Audio CD Ejects

[msjulie]

Hello Scott,

I've had a few moments to fiddle with things.

As I mentioned, briefly, my problem is not only with Audio CDs as I first suspected. My system is also ejecting Data Discs.

I was able to disable HAL as you mentioned and mount and umount Data CDs without a hitch or any sign of the random eject.

Unfortunately, disabling HAL caused some programs to claim I didn't have a CD ROM in the drive (Audio CDs).

I did come up with an alternative to disabling HAL for Data CD's:

In fstab

/dev/hdc        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto     0       0

I changed 'user' to 'nouser' giving:

/dev/hdc        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto     0       0

Data CDs need to be mounted using:

sudo mount /media/cdrom0

and to un-mount the CD:

sudo umount /media/cdrom0

Of course this disables the eject button for anyone without root privileges, but the Data CD seems to stay mounted and doesn't eject.

I know it is not a goos solution, but at least it seems to be working.

Audio CD do not get 'mounted.' They do get recognized in some way though. I haven't figured that out yet. Any suggestions? I was hoping I could do a similar trick to keep the Audio CD's in place.

I'd still like to use Sound Juicer and Rhythem Box to play CD's. If I 'kill' HAL then that doesn't seem possible.

Thanks again,
Julie

----Additional

I ran lshal -m and got this with an Audio CD

Start monitoring devicelist:
-------------------------------------------------
volume_part_1_size_550311936 added
storage_model_Hewlett_Packard_CD_Writer_Plus_8000 condition EjectPressed = 
volume_part_1_size_550311936 removed

When I did a dmesg | tail and received:

[17191382.492000] cdrom: dropping to single frame dma

I don't think I'm getting the "dropping to single frame" message for a Data CD, but will check it out.

Are you getting similar output?

I'm going to try lshal -m with a Data CD and see what I get also.

---Another Addition

I tried lshal -m with a Data CD using my 'nosuer' option in fstab.

My first attempt I did not mount the Data CD the second attempt I opened another terminal and mount the Data CD.

Start monitoring devicelist:
-------------------------------------------------
volume_label_srcd_0_2_19 added
storage_model_Hewlett_Packard_CD_Writer_Plus_8000 condition EjectPressed = 
volume_label_srcd_0_2_19 removed
volume_label_srcd_0_2_19 added
volume_label_srcd_0_2_19 property volume.mount_point = '/media/cdrom0'
volume_label_srcd_0_2_19 property volume.is_mounted_read_only = true
volume_label_srcd_0_2_19 property volume.is_mounted = true
storage_model_Hewlett_Packard_CD_Writer_Plus_8000 condition EjectPressed = 
storage_model_Hewlett_Packard_CD_Writer_Plus_8000 condition EjectPressed = 
storage_model_Hewlett_Packard_CD_Writer_Plus_8000 condition EjectPressed =

Notice the second time that something was signaling to HAL to Eject (or is HAL hallucinating) but doesn't eject.

I don't know which is true:
A) HAL is deciding to eject CD's on its own
B) Something is triggering an Eject event and HAL is acting on it

Hhmmm....

[zspdude]

Just some quick thoughts - I'll post more in a bit...

Mounting audio CDs is "impossible" because they don't have an ordered filesystem that Linux recognizes - they just have the raw audio tracks - not a proper filesystem. Applications simply read from the CD - they don't mount.

(I say "impossible" because if you really really want to you can install kernel drivers such as cdfs or cddafs which interpret the audio cd data as a filesystem of sorts. Once you have such a driver in place, you can actually mount an Audio cd and read off of it as if it were a data disc.)

So why don't these applications run? I'm assuming Sound-Juicer is one of them - Sound-Juicer depends on HAL (libhal1 is the edgy package) so if you kill hald s-j will naturally complain because it actually uses it. I'm pretty sure that's the problem rhythm box is having as well. (For the record, KsCD on KDE suffers the same problem - even though it doesn't list hal as a package dependency. (I'm pretty sure this is the fault of the kscd folks).

You're right - forcing processes to have root priviledges if they want to mount/umount the cd-rom drive will prevent hald from ejecting it - but it won't get you any farther with audio discs.

