Mint 10 not seeing DVD

[Landshark22]

Hello. I am new to Linux and recently installed Linux Mint 10 Julia on my Dell Inspiron 2.6 Ghz desktop.

I love the new system, and am getting familiar with the new set up. One problem that I've encountered is that I can not see my DVD and USB drives. I've gone under the main menu>system tools>system profiler>system information and high lighted the "Storage" tab but neither the USB nor the DVD storage drive are there.

I have been able to use Brasero to burn data onto a CD and a DVD so I know the DVD burner is functional, as it was in Windows. I've also been able to use the CD writer to import songs from CD format into MP3 format in Rhythmbox on my computer.

It appears that Linux will recognize data when a disc is loaded into the bay, but it will not recognize a blank disc or a USB drive as being available to save data.

If anyone may have some suggestions on what I should do to correct this problem, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help.

[reed9]

Normally, when you put in a blank CD or plug in a flash drive, an icon will appear on your desktop and in your file manager indicating their presence. You're saying this is not occurring? And aside from that, the CD burner is fully functional and working - you said you were able to burn without problems?

Can you plug in a usb flash drive and post the output of

sudo fdisk -l
dmesg | tail

[Landshark22]

Thanks for the input, it is much appreciated.

Yes, you are correct that neither a blank CD, nor a USB drive show on the file manager. I previously had Windows on this machine, and the CD and USB both functioned correctly. After I stripped off Windows and installed Linux, I have not been able to see the CD or USB Drive.

I input the code you suggested, and the response back that I received follows below. Unfortunately, I do not understand the information which it has provided. Thanks again for the help, and the code response was:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x10000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 12158 97654784 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 12158 60802 390728705 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 12158 36473 195311616 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 36474 59293 183296000 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 59293 60802 12119040 82 Linux swap / Solaris

[reed9]

The fdisk -l command is listing your drives. This is showing you have 1 500 GB harddrive, labeled /dev/sda. If the usb flash drive is plugged in, it's not showing, which is a bigger problem than it could have been, I'm afraid. Can you try a different usb port and see if it shows?

Also, can you give the dmesg | grep tail output after plugging in the drive as well?

This firefox add on may be helpful for running commands.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...n/terminalrun/

[Landshark22]

Thanks for explaining this to me, and now it makes sense to me.

I confirmed that the CD and USB drive were in place, and ran the command again. The output I received was:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x10000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 12158 97654784 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 12158 60802 390728705 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 12158 36473 195311616 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 36474 59293 183296000 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 59293 60802 12119040 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 1028 MB, 1028653056 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 3924 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1fbe376b

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 3924 1004528 e W95 FAT16 (LBA)
allen@allen-Inspiron-531 ~ $ dmesg | tail
[77701.024071] ata4.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
[77701.024085] sr 3:0:0:0: CDB: Xpwrite, Read disk info: 51 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00
[77701.024116] ata4.00: cmd a0/00:00:00:02:00/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0 pio 16388 in
[77701.024119] res 40/00:02:00:08:00/00:00:00:00:00/a0 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
[77701.024126] ata4.00: status: { DRDY }
[77701.024138] ata4: hard resetting link
[77701.024143] ata4: nv: skipping hardreset on occupied port
[77701.492074] ata4: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[77701.516200] ata4.00: configured for UDMA/100
[77701.516599] ata4: EH complete
allen@allen-Inspiron-531 ~ $

If I understand correctly, you wanted me to input the command sudo fdisk -ldmesg|tail

the response I got was:

allen@allen-Inspiron-531 ~ $ sudo fdisk -ldmesg|tail
fdisk: invalid option -- 'd'

Usage:
fdisk [options] <disk> change partition table
fdisk [options] -l <disk> list partition table(s)
fdisk -s <partition> give partition size(s) in blocks

Options:
-b <size> sector size (512, 1024, 2048 or 4096)
-c switch off DOS-compatible mode
-h print help
-u <size> give sizes in sectors instead of cylinders
-v print version
-C <number> specify the number of cylinders
-H <number> specify the number of heads
-S <number> specify the number of sectors per track

[reed9]

So that's all fine.

This problem crops up every now and again and it's unfortunately difficult to diagnose.

First thing I would try is to open gconf-editor

gconf-editor

Then navigate to apps -> nautilus -> desktop

And make sure volumes_visible is checked.