Can't Burn CD on portable USB CD-R/RW drive TDK PCD8824u2

[diresu]

Hi,
All my attempts to burn a CD on my external CD burner fail...
I am using k3b on a laptop, running Fedora Core 3 on a
2.6.9-1.667 kernel (on the newer kernels the network driver
does not work).

When I try to burn the CD as a normal user the burner signals
"write" and nothing happens; trying the same as root
the desktop freezes and I have to reboot...

I don't have any idea how to proceed in order to find the
reason of this misbehavior and would be glad about any
suggestion!!!

Thanks, Dietrich

(By the way - I also tried to backup using a new external USB
hard disk and rsync - and got tons of the following errors:
rsync: stat "/media/usbdisk/backups/[...snip...]" failed:
No such file or directory (2)
probably this is not related, but...)

[spencerf]

what does dmesg say when you plug in burner and turn on

dmesg

just post the relevant portion at the end that spits out information about the device

[diresu]

Hi

Here comes a diff of dmesg before and after plugging in the drive:

289a290,300
> usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using address 5
> SCSI subsystem initialized
> Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
> scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
>   Vendor: TDK       Model: CDRW8824T         Rev: N1B1
>   Type:   CD-ROM                             ANSI SCSI revision: 02
> USB Mass Storage device found at 5
> usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage
> USB Mass Storage support registered.
> sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
> Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0

What do you think?

[spencerf]

It looks like the kernel is registering the proper device and putting it at /dev/sr0 which is also the proper place for a usb burner using scsi emulation. So that is good but that leaves us with the problem of why k3b is not working properly.

when you open k3b does it recognize your burner properly? I'm assuming it does since you tried burning as user but without the expected results.

what happens when you issue this command from the command line

cdrecord -v -pad -dummy speed=1 dev=0,0,0 -dao -audio -swab *.wav

this will burn all wav files in the directory your in...I'm pretending your making an audio cd. I also included the 'dummy' command because it will go through the entire process of burning without actually burning therefore not wasting a blank disc.

[diresu]

Hi Spencerf
Sorry for answering late again - in the last days I hardly find the
time to do something with my computer

Concerning k3b - In the file browser on the left side, my burner is
shown as 'TDK - CDRW8824T'. On the backside of the burner I can read
'TDK ... MODEL: PCD8824U2'. To me this looks fine - but if this string
says anything about k3b recognizing my burner correctly, I don't have
and idea...

I tried your command with a little wav file,
first as normal user and after as root.
Here are the results:

as normal user:

---
$ cdrecord -v -pad -dummy speed=1 dev=0,0,0 -dao -audio -swab sound.wav
Cdrecord-Clone 2.01-dvd (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Jörg Schilling
Note: This version is an unofficial (modified) version with DVD support
Note: and therefore may have bugs that are not present in the original.
Note: Please send bug reports or support requests to http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla
Note: The author of cdrecord should not be bothered with problems in this version.
TOC Type: 0 = CD-DA
cdrecord: Cannot allocate memory. WARNING: Cannot do mlockall(2).
cdrecord: WARNING: This causes a high risk for buffer underruns.
cdrecord: Operation not permitted. WARNING: Cannot set RR-scheduler
cdrecord: Permission denied. WARNING: Cannot set priority using setpriority().
cdrecord: WARNING: This causes a high risk for buffer underruns.
scsidev: '0,0,0'
scsibus: 0 target: 0 lun: 0
Linux sg driver version: 3.5.27
Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'.
cdrecord: Warning: using inofficial libscg transport code version (schily - Red Hat-scsi-linux-sg.c-1.83-RH '@(#)scsi-linux-sg.c1.83 04/05/20 Copyright 1997 J. Schilling').
SCSI buffer size: 64512
atapi: 1
Device type    : Removable CD-ROM
Version        : 2
Response Format: 1
Vendor_info    : 'TDK     '
Identifikation : 'CDRW8824T       '
Revision       : 'N1B1'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc CD-RW.
Current: 0x0009
Profile: 0x0008 
Profile: 0x0009 (current)
Profile: 0x000A 
Using generic SCSI-3/mmc   CD-R/CD-RW driver (mmc_cdr).
Driver flags   : MMC-2 SWABAUDIO BURNFREE 
Supported modes: TAO PACKET SAO SAO/R96P SAO/R96R
FIFO size      : 4194304 = 4096 KB
Track 01: audio    1 MB (00:06.91) no preemp pad     
Total size:        1 MB (00:06.92) = 519 sectors
Lout start:        1 MB (00:08/69) = 519 sectors
Current Secsize: 2048
ATIP info from disk:
  Indicated writing power: 5
  Is not unrestricted
  Is not erasable
  Disk sub type: Medium Type A, high Beta category (A+) (3)
  ATIP start of lead in:  -11634 (97:26/66)
  ATIP start of lead out: 359846 (79:59/71)
Disk type:    Short strategy type (Phthalocyanine or similar)
Manuf. index: 3
Manufacturer: CMC Magnetics Corporation
Blocks total: 359846 Blocks current: 359846 Blocks remaining: 359327
cdrecord: Operation not permitted. WARNING: Cannot set RR-scheduler
cdrecord: Permission denied. WARNING: Cannot set priority using setpriority().
cdrecord: WARNING: This causes a high risk for buffer underruns.
Speed set to 353 KB/s
Starting to write CD/DVD at speed   2.0 in dummy SAO mode for single session.
Last chance to quit, starting dummy write    0 seconds. Operation starts.
Waiting for reader process to fill input buffer ... input buffer ready.
trackno=0
BURN-Free is ON.
Turning BURN-Free off
Sending CUE sheet...
cdrecord: WARNING: Drive returns wrong startsec (0) using -150
Writing pregap for track 1 at -150
cdrecord: Success. write_g1: scsi sendcmd: no error
CDB:  2A 00 FF FF FF A0 00 00 1B 00
status: 0x2 (CHECK CONDITION)
Sense Bytes: F0 00 05 FF FF FF A0 0A 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 00
Sense Key: 0x5 Illegal Request, Segment 0
Sense Code: 0x24 Qual 0x00 (invalid field in cdb) Fru 0x0
Sense flags: Blk -96 (valid) 
resid: 63504
cmd finished after 0.018s timeout 200s
write track pad data: error after 127008 bytes
cdrecord: Operation not permitted. read buffer cap: scsi sendcmd: no error
CDB:  5C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0C 00
status: 0x0 (GOOD STATUS)
cmd finished after 0.000s timeout 200s
Starting new track at sector: 0
Track 01:    0 of    1 MB written.cdrecord: Success. write_g1: scsi sendcmd: no error
CDB:  2A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1B 00
status: 0x2 (CHECK CONDITION)
Sense Bytes: F0 00 05 00 00 00 00 0A 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 00
Sense Key: 0x5 Illegal Request, Segment 0
Sense Code: 0x24 Qual 0x00 (invalid field in cdb) Fru 0x0
Sense flags: Blk 0 (valid) 
resid: 63504
cmd finished after 0.008s timeout 200s

write track data: error after 0 bytes
cdrecord: A write error occured.
cdrecord: Please properly read the error message above.
Writing  time:  232.040s
Average write speed   0.0x.
Fixating...
WARNING: Some drives don't like fixation in dummy mode.
Fixating time:    0.029s
cdrecord: fifo had 20 puts and 1 gets.
cdrecord: fifo was 0 times empty and 0 times full, min fill was 100%.
$ 
---

as root:

---
# cdrecord -v -pad -dummy speed=1 dev=0,0,0 -dao -audio -swab sound.wav
Cdrecord-Clone 2.01-dvd (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Jörg Schilling
Note: This version is an unofficial (modified) version with DVD support
Note: and therefore may have bugs that are not present in the original.
Note: Please send bug reports or support requests to http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla
Note: The author of cdrecord should not be bothered with problems in this version.
TOC Type: 0 = CD-DA
scsidev: '0,0,0'
scsibus: 0 target: 0 lun: 0
Linux sg driver version: 3.5.27
Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'.
cdrecord: Warning: using inofficial libscg transport code version (schily - Red Hat-scsi-linux-sg.c-1.83-RH '@(#)scsi-linux-sg.c      1.83 04/05/20 Copyright 1997 J. Schilling').
SCSI buffer size: 64512
atapi: 1
Device type    : Removable CD-ROM
Version        : 2
Response Format: 1
Vendor_info    : 'TDK     '
Identifikation : 'CDRW8824T       '
Revision       : 'N1B1'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc CD-RW.
Current: 0x0009
Profile: 0x0008 
Profile: 0x0009 (current)
Profile: 0x000A 
Using generic SCSI-3/mmc   CD-R/CD-RW driver (mmc_cdr).
Driver flags   : MMC-2 SWABAUDIO BURNFREE 
Supported modes: TAO PACKET SAO SAO/R96P SAO/R96R
Drive buf size : 1493520 = 1458 KB
FIFO size      : 4194304 = 4096 KB
Track 01: audio    1 MB (00:06.91) no preemp pad     
Total size:        1 MB (00:06.92) = 519 sectors
Lout start:        1 MB (00:08/69) = 519 sectors
Current Secsize: 2048
ATIP info from disk:
  Indicated writing power: 5
  Is not unrestricted
  Is not erasable
  Disk sub type: Medium Type A, high Beta category (A+) (3)
  ATIP start of lead in:  -11634 (97:26/66)
  ATIP start of lead out: 359846 (79:59/71)
Disk type:    Short strategy type (Phthalocyanine or similar)
Manuf. index: 3
Manufacturer: CMC Magnetics Corporation
Blocks total: 359846 Blocks current: 359846 Blocks remaining: 359327
Speed set to 353 KB/s
Starting to write CD/DVD at speed   2.0 in dummy SAO mode for single session.
Last chance to quit, starting dummy write    0 seconds. Operation starts.
Waiting for reader process to fill input buffer ... input buffer ready.
trackno=0
BURN-Free is ON.
Turning BURN-Free off
Sending CUE sheet...
cdrecord: WARNING: Drive returns wrong startsec (0) using -150
Writing pregap for track 1 at -150
---

At this point (and only if started from root) the desktop freezes
and I have to force a reboot by switching the power off...

Are you able to make any sense out of these messages?
If yes please let me know

Thank you very much for your help!! - Dietrich

[spencerf]

very weird indeed. It does look like you have some kind of permission problem for using the cdrom device as a regular user because of these error messages

cdrecord: Cannot allocate memory. WARNING: Cannot do mlockall(2).
cdrecord: WARNING: This causes a high risk for buffer underruns.
cdrecord: Operation not permitted. WARNING: Cannot set RR-scheduler
cdrecord: Permission denied. WARNING: Cannot set priority using setpriority().
cdrecord: WARNING: This causes a high risk for buffer underruns.

And when you run it in root you don't get that message at all but your computer freezes which is really strange. It should not do this because it appeared as though everything was going to work as root then we would have isolated the problem definetly to permission/group settings. I still think it has something to do with permissions but I can't figure out why it would freeze as root. The only thing I can think of right now is to try the command as root but out of the X environment. So enter runlevel 3. init 3. I'm not sure what distro you are using but I think you can just exit out of gnome/kd3/whatever. Then you will be just in the command line without a graphical environment running. Try the command again as root and let's see if it freezes up. If it doesn't then something is screwy with your X server. If it does then we'll have to keep trying different things.

[diresu]

Hi spencerf

...I fear my answer comes late again

...just stumbled over this old thread and got angry about myself as I never have answered to your last mail - after all that efford you put into helping me!

I finally solved the problem by putting all my money together and buying a new computer... My old was too slow, too big and I couldn't update to a new kernel as everything after 2.6.9 wouldn't work...

I spend some time reading about the linux kernel and linux device drivers as I hoped to made later kernels work myself - this was fun - but finally I decided that I should work on my real problem and gave up.

Now I have new problems, new things to read about - but at least I can burn CD's and don't have to spend half of my time starring at the never ending messages of some compiler who just would take an eternity to do his work on my old hardware...

Still - Your answers really helped me a lot and I would like to thank you very much for your efforts!!!

Dietrich