[lug] growisofs w/Plextor 740A

[Gary Hodges]

Thanks Hugh and Lee for the comments.  See my comments in-line that 
address both responses.

Hugh Brown wrote:

>On Wed, 23 Nov 2005, Gary Hodges wrote:
>  
>
>>
>>I've since installed the same model drive on a very similar machine I
>>have local access to (the one in question is in Nevada) and the drive
>>worked as one would expect. I have a few extra drives so I think I'll
>>just send out another, but maybe someone here will have a suggestion
>>that will get things going.
>>
>>Some additional info and my original post to l.d.u below.
>>
>>Cheers,
>>Gary
>>
>>***The original post***
>>Sarge install, all updates.
>>
>>I had a DVD drive fail recently and replaced it with a Plextor 740A. I'm
>>now having problems writing disks. With a very small file as a test
>>things work out fine (i.e. I can mount and view the file contents after
>>writing) using the command I have used for a couple years:
>>    
>>
>
>I have sarge as well, all updates applied.  I'm not running with the
>ide-scsi module and my kernel is 2.6.8-2-686, an unmodified Debian kernel.
>  
>

I'm running the 2.4 kernel so I need the ide-scsi module.   I tried 
installing dvd+rw-tools from testing and unstable but I got dependency 
errors.  I don't want to try too much as the main function of this 
machine is working and breaking it before the long weekend would be 
bad.  Ultimately though, I don't think this is the problem.

>I recently purchased the 740A as well.  I've used it to burn several CDRs
>w/ no problem.  I've burned 4 or 5 DVDs with k3b (which uses growisofs
>under the hood), and got three DVDs that worked fine.  The rest had
>problem
>areas.  I could read 80% of the data on the DVD, but the files in
>certain directories were unreadable.  I haven't gotten back around to
>testing to see if it was user error.  All the DVDs were essentially full
>(media was DVD-R).
>  
>

I really need this to work as a script.  I could try k3b, but after 
trying a few things I'm leaning more to a defective drive.

>>growisofs -M /dev/scd0 -l -r -J /data/tmpdir
>>
>>If I write something larger, e.g., 30MB and run the same command as
>>above it apparently writes OK but when I try to mount the disk I get the
>>following:
>>
>>mount: block device /dev/scd0 is write-protected, mounting read-only
>>mount: Not a directory
>>    
>>
>
>This error looks like you are trying to mount to a file instead of to a
>directory (e.g. mount /dev/scd0 /some/file )
>  
>

Seems that way but I am writing to a mount point.  The one I have used 
for almost two years.  Remember that if I write a small file I can mount 
it, but a larger file gives that error.

>>I'm using all the same commands I have used successfully for almost two
>>years. An older copy of growisofs also produces the same behavior. Is
>>this an issue with the drive?
>>    
>>
>
>If you are using a 2.6 kernel, I'd recommend turning off the ide-scsi.  If
>using 2.4, then I'd give k3b a whirl (if you can).
>

What is leading me toward a defective drive conclusion is the 
following.  If I initialize a disk it takes about two minutes with all 
but maybe 10 seconds of that time spent on the "/dev/scd0: writing 
lead-out" part.  On a nearly identical machine I have here it takes 
about 15 seconds to initialize a disk and only a few seconds are spent 
on the "/dev/scd0: writing lead-out" part.  Based on on this and 
everything else I've tried it seems that drive is having problems 
writing.  Since I get good results locally with the same hardware and 
software versions I'm thinking the drive has problems.  Oh, I have tried 
different disks in the problem machine, but they are all Sony brand.

Gary