Gateway MT6821 laptop-Optiarc DVD RW AD-7530A-Won't Mount...

[oldude]

When trying to open with an audio cd I get this error:

Error-KDesktop

Could not mount the device
The reported error was:
mount: I could not determine the filesystem type,
and none was specified

It is recognized in PCCC showing the following:

Mount point: /mnt/cdrom
Device: hda
Name: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7530A
Type: auto
Options: umask=0,users,iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,exec

As per this post (with a similar situation): http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,62467.0.html
I ran this   'lshw | grep cdrom -A 10'      in Konsole with this result:

 *-cdrom
                   description: DVD-RAM writer
                   product: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7530A
                   physical id: 0
                   bus info: ide@0.0
                   logical name: /dev/hda
                   version: EX32
                   serial: 30644980 1068387Q111
                   capabilities: packet atapi cdrom removable nonmagnetic dma lba iordy audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram
                   configuration: mode=udma2 status=nodisc
        *-storage
             description: SATA controller
             product: 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA AHCI Controller
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1f.2
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.2
             logical name: scsi0
             version: 02
             width: 32 bits

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas ?...thanks...

[Old-Polack]

oldude:

Your system is fine. Audio disks have tracks, but do not have a filesystem as such. Linux does not mount devices or partitions, Linux mounts filesystems. As there is no filesystem on an audio disk, there can be no mount. The disks can nonetheless be played, and the various tracks ripped, if that is your desire. What they can't be, on anyone's distribution, is mounted. 

[oldude]

ok just going by the error message ... that is the error message I get & for whatever reason  they won't play...can't rip tracks, etc... won't play dvd's... when I insert a dvd, open mplayer, hit play dvd I get an error message: ' fatal error- error initializing the selected video out (-vo) device'

[Old-Polack]

ok just going by the error message ... that is the error message I get & for whatever reason  they won't play...can't rip tracks, etc... won't play dvd's... when I insert a dvd, open mplayer, hit play dvd I get an error message: ' fatal error- error initializing the selected video out (-vo) device'

OK. That has much more meaning than an audio disk not mounting. Have you configured the various players, audio and video? Is this a new installation? Has any of this worked in the past with this installation, but has suddenly stopped working, or has nothing worked from the start? Has any of this actually worked with another distribution? Does any of this work from the liveCD, if you load it in memory, to free the drive? Has the OS recently crashed, or has there been a recent upgrade? Is the OS fully upgraded?

As you can see from the above questions, we so far have the assertion of a problem, and finally a meaningful error message, but you haven't yet provided a context under which the message pertains. We need the context in order to understand the problem.

[oldude]

Thanks OP...your questions give me some ideas of what information to post...let me see if I can shed some light...some of this may be general since my memory isn't too great & I tend to not write anything down  ...

To begin with when I got this laptop it had windows vista pre-installed...I only played with vista a little & it seems that everything worked ok...could play cd's, dvd's,wireless worked, etc...I had been running linux distros on my desktop pc for a while...always debian or debian-based stuff...so I first installed debian 4 as a dual boot with vista...unfortunately I don't remember if the cd/dvd drive worked with debian or if I even got as far as trying it, since I could never get the wireless working with debian so googled around for a distro that would play well with my wireless(Intel-PRO/Wireless 3945ABG)...google pointed me to some posts on this forum where some people had success with pclos & this particular hardware so downloaded pclos 2007, installed it & my wireless worked out of the box which was my # 1 priority at the time...shortly after that I wiped vista off the hard drive since it didn't seem to want to let me shrink it's partition much, although I do have vista installed in a virtual machine now (virtualbox)...

Here's where my bad memory comes in...With 2007 the cd/dvd drive worked somewhat, but was always problematic...for example when I would insert an audio cd it would take an extremely long time to start playing if it would play at all...it seems like I was able to rip tracks & I was able to burn a few audio cd's (with k3b), but had a lot of failed burns too...I could play dvd's with mplayer, but never was able to burn a dvd...sorry, don't remember much about error messages etc...

