I am used to being able to access a DVD using the device /dev/sr0.
Recently I have not been able to do so. I checked, the power and data cables are connected to the drive.
When the system boots, the access light on the drive flashes, as though the drive is working, and the system were checking to see if a disc is in the DVD drive.
The DVD drive is not brand new, it’s one I’ve been using all along, but it is not particularly old either.
Various software tools complain about not being able to access /dev/sr0. When I looked, I was rather
surprised to see that there is no /dev/sr0.
Was the device name used to access DVD’s changed?
Did I miss the memo announcing that?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Shouldn’t have changed. I’m on TW here, and my drive shows up as /dev/sr0.
Do you see any messages in dmesg that indicate an issue with the device (or, for that matter, that indicate that the device is detected)?
On my Tumbleweed system, DVDs do not mount automatically. They show up as greyed out on my desktop until I right-click them and select Mount Volume. So the system IS checking the device, and is aware when a disc is present, but mounting is still a separate step.
I realize that they do not mount automatically. But if for example I try to play a DVD in the drive, I would normally select /dev/sr0 via the tool I’m using to play the DVD. These days the tool says it can’t find /dev/sr0.
DVD readers have been cheap commodities for over a decade. They too often go bad for no apparent reason, or because it’s in a smoking environment. Trying another power connector or cable is typically all the troubleshooting possible, other than switching to a known good drive or trying it in a different PC. If you have a typical desktop PC, not a laptop, spend the $22 or so and buy a new one.
Well, but it is probably a good idea to make sure that the hardware did fail and that it wasn’t something else, which is why I suggested looking for error messages in dmesg. If there are no errors, then it is likely something else.
It could also be a faulty USB controller (assuming it’s a USB device) or something else that’s the problem.
Thanks very much to everyone who commented.
At first it did seem as though perhaps a SATA data cable was bad.
Interchanging SATA data cables showed that was not the case.
It turned out that no matter which SATA data cable was plugged into a particular SATA data socket on the Motherboard, whatever device was on the other end of the cable, would not work properly.
So working as expected now?
In other words, a dead or dying Mainboard SATA semiconductor component …
- Or, a dirty SATA cable socket –
Can you please check if, your local electronics components supplier sells Contact Cleaner spray cans.
Regardless from where, if you can purchase some Contact Cleaner, see if, cleaning the SATA cable connector contacts on the Mainboard alleviates this issue.
deano_ferrari, /dev/sr0 is working as expected, yes. Thanks.
dcurtisfra,
Since I spent some years working with pure CMOS semiconductor components, I take using anti-static equipment very seriously. Even so, an NMOS semiconductor component, even with all the more recent built-in protections, can die.
As to the SATA data socket, although it might still be the case that the contacts need cleaning, I kept one end of a cable whose other end wasn’t connected to anything, plugged into the SATA data socket, to try to keep the contacts clean. Unfortunately, in this area, near Chicago, Illinois in the U.S., those of us who use to be able to fix our own TV’s and such, practically no longer can. We feel there practically aren’t any real electronic component suppliers in this area anymore.
I checked a pretty good computer store in the area, and they have some contact cleaner.
Thank you very much for all your thoughts!