[Debburn-devel] LG CH08LS10 not burning CDs

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

> > I would be interested in testing such a drive.
> > (Best in an external box with eSATA.

> Would that actually help to track this issue down?

As last resort: possibly yes.

First try to boot a Linux where absolutely
no messages about the DVD drive are logged
after the time point when you see the login
prompt.
I.e.:
Check for messages immediately after login.
Those are ok.
Put in a blank CD, wait a bit, check messages.
Any new message about your drive is not ok.

If you got rid of undesired messages, then try
to burn a CD-R in dummy mode
  dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=100 | \
  wodim -v dev=/dev/sr0 -tao -dummy -

If this succeeds, reload tray, wait, check for
messages. If all is inconspicious, try to write
in real mode
  wodim -v dev=/dev/sr0 -tao  your_image.iso
If this works, sacrifice another CD and try SAO
  wodim -v dev=/dev/sr0 -sao  your_image.iso

This all could be done with CD-RW too.
Re-usable after
  wodim -v dev=/dev/sr0 blank=fast

-------------------------------------------------

If you got rid off undesired messages and still
get failed CD burns (and/or slow DVD-R -dummy
runs), then i am out of ideas.
Then i would have to do own experiments.
Several days long, possibly.

Either by a SSH login to your machine with 
rw-access to /dev/sr0, while all messages are
still prevented. I would need to run wget for
obtaining my own software from the internet.
But no superuser power would be needed.

Or by sending the drive to me physically.
Inside germany it is possible via DHL/Post for
3 Euro as the DVR-216 owner did, or for 6.90 if
one adds too much padding material, as i did.
(80 grams too much. Grrr.)


Possible outcomes would be:

- Not reproducible with my new test machine.

Then you know the problem is in your hardware's
backbone, not so much in the drive.
Main theory would be:
The hardware lures Linux into polling the drive
so that CD burns fail and DVD writing gets
very slow. (Or into some other stupid activity.)


- Reproducible here.

Then an endeavor starts like with Pioneer
DVR-216 a few months ago. 
It began october 26
  http://mailman-mail1.python-hosting.com/pipermail/libburn-hackers/2009-October/000368.html
went on for a while until a second victim with
an external drive showed up. We arranged an
inner-german hardware transport.
  http://mailman-mail1.python-hosting.com/pipermail/libburn-hackers/2009-November/000397.html
Five days later i knew what's up:
  http://mailman-mail1.python-hosting.com/pipermail/libburn-hackers/2009-November/000399.html

At that time i did not have the new test
machine where i am willing to install OSes
and to reboot as often as necessary.
(Something that i don't do with my personal
 workstation if avoidable.)
The test box has a yet untested e-SATA socket.
So i would still prefer to get test drives in
an e-SATA enclosure. (I should try to get one
myself. So i don't have to screw in the machine.)


Have a nice day :)

Thomas