So when the big upgrade came along before the release of 2009, I lost my wireless, which was the subject of many forum posts...I tried some of the fixes with no success & ended up waiting for 2009 to be released, downloaded the iso (2009.1) did a fresh install without formatting my /home partition, which gave me my wireless back...after the install I wasn't able to play cd's,dvd's,rip or burn...as I recall I was getting an error message something to the effect that there was no entry in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab for the device...I went to PCCC, clicked on 'run config tool'...which gave me an entry in /etc/fstab...which was:
'/dev/hda /media/cdrom auto umask=0,users,iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,exec 0 0'...
Still no luck...it seems that the error message at that point was something like 'can't find /dev/hda in /mnt/cdrom' ...that's probably not exact, but in the interest of trial & error I ran the config tool from PCCC again & changed the mount point to /mnt/cdrom, giving me the present entry in /etc/fstab:
'/dev/hda /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,users,iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,exec 0 0' ...
Still no change...& that's pretty much where I'm at now...I just now looked at /etc/mtab & I see that there is still no entry for /dev/hda there...could this be an issue ?...

As to a couple of your other questions...since the fresh install of 2009.1 I have been doing upgrades with synaptic regularly...latest one earlier today...As to behavior when running from live cd loaded into ram...I haven't tried that, but will try it now & post back...sorry to be so long-winded & vague...thanks for your patience...

[Old-Polack]

I just now looked at /etc/mtab & I see that there is still no entry for /dev/hda there...could this be an issue ?...

As to a couple of your other questions...since the fresh install of 2009.1 I have been doing upgrades with synaptic regularly...latest one earlier today...As to behavior when running from live cd loaded into ram...I haven't tried that, but will try it now & post back...sorry to be so long-winded & vague...thanks for your patience...

Actually, a quite detailed report. For the sake of argument, Where did you come up with /dev/hda for your optical drive? With vista on the machine when new, I would expect the drives to be SATA, in which case the optical drive would usually be seen as /dev/sr0. In most cases when IDE/PATA drives are involved, /dev/hda is a hard drive, and /dev/hdb might be an optical drive. I have a 1999 Compaq laptop with the optical drive on /dev/hda, but that wasn't even common, for that time.

The first item I'd check is whether /dev/hda is an accurate designation for the drive. If that's wrong, that could be your entire problem.

[oldude]

I am now running from the live cd-copied to ram...I have been able to play a cd with amarok...rip the tracks with k3b...save the ripped tracks to a playlist in amarok...haven't tried to burn anything yet or anything with dvd's yet...

As far as where I came up with /dev/hda for the optical drive...that is what was shown in PCCC as per the hardware detection...the hard drive shows as /dev/sda...don't know if that's correct, but that's what it shows in PCCC running from live cd-copied to ram also...

This is the /etc/fstab in this live cd-copied to ram:

### Entries below this line were automatically added by hwdetect v0.7.1
# ROOT
/dev/root / rootfs defaults 0 0
# PTS
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
# cdrom: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7530A
/dev/hda /media/cdrom auto user,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
# /dev/sda1, size=20980827, type=131: Journalised FS: ext3 (primary)
/dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 ext3 user,exec,rw,noauto 1 2
# /dev/sda6, size=283209822, type=131: Journalised FS: ext3 (extended)
/dev/sda6 /mnt/sda6 ext3 user,exec,rw,noauto 1 2
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda5, size=8385867, type=130: Linux swap (extended)
/dev/sda5 swap swap defaults 0 0

[oldude]

another note...the live cd that I'm using right now is burned from the 2009.2 iso that I just downloaded a couple days ago, whereas the one I installed from after the big upgrade was 2009.1...considering that I have upgraded all along should I have to re-install to my hard drive from the 2009.2 iso ?...I think not, but I can do that easily enough if it's necessary...I have noticed that the login screen in the 2009.1 is a bit different from mine from the 2009.1...not a big deal unless there are other differences etc...

[Old-Polack]

another note...the live cd that I'm using right now is burned from the 2009.2 iso that I just downloaded a couple days ago, whereas the one I installed from after the big upgrade was 2009.1...considering that I have upgraded all along should I have to re-install to my hard drive from the 2009.2 iso ?...I think not, but I can do that easily enough if it's necessary...I have noticed that the login screen in the 2009.1 is a bit different from mine from the 2009.1...not a big deal unless there are other differences etc...

