Troubleshooting optical device (blu-ray burner)

English Hardware
1

My workstation’s blu-ray device seems to search forever with a flashing led without finish mounting the disc. This happends with previous written or new discs, CD, DVD or BD-R/RE. Audio CD mounts in Gnome File manager, but playback is stuttering and breaks due to the flashing led. I also happend to get an UDF blu-ray disc mounted after long time. Eject command works.

I think I haven’t used the device since I replaced Asus motherboard with an equivalent MSI model a couple of years ago. Possibly I also reorganized the installation boot priority to set USB memory stick first. I prefix this for Leap 15.4, but the same issue seems to happend with multiboot Leap 15.5 and Tumbleweed on the same workstation.

Suggestions and procedures to troubleshoot the optical device and its setup are welcome !

Below follows some system info output from inxi, lsscsi and dmidecode

localhost:~ # inxi -SCMd
System:    Host: localhost.localdomain Kernel: 5.14.21-150400.24.33-default x86_64 bits: 64 Console: pty pts/0
           Distro: openSUSE Leap 15.4
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: MSI product: MS-7971 v: 1.0 serial: N/A
           Mobo: MSI model: Z170-A PRO (MS-7971) v: 1.0 serial: GC16013847 UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1.K0 date: 07/10/2018
CPU:       Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-6700K bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache: L2: 8 MiB
           Speed: 1586 MHz min/max: 800/4200 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1586 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800 5: 910 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 5.16 TiB used: 2.46 TiB (47.7%)
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: MZVPV512HDGL-00000 size: 476.94 GiB
           ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Intel model: SSDSA2CW160G3 size: 149.05 GiB
           ID-3: /dev/sdb vendor: Seagate model: ST3500418AS size: 465.76 GiB
           ID-4: /dev/sdc vendor: Seagate model: ST3500418AS size: 465.76 GiB
           ID-5: /dev/sdd type: USB vendor: Seagate model: Expansion size: 3.64 TiB
           Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: HL-DT-ST model: BD-RE BH10LS30 dev-links: cdrom,cdrw,dvd,dvdrw
           Features: speed: 40 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram


localhost:~ # lsscsi | grep cd
[5:0:0:0]    cd/dvd  HL-DT-ST BD-RE  BH10LS30  1.02  /dev/sr0 

localhost:~ # hwinfo | grep cd/dvd
  [5:0:0:0]    cd/dvd  sata:                           /dev/sr0 
  E: SCSI_TYPE=cd/dvd


localhost:~ # dmidecode -t 0
# dmidecode 3.4
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 3.0 present.

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 24 bytes
BIOS Information
        Vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
        Version: 1.K0
        Release Date: 07/10/2018
        Address: 0xF0000
        Runtime Size: 64 kB
        ROM Size: 16 MB
        Characteristics:
                PCI is supported
                BIOS is upgradeable
                BIOS shadowing is allowed
                Boot from CD is supported
                Selectable boot is supported
                BIOS ROM is socketed
                EDD is supported
                5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
                3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
                3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
                Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
                8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
                Serial services are supported (int 14h)
                Printer services are supported (int 17h)
                ACPI is supported
                USB legacy is supported
                BIOS boot specification is supported
                Targeted content distribution is supported
                UEFI is supported
        BIOS Revision: 5.12
2

As I neither have seen any related error message

**
#** dmesg | grep cdrom 
    2.078596] **cdrom**: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20

and began thinking this rather might be a dust cleaning problem (laser) or a mechanical hangup failure.

Until I discovered this forum article
“MakeMKV Linux and USB optical drives: Read issues and solution”
https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25357

Could this also be the reason with Leap/Tumbleweed 1.5 year later?

3

Read the link you shared, I think it is a good idea to try that patch. If it does not work revert it.

Like the page says:

Unfortunately, both bug reports were ultimately closed as not-resolved due to them ageing out.

So yes, it can be the same bug as a fix has never been incorporated in a distribution.

4

To add:
I have also another workstation with Leap and with another internal scsi/sata optical cd/dvd-burner (not Blu-ray, however)
On this workstation/device the same cd/dvd disc tests works quite OK. So if it is a Leap/kernel-related bug/issue, it is not generic for all optical devices.

And yes, I had read the link (else I had not posted it).
However, I’m unfamiliar with that kind of patching, and am not sure what to do if something goes wrong.
If someone with that knowledge could verify the syntax for Leap and list the necessary procedures, I could give it try :wink:

5

I am on Tumbleweed but I check and there is no /etc/udev/rules.d/60-persistent-storage.rules, so I guess that is also the case for Leap.

If that is your problem with the patch, take the text under “look like this:” and create (as root) a file /etc/udev/rules.d/60-persistent-storage.rules with that text. Then restart your PC and see if it works. If not, you can remove this file (as root).

6

I created /etc/udev/rules.d/60-persistent-storage.rules, but unsuccessful: Leap 15.4 would not longer boot (tried twice with long delay).
Happily I could boot Tumbleweed and access the Leap 15. 4 file system from there. Deleted the file and then Leap 15.4 booted ok again.

7

The issue was a bad SATA connector intermediate on the cable that didn’t work properly.
When I switched to another connector at the end of the cable, everything works fine;
mounting and recognizing all discs tested.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

8

SATA cables have only two connectors. Most PATA cables have three. PATA drives have master/slave/CS jumpers that need to be set according to which connector is used. Many PATA drives cannot be made to work on a middle cable connector unless both end connectors are appropriately connected. Middle connectors are for slave drives. End connectors are for the host and a master drive.

9

Sorry, my confusion too hurry. I verified now with the manual. It was the the 15 pin SATA Power connector I switched, while kept the same 7 pin SATA Data connecter. However I had both cables disconnected from the drive while I removed the latter from the chassis.
LG Blu-ray burner BH10LS30.AVAR11B
https://www.lg.com/us/support/product/lg-BH10LS30.AVAR11B