Re: cdrecord _used_ to work ... dropped support for Generic mmc2?

[scdbackup@gmx.net]

Hi,

> I can't write CD-R discs with cdrecord - it objects on the grounds of my
> giving it DVD media - but I'm feeding it CD-R blanks. 
> 
> CD-RW discs work just fine as do DVD-RW with growisofs.
> 
> I _used_ to be able to write CD-R - I have several as evidence from a
> couple of months ago. Since then I have changed nothing substantial. Same
> old CD writer, same old kernel, same old computer. [...]
> I tried different CD-R blank media (from el cheapo to expensive
> Verbatim). Same individual discs work on another computer at work having
> failed at home. [...]
> I tried several old and new versions of cdrecord [...]

The conventional hypothesis would be that something in your equipment
silently went bad. Since the refusal is so specific to CD-R, i would say
it is the writer device resp. its firmware.

What do you get from this ?
  cdrecord dev=... -atip 

My CD/DVD burner reports on a blank CD-R :
  Cdrecord-ProDVD-Clone 2.01.01a09 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2006 Jörg Schilling
  [...]
  ATIP info from disk:
    Indicated writing power: 5
    Is not unrestricted
    Is not erasable
    Disk sub type: Medium Type B, low Beta category (B-) (4)
    ATIP start of lead in:  -11768 (97:25/07)
    ATIP start of lead out: 359775 (79:59/00)
  Disk type:    Short strategy type (Phthalocyanine or similar)
  Manuf. index: 64
  Manufacturer: MPO

(Needless to say that it burns CD-R nicely with various cdrecord versions.)


> ... or perhaps the hardware is on the way out - but how come I can write
> the (supposedly more-demanding) CD-RW and DVD?????

I guess it just mis-identifies the media.
Like this:

> Profile: 0x0080 (current)
> cdrecord: Found unsupported 0x80 profile.


> Any ideas anyone?

You could invest 20 dollar into the experiment to buy and install
a cheap CD burner.

You could try cdrskin, a cdrecord compatibility wrapper
around libburn:
  http://scdbackup.sourceforge.net/cdrskin_eng.html

The library seems not to be very picky about the media type.
With a CD-R (24x is the drive's limit):
  $ cdrskin dev=1,0,0 -atip
  cdrskin 0.1.3 : limited cdrecord compatibility wrapper for libburn
  [...]
  cdrskin: status 1 burn_disc_blank "The drive holds a blank disc"
  cdrskin: burn_drive_get_write_speed = 4234  (24.1x)
  ATIP info from disk:
    Is not erasable
    1T speed low:  24 1T speed high: 24

With 4x DVD+RW inserted:
  $ cdrskin dev=1,0,0 -atip
  [...]
  cdrskin: status 1 burn_disc_blank "The drive holds a blank disc"
  cdrskin: burn_drive_get_write_speed = 5540  (31.5x)
ATIP info from disk:
  Is erasable
  1T speed low:  31 1T speed high: 31  

But i cannot recommend to try burning a DVD via cdrskin, of course.  {:)
Anybody who is trying this ... shall please report about the outcome  :))

I'm only the programmer of the compatibility skin, not of libburn
which does the work inside cdrskin. Thus i will not be of much help
when it comes to diagnosing the particular problem with your equipment.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas