Unable to Read DVDs. Able to write CD&DVDs no problems.

Try change this line in your /etc/fstab...

/dev/hdb /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0

...to:

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

Only one space is necessarry between groups of data of course, I've added some here for readability only.

Well, seems that the system removed the superflous spaces. :)
But I hope it helps you anyway.

Hi I tried the way you mentioned. But still no luck.

root@vijaysirisha-desktop:/etc# cat fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda2
UUID=8dcf6a15-587f-43b1-a78d-eab5dc9990ce / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda5
UUID=4061abb7-7603-46b4-946a-f164340a1e61 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

root@vijaysirisha-desktop:/etc# mount /dev/scd0
mount: special device /dev/scd0 does not exist

root@vijaysirisha-desktop:/etc# cd /dev
root@vijaysirisha-desktop:/dev# ls -l scd*
ls: scd*: No such file or directory
root@vijaysirisha-desktop:/dev# ls -l sc*
ls: sc*: No such file or directory

root@vijaysirisha-desktop:/dev# ls -l hd*
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 0 2007-09-09 10:37 hda
brw-rw---- 1 root cdrom 3, 64 2007-09-09 10:37 hdb

root@vijaysirisha-desktop:/dev#

Thanks
-VB

Do you have more than one CD-/DVD-drive in your PC?

> brw-rw---- 1 root cdrom 3, 64 2007-09-09 10:37 hdb

Your CD-ROM is still associated with hdb.
Try rebooting and see if that helps.

Another puzzling thing is

> brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 0 2007-09-09 10:37 hda

...which indicates your system is on an IDE hard disk, but your /etc/fstab only lists two SATA partitions, among them one swap.

Are you sure this fstab is the correct one for this machine, and not from another Linux partition?

Thanks for reply,

I have only 1 CD/DVD drive. I tried rebooting the system. Still drive is mounted to hdb only.

I have both IDE & SATA drives in my PC. IDE drive has Windows XP on it and not mounted and linux is installed on SATA Drive.

I can provide more info if needed.

Did you change that line in /etc/fstab back to hdb after you tried my suggestion the first time, or does it say /dev/scd0 ... now? Strange that drive is wtill mounted to hdb, if there's no more reference in /etc/fstab to it...

If you have one IDE disk it should be hda. First partition there hda1, second hda2, etc.
Second iDE drive would then be hdb. Partitions hdb1, hdb2, and so forth.
But you say you have only one IDE drive - so what is hdb doing in your system at all?

The Windows partition you have on hda1 doesn't show in fstab either.

So it looks to me this fstab file isn't made for your PC. Did you upgrade or move Linux from another PC?

Try this command and paste the result in your next reply.

$ sudo sfdisk -uM -l

Also, try to list what's in directory /dev:

$ ls /dev

...and see if there's something looking like "cdrom". Then try this line in /etc/fstab:

/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0

here is the partial list output
ls /dev

root@vijaysirisha-desktop:/dev# ls -l cd* dv*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2007-09-11 09:01 cdrom -> hdb
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2007-09-11 09:01 cdrw -> hdb
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2007-09-11 09:01 dvd -> hdb
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2007-09-11 09:01 dvdrw -> hdb

also modified fstab entry

root@vijaysirisha-desktop:/etc# cat fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda2
UUID=8dcf6a15-587f-43b1-a78d-eab5dc9990ce / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda5
UUID=4061abb7-7603-46b4-946a-f164340a1e61 none swap sw 0 0
#/dev/hdb /media/cdrom0 iso9660,udf user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0

root@vijaysirisha-desktop:/etc#

root@vijaysirisha-desktop:/etc# mount /dev/cdrom
mount: block device /dev/cdrom is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/cdrom,
       missing codepage or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail or so

root@vijaysirisha-desktop:/etc# dmesg |tail
[135228.156956] hdb: rw=0, want=1252, limit=4
[135228.156969] attempt to access beyond end of device
[135228.156973] hdb: rw=0, want=1028, limit=4
[135228.156994] UDF-fs: No partition found (1)
[135381.044744] attempt to access beyond end of device
[135381.044751] hdb: rw=0, want=68, limit=4
[135381.044981] isofs_fill_super: bread failed, dev=hdb, iso_blknum=16, block=16
[135608.590732] attempt to access beyond end of device
[135608.590740] hdb: rw=0, want=68, limit=4
[135608.590972] isofs_fill_super: bread failed, dev=hdb, iso_blknum=16, block=16
root@vijaysirisha-desktop:/etc#

root@vijaysirisha-desktop:/etc# sudo sfdisk -uM -l

Disk /dev/sda: 48641 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Units = mebibytes of 1048576 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

   Device Boot Start End MiB #blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 0+ 102414- 102415- 104872288+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 102414+ 375801- 273388- 279948690 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 375801+ 381551- 5750- 5887822+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/sda5 375801+ 381551- 5750- 5887791 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/hda: 155061 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors/track
Units = mebibytes of 1048576 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

   Device Boot Start End MiB #blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/hda2 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/hda3 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/hda4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
root@vijaysirisha-desktop:/etc#

Still no luck. I'm able to write DVDs no problems.

Hm... this is strange. The big question is where hdb fits into this. You don't have two IDE disks, so there should not be any hdb reference anywhere. And how can hdb still be associated with your devices when it's not effective in fstab?

I see you have two Linux partitions. One on sda1 and the other on sda2. The Linux you're using seems to reside on sda2. Still don't see any partition Windows can live in, unless you've somehow managed to install Windows on sda1, which is a Linux file system partition - type 83 is ext3 if my memory serves me.

So, assuming sda1 is another Linux and not Windows: Maybe you're booting from one Linux partition and starting the other, so to speak. Then we might look at the wrong fstab. When you're editing /etc/fstab, that may not be the fstab that's read at boot time, if it's the one on the other partition.

This is the only thing that pops into my mind now. So it depends on how the /boot/grub/menu.lst look like. We need to look at the correct one... Could you please list the contents - not all, just the last bit where the OSs are listed.

To list the menu.lst on the other Linux partition, you need first to make a mount point, say for instance /media/linux1, and then mount it to that.

In /etc/fstab:

/dev/sda1 linux1 ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 0

...Then list that partition's fstab and menu.lst with:

$ cat /media/linux1/etc/fstab

$ cat /media/linux1/boot/grub/menu.lst

...and edit out all but the last bit in that file.

I hope this will yield something useful to proceed further on for us. :)

Oops, correction:

In /etc/fstab:

/dev/sda1 /media/linux1 ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 0

I have 2 IDE Drives. I IDE 80GB HD, IDE DVD/CD Drive. When I installed UBUNTU, I had installed in SATA Drive. I was using my IDE drive as backup device.

I'm able to read few burned DVD (dvd-r)s ( MAXELL & HP brand) and few blockbuster DVDs. I tried to read burned (DVD-r) DYNEX and (DVD-r) GQ dvds doesn't mount. Is it something to do with the quality of DVD ?

For now My issue is solved. But still curious to find out why not able to read un-branded DVDs in LINUX. No issues with these DVDs in Windows.