Dual Layer DVD Disk Freezes MEPIS 6.5
Posts: 61
I'm running MEPIS 6.5 with the 2.6.15-27-desktop-smp (32 bit) kernel. My CD/DVD R/W drive is a Toshiba TS-H652L.
The problem occurs when I place a dual-layer DVD data disk in the drive and attempt to read the disk. MEPIS completely freezes up. I mean, everything screeches to a halt and freezes solid, including the mouse pointer. Hitting Ctrl-Alt-Backspace does nothing, nor does hitting Ctrl-Alt-Esc allow me to kill the process. The only way to shut down the computer when this happens is to turn off the power.
Reading single-layer DVD data disks are no problem at all, just dual-layer ones. The drive works flawlessly in every other way for playing and burning.
Does anyone know what's happening and can offer a remedy for this? By the way, I can read/write dual-layer disks in WinXP, so I don't think it's a defective drive. I'm guessing I need a better Linux driver, but I'm not having much luck locating one.
I have a spare Sony DRU-720A CD/DVD RW drive lying around, but I'd hate to change out the Toshiba drive because it's significantly faster than the Sony drive.
Thanks in advance...
in order to at least get a
Posts: 2299
in order to at least get a clue as to what is going on, reboot with a live CD when it freezes up and check /var/log/messages.
Then start googling around for the error and wait and see.
A very long shot is the sata driver. I have a faint idea there are still some libsata issues in the 2.6.22 kernel. If you have SATA and your BIOS supports it, try switching to legacy mode, see if that helps.
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question
@carlops - Thanks for your
Posts: 61
@carlops -
Thanks for your response. However ...
In order to at least get a clue as to what is going on, reboot with a live CD when it freezes up and check /var/log/messages.
I'm a little confused. In order to boot with the live CD, the CD must be inserted the drive. How would I insert a dual-layer data DVD to freeze my system when the DVD drive is already in use?
A very long shot is the sata driver. I have a faint idea there are still some libsata issues in the 2.6.22 kernel. If you have SATA and your BIOS supports it, try switching to legacy mode, see if that helps.
My DVD drive is an IDE device. Is there a similar issue in the 2.6.22 kernel with the IDE driver that can be cured by switching to legacy mode?
Thanks. I'll give it a try.
Posts: 61
Thanks. I'll give it a try.
when MEPIS freezes: -hard
Posts: 2299
when MEPIS freezes:
-hard shut down the PC
-start up, and remove DVD
- insert live CD and startup again
Just make sure the kernel does not enter the boot stage, since I think that will reset /var/log/message.
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question
Thanks, carlops. That makes
Posts: 61
Thanks, carlops. That makes sense. I'll try it later tonight when my production work is finished. (I like to keep doing hard booting to a minimum, since there's always chance of borking my MEPIS partitions by doing this). I'll post the results tomorrow.
You can also use the Raising
Posts: 2299
You can also use the Raising Skinny Elephants Is Utterly Boring sequence. Just make sure not to reboot into MEPIS from harddisk.
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question
BIOS upgrade
Posts: 1027
You may want to see if there is a BIOS upgrade for your DVD drive and/or motherboard.
In my pipe dream, the BIOS upgrade causes your problem to magically disappear.
Skinny Elephants
Posts: 1027
MEPIS usually responds to this when frozen
(see below under "Emergency Reboot")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_Skinny_Elephants_Is_Utterly_Boring