[Entered as bug report] Failure to unmount DVD drive

[rodgoslin]

A rather odd phenomenon of late. I've been doing an amount of file transfers from DVD's. Pop in a dvd, opt to open it with File Manager, and so on. However, at times, on ejecting the DVD and inserting a new, the drive has failed to unmount as a result of the last ejection, and then does not show any results when the File Manager is invoked. Sometimes it does, and sometimes (many times) it doesn't. an I've no idea why the one or the other. In desperation, I've finally resorted to a plug-in USB DVD drive, unplugging and replugging with every change of disk. Even more odd 's the fact that while the system regards the original disk to be still mounted (with disk title and all) if it's a video DVD it will open and play the disk as normal. df -h in Konsole indicates that ther are three drives mounted in /run/media/user/disk title despte their being nothing in the two internal DVD drives. Any ideas, anyone?

[zeebra]

I think you would get more answers if you include information about the hardware.
Which DVD/CD drive is it? Same thing with both your internal drives?

Perhaps include some additional hardware info also.

What kind of CD's does it happen with? Dvd, cd, both? All types? Or some specific CDs?

What info do you get when typing "dmesg | tail"?

Do you eject the disk with software or button? Do you unmount it manually first?


Good luck!

[rodgoslin]

I was a bit surprised at the lack of response to this matter. Surely others have had the same problem. So, here is the full story.
I have two DVD drives, both by ASUS. I've had no problem, that I can recall, before going up to Mga3.The problem seems to be that when the disk is ejected (manually), the drive is not unmounted. Consequently, the next time a disk is inserted, file manager presents the contents as being the contents of the previous disk, and since this listing is false, this is as far as you can get. I can get around the problem, by issuing an umount cammand ($ umount /run/media/rod/*), before inserting the disk. The exact same problem affects both internal DVD drives. In addition, if I plug in a USB DVD drive, the same problem also relates exactly with this. In this case, however, unplugging the drive from the USB port, and re-plugging it in does the same as the command line operation and resets the mount condition. Oddly, if the DVD happens to be a video disk, the option that comes up, on detection of the disk, to open with a video player, then the disk will play.
In a nutshell, what appears to be happening is that on insertion, the DVD drive is mounted, but on ejection it is not unmounted. Consequently the new mount is not carried out. I've not had occasion to query the mounting method for DVD drives, but the present system on mounting them on /run/media/"user"/"mount", is something I've no come across before. I've always considered that the place for mounts was in ?mnt.. Perhaps someone could explain the reason for the change.

Rod Goslin

[zeebra]

mnt is correc for mounting things manually. For media /mnt has become obsolete in general, whereas CD/DVD rom and external disks are mounted into /media

I think it would be helpful if you eject and reinsert any DVD/CD into your computer and then do "dmesg" and print the content here.

I often eject disks manually and insert other ones without this problem. The only thing I can think is that you have a special setup for your disk drives, perhaps they are mounted in a special way in a temporary location as an image or something like that? The behaviour you decribe is typical for a loop device.

[doktor5000]

I've not had occasion to query the mounting method for DVD drives, but the present system on mounting them on /run/media/"user"/"mount", is something I've no come across before. I've always considered that the place for mounts was in ?mnt.. Perhaps someone could explain the reason for the change.

That was an upstream change in udisks and there were many discussions about it everywhere, it's used in all modern distros.
Check:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1095614
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1020759
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/d ... 01375.html

For your problem, can you please show your /etc/fstab?
And what happens when you use the eject button in file manager (or the eject command as root) instead of the button on the drive?

[rodgoslin]

Thanks, zebra and Doktor 500 for your replies. To the problem:-
The part of 'dmesg' dealing with the DVD drive is short enough to print directly, as:-
[389708.104571] VFS: busy inodes on changed media or resized disk sr0
[389861.659367] UDF-fs: Partition marked readonly; forcing readonly mount
[389861.692652] UDF-fs: INFO Mounting volume 'DVDVolume', timestamp 2036/02/07 02:58 (103c)
[390118.684775] VFS: busy inodes on changed media or resized disk sr0
This directly after an insertion and ejection
There is nothing in /etc/fstab relative to the DVD drives. All entries are directly recognisable as relating to the normal, permanently mounted kit.
I'd be grateful if you could point out where I could find an 'eject' command in File Manager, since I've been unable find one. I don't like Dolphin and commonly use Konqueror, in File Manager mode. I could use the eject command as root, but this is even more long winded and illogical than my present system of using the command ''umount /run/media/rod/*' in a console window I keep open for the purpose. Using the history function to avoid typing it all in again.
I 'googled' the subject and came across a thread in the OpenSusie forum, going back to January, which describes exactly, the problem I have. So, I am not alone, and it is nothing new. It would appear that we have once again "improved" a function that works, to the point where it does not. I don't recollect a problem when mounts were in /mnt, nor when the system changed to /media. After all, the apparent change is "where" and not "how". As a last note, the 'eject' command, however executed would not work with the USB DVD drive, since that is a clamshell device which has a thumb catch to open the lid.

rod goslin

[doktor5000]

For how to eject the drive via konqueror, in the left panel you can switch to "Places" which lists all your devices and custom bookmarks.
Right-click the drive and select "Eject". Works with device notifier plasmoid too. Also works via the eject command, at least with standard notebook drives, they'll just pop out.

What drive do you have, what do you mean by clamshell design and thumb catch? Something like a discman?
Also, what media do you use?

[Ken-Bergen]

As a last note, the 'eject' command, however executed would not work with the USB DVD drive, since that is a clamshell device which has a thumb catch to open the lid.

rod goslin

For what it's worth the eject command works just fine with media that can't be physically ejected through software.
It issues the umount command and the media is unmounted.
Of course it can't open the drive, leaving it to you to open the drive and swap discs.

[rodgoslin]

Thanks, the eject command in Konqueror does actually work, and unmounts the drive too. Which is a plus. Oddly, though the 'eject' command, on the command line only works with one of the two DVD internal drives . I put disks in both and executed the 'eject' command, wondering how the system would determine which disk I wanted to eject. One disk ejected, the other didn't. I then discovered that the 'eject' command will not eject the disk from the one that dd not eject, under any circumstances, neither will it unmount the drive. Hey, ho.
The USB DVD drive is a Lite-On model eTAU108, which gets used mainly on my two netbooks, and the media is the standard DVD+R, or -R, with occasional forays into the double layer format DVD+R DL
The present peeve was raised on the occasion of going through my collection of DVD back-ups, all 183 of them in the search for a file that I was sure that I had on my Drobo storage unit, but could not find. So any complication in going through 183 disks was something I would have preferred to avoid. . After all, the disk (drive) is mounted when I insert the disk, why is it not unmounted when I eject it in the same physical fashion? I do like to recommend Linux to all my friends, but with the expertise level that they have I'd not like to explain, in their terms, that you'd have to re-boot the machine to regain the use of the DVD drive. Putting things into the simplest possible terms (If it doesn't work, try turning it off and on again). In this sense, I'd be reluctant to call the problem solved, but unless anyone has anything more to add, I'll set it so in the next couple of days. Is it worth a mention in the bug report? It's certainly not a feature, not even in the MS style.

Rod Goslin

[Ken-Bergen]

From the eject man page

The device corresponding to device or mountpoint is ejected. If no name is specified, the default name /dev/cdrom is
used. The device may be addressed by device name (e.g. 'sda'), device path (e.g. '/dev/sda'), UUID=<uuid> or
LABEL=<label> tags.

[doktor5000]

I do like to recommend Linux to all my friends, but with the expertise level that they have I'd not like to explain, in their terms, that you'd have to re-boot the machine to regain the use of the DVD drive. Putting things into the simplest possible terms (If it doesn't work, try turning it off and on again).

You don't need to reboot to reuse the DVD drive. Just checked here, you may need to re-insert the medium when it doesn't work the first time.
Also please remember that if it luckily works sometimes when misusing something (using eject button physically) or the way you think it's supposed to work, doesn't mean it has to work always or at all in the first place like that.

When using the eject button in dolphin, I can cycle fine through several CD/DVDs without a single reboot

BTW: eject command even supports a tray-toggle option, meaning with one command it will eject the drive if it's closed and close it if it's open.
That could be useful as a desktop shortcut ...

[zeebra]

Personally I prefer to have the KDE plasma "device notifier" widget directly on my desktop. Then I always see everything of external units which are available, mounted or unmounted. With one click I can mount of unmount which makes it unnecessary to use automatic mounting or mount manually somewhere else.

Its a great widget!

[rodgoslin]

Thanks for all the comments. Yes, I understand that there are a number of ways to correct the situation regarding unmounting. BUT, I should not have to use them. What could be simpler than:- open disk tray, put in disk, nudge tray to close, select File Manager from the pop-up, read files, press eject button, replace disk with the next, nudge tray closed again. If this was MS, or possibly Mac, that is all I'd have to do. If I tried to explain to my non-technical (in the computer sense) friends, their eyes would glaze over and the subject would be swiftly changed. That it can be done with some degree of complexity, is not the answer. If it cannot be done simply, it is WRONG, and should be addressed. And it's no use suggesting that I should do something about it. My skills lie, largely, in other directions. Although a number of years as sysadmin on a Solaris installationdid give me some skills in writing programmes, it certainly didn't go that far.

Rod Goslin

[doktor5000]

Probably the same guys who unplug their flash drives or external harddrives and wonder sometimes why the data on them is incomplete or filesystem is borked ...
If you're doing it wrong, but think that is the only true, simple and right way, chances are it will still not be fixed, because it's not broken, objectively looking.

Although the recognition that a new medium has been inserted, but old volume label/disk type is still shown in file manager should be fixed.
Feel free to open a bugreport for that: https://wiki.mageia.org/en/How_to_report_a_bug_properly

[zeebra]

Thanks for all the comments. Yes, I understand that there are a number of ways to correct the situation regarding unmounting. BUT, I should not have to use them. What could be simpler than:- open disk tray, put in disk, nudge tray to close, select File Manager from the pop-up, read files, press eject button, replace disk with the next, nudge tray closed again. If this was MS, or possibly Mac, that is all I'd have to do. If I tried to explain to my non-technical (in the computer sense) friends, their eyes would glaze over and the subject would be swiftly changed. That it can be done with some degree of complexity, is not the answer. If it cannot be done simply, it is WRONG, and should be addressed. And it's no use suggesting that I should do something about it. My skills lie, largely, in other directions. Although a number of years as sysadmin on a Solaris installationdid give me some skills in writing programmes, it certainly didn't go that far.

Rod Goslin

You can setup automount in KDE in desktop settings (very easy). Maybe it even solves the problem! Personally I don't like automount and find the automount behaviour in Windows utterly annoying, where it always copies some stuff which takes a long time and come up with a bunch of useless suggestions. I like to manually mount with a click and do whatever I plan, not what the OS think might be useful.

But the desired behaviour that you describe is definetely also normal in Linux. Personally for me it works the way yo describe minus the automounting which I dont want. I can eject a CD anyway I want (hardware button, dolphin or konsole "eject") and when I then put in a new CD the content of that shows.

There is clearly something wrong with your setup somehow causing the abnormal behaviour and the bug.

Lot of searching in /var/log should help. also install "rsyslog" for further and more useful logs like "messages". In the end you have to do some serious testing to find out where the problem is, and I am sure many people here can help if you provide even further details, logs etc.
If you do what we ask it is not to suggest it as a solution, it is for us to try to understand where the problem lays. Mounting and unmounting the disks as root would be useful to know what happens for a variety of reasons.
Perpaps also print your "fstab" here and "mtab" twice. Once when CD is mounted and one when it is not mounted.

I see no problem in your dmesg. Just mark that section of your post as

Code: Select all

[code]the actual code[/code]

so others can read it more easily, perhaps they see something. Anyways, this is your thread and I am sure no one mind if you paste lots of code to be able to get to the bottom of the problem.


ps. I think KDE overrides any normal cd/dvd mounting behaviour to implement the functions in dolphin/other places. it could be some KDE settings causing the problem. You can test that by creating a new user and checking how it behaves.

[rodgoslin]

Am I alone, out here?The answers, so far, have been helpfull, but none have addressed the problem. Why does the the DVD drives(s) not get automatically unmounted when the media is removed in what, to my mind) is the most direct and simplest way. I explained in my third post, that on the OpenSusie forum, back in January, was posted a series dealing exactly with this problem. . I've decided to take up Doktor 5000's suggestion to put in a bug report on it. That, however leads to another problem. I've read the FAQ, accessed to the "submit bug report" site, and here, I'm even more confused. Most of the form is clear enough, if somewhat illogical. However, under "Component" I can find no option which is related to this problem. For myself, I would have put it under the heading of "Operating System Bug", which it clearly is, but there is no such option. It clearly does not come under Backports, Installer, New RPM package request, RPM packages, Release (media or processes), or Security, and there is no option to add a new component.

[doktor5000]

It's a bug against one of the RPM packages. The wiki page says:

Component: In which sub-part of the software does it exist? This field is required. Click the word "Component" to see a description of each component. If none seems appropriate, select RPM packages.

Which one, you don't need to know, you can leave that blank.