The bottom line is that s-j and (probably)r-b genuinely need hal running to do their audio stuff. This is a pain but until hal gets working correctly, this is the fact of the matter.

I know for a fact that Grip (which does not depend on hal) both plays and rips cds.
I personally like it and think it's a great application. It's what I use myself, and while it's probably not a permanent solution for you, might work in the meantime. I'd encourage you to check it out.

Scott.

[whatteaux]

A similar thing is happening to me with audio CDs in a Pioneer DVD-115 reader. It plays for half a minute or so then stops, then re-starts for a while, stops, etc...

The same CDs play perfectly with the same drive in Windows XP, or in a different drive (Sony DRU-810A DVD burner) on either Ubuntu or XP..

Looking at /var/log/syslog, I see the following:

hdb: status error: status=0x00 { }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hdb: status error: status=0x00 { }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hdb: status error: status=0x00 { }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hdb: status error: status=0x00 { }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hdb: DMA disabled
hdb: ATAPI reset complete
cdrom: dropping to single frame dma

Then again, for the other "successful" drive, it gives even more equally arcane errors but somehow soldiers on.

The same effect occurs whether playback is via XMMS (via CD-ROM headphone socket) or the Ubuntu 'CD player' application (via sound system & speakers).

So, it's possibly a lowish-level software problem, not the hardware or the apps. The drive works fine for reading data CDs.

The CD never actually ejects, as such, unless I tell it to.

[msjulie]

Hello whatteaux,

I'm sorry to hear you are having CD ROM difficulties. I still haven't found a satifactory solution to this issue.

you mentioned that you get the follow error.

cdrom: dropping to single frame dma

That is an error I receive also. This occurs right before it ejects.

zspdude, aka Scott, thinks it has to do with the Haldameon. He was going to submit a bug report. I hadn't followed up on that though.

The more I think about it, the more I "don't" think it is Haldameon. I think it is just issuing commands it receives.

Scott and I have hashed this out in previous posts, and he thinks otherwise. I can't be certain, either.

Any good suggestions would be appreciated though.

Sincerely,
Julie

[mb26]

just fyi this happens on the ps3 drive also with ubuntu.

[benny_de]

i have this problem too, running on edgy eft. has someone maybe found a decent way to fix this problem?

[Kathmandu]

I had two Mitsumi drives -- one just a regular CD drive, the other a CD recorder -- in the old PIII 600 I just installed Feisty on. I got spontaneous ejections from both drives with both audio and data CD's inserted. I had the same problems with Dapper and Edgy...

So I swapped out one of the drives for an MSI burner I had lying around the shack and now everything is fine. The remaining Mitsumi drive still ejects all CD's, but the MSI drive works normally.

Luckily, it was a cheap way for me to fix my problem...

Kat

[msjulie]

Hello Kathmandu,

I just upgraded to Fiesty Fawn. I'm getting much better results with the HP CD Writer Plus 8000 series. I haven't thoroughly tested it. It ejected my audio CD on me once, But overall, it plays much better. I'll play more CD's and see what happens.

My other drive doesn't seem to be reading at all...hhmmm.

Just thought I'd throw an update here.

I'll play more when I have time...I don't right now.

Sincerely,
Julie

[msjulie]

To anyone with ejecting CD's:

I switched to Feisty Fawn and my CD still ejected. I loaded the low latency kernel and got better results but the CDs still eject.

It appears a bug crept into the code but has not been isolated. Technical Answers appears explains it bit and gives this solution:

Replace the CD ROM.

I replaced my CD-ROM today and it solved the problem. I now use a Memorex 52MAXX 3252AJ1.

Summary:
Hewlett-Packard CD-Writer Plus 8000, FX4821T and similar models found in many HP Pavilion PIII system--1999ish eject cds. No good fix found, just replace the drive--yuck!

Sorry, the news is not good.

[rrkryder]

I too, have an older pavillion. An HP 8766C.
I don´t know what kind of drive or how to check it, but my cd writer is the one that ejects after seven moments of time.
So, I tried it in my DVD ROM and it works great.
Hardy Heron rocks, by the way.