I'm typing this from an upgraded TR5, which predates the 2009 release. There's no reason to think a reinstall would be necessary.

# cdrom: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7530A
/dev/hda /media/cdrom auto user,noauto,ro,exec 0 0

This is uncommon, in a laptop, but it seems your laptop has a SATA hard drive and an IDE/PATA optical drive. Note the options in blue. These are different from what is on the installed /etc/fstab, and, other than mine mounts at /mnt/cdrom, the same as I've always had on all my installations, going back at least to 2002. I have no problems with optical drive functions of any kind. We know these options work on your machine, so I'd edit the installed /etc/fstab to match. There may still be other problems, but at least the /etc/fstab entry won't be a suspect any more. We also know, for sure, that the physical hardware works fine, eliminating it as suspect.

Edit the installed /etc/fstab, save the file, and reboot to the installed system.

Post your results.

[oldude]

Ok...before I left the live cd I tried to burn a cd with k3b from the cd tracks I ripped & wasn't able to do that...I also tried to open a cd with photos & wasn't able to do that...I will need to run from the cd again to get some error info etc (it was late)...

Went back to the installed system & edited /etc/fstab as suggested...I was able to play an audio cd from amarok, but when I clicked 'play audio cd' it's like it hung for a couple minutes, then the little clock showed up, the toolbar said 'populating playlist' ...I let it set & it took btw 15 to 20 minutes before the tracks showed up in the playlist window...then a couple of minutes before playing the first track, then there was almost a 2 minute delay between each track...this is pretty much the behavior I was getting from my original install of 2007...

Tried to rip tracks from a cd with k3b...it showed 'audio cd' in the drive, but clicking on the 'rip audio cd' from the tools menu got no response...

Tried to play a dvd in mplayer...no luck...

I will play around some more later & try to get some more info...time to go out & cut some firewood...temps going below 0 again tonight...brr !!!...thanks for your help...more later...

[Old-Polack]

oldude:

Try, as root;

[root@fatman ~]# hdparm /dev/hda         <Enter>

Post your results.

[oldude]

ok...here's the result:

[root@localhost ~]# hdparm /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Invalid exchange
 IO_support    =  0 (default)
 unmaskirq     =  0 (off)
 using_dma     =  1 (on)
 keepsettings  =  0 (off)
 readonly      =  0 (off)
 readahead     = 256 (on)
 HDIO_GETGEO failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device

Also here's something interesting...I googled  Optiarc 'DVD RW AD-7530A ATA Device' & came across this:

http://club.myce.com/f34/optiarc-dvd-rw-ad-7530a-ata-device-227787/

It seems a lot of people are having the same problems in windows,vista & XP ...
this seems to be the fix in the windows world:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

[Old-Polack]

oldude:

Still as root:

[root@fatman ~]# hdparm -c1 -u1 /dev/hda       <Enter>

Then once more;

[root@fatman ~]# hdparm /dev/hda       <Enter>

You should see;

HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Invalid exchange
 IO_support    =  1 (32-bit)                            <-- This and the line below should now help to speed things up a bit.
 unmaskirq      =  1 (on)
 using_dma      =  1 (on)
 keepsettings  =  0 (off)
 readonly         =  0 (off)
 readahead       = 256 (on)
 HDIO_GETGEO failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device

[oldude]

the results as you said:
root@localhost ~]# hdparm -c1 -u1 /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 setting 32-bit IO_support flag to 1
 setting unmaskirq to 1 (on)
 IO_support    =  1 (32-bit)
 unmaskirq     =  1 (on)
[root@localhost ~]# hdparm /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Invalid exchange
 IO_support    =  1 (32-bit)
 unmaskirq     =  1 (on)
 using_dma     =  1 (on)
 keepsettings  =  0 (off)
 readonly      =  0 (off)
 readahead     = 256 (on)
 HDIO_GETGEO failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
[root@localhost ~]#

Playing a cd in amarok still the same...took 17 minutes to populate the playlist...a 2 minute delay btw tracks...

[oldude]

Ok...today I insert cd & it plays in Amarok in good time... ...I have restarted since last time...maybe that helped ?...I will try other stuff...