 2009-05-02 16:30 /dev/sr1

# ls -l /dev/sg*
crw-r-----  1 root disk 21, 0 2009-05-02 16:30 /dev/sg0
crw-rw----+ 1 root disk 21, 1 2009-05-02 16:30 /dev/sg1
crw-r-----  1 root disk 21, 2 2009-05-02 16:30 /dev/sg2
crw-rw----+ 1 root disk 21, 3 2009-05-02 16:30 /dev/sg3
crw-r-----  1 root disk 21, 4 2009-05-08 17:11 /dev/sg4

What am I missing here?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

TIA

brunomcl · May 9, 2009, 2:19am

From the listing it seems the /dev/sg* is the character “persona” of the drives, /dev/sr* being the block devices.

syampillai · May 9, 2009, 9:52am

I remember adding the group “cdrom” to user for making K3B to work.

brunomcl · May 9, 2009, 8:29pm

Thank you for replying.

Actually it shouldn’t make a difference, as none of the devices belongs to it. But I’m in that group too.

What I think may have happened is either a weird hardware problem (?) or something like this:

An update changed permissions somewhere, maybe in an udev or hal rule, the IDE driver (?) or something, affecting only IDE drives, not SATA, probably at boot.
I could still burn CD’s because this box stays on for many days, even weeks.
The I reboot, and can’t burn anymore.

Wild speculation, here. I’m at a loss on what to try, except change/remove the writer. I only need one, really, but when you store an used one for a long time it usually won’t work again, at least the DVD-writing part.