Every now and then, you’re going to need some technical info about your optical disc (CD or DVD) drive. For example, if you’re using a command like that outlined in Fix “Cannot find input plugin for MRL [dvd:/]” Error in Kaffeine, MPlayer & Other Media Players in Ubuntu, being sudo ln -s /media/cdrom0 /dev/dvd, it will be useless if /media/cdrom0 is not the actual mount point. Often I see in forums people complaining a command couldn’t find the disc drive, but the command would work if the correct mount point was specified (they’re not universal, which I think many people expect them to be).
But finding out the mount point of your CD or DVD drive is actually quite easy: insert a disc, wait for it to be mounted, and when a folder window opens to the drive automatically (if it doesn’t, open it manually), simply note the path/address in the Location bar! Yes, it’s that easy, since the location won’t be the disc’s label, but the mount point on your system.
Another way to do it is simply browse through the subfolders in /media (or could even be /mnt on older systems) until you find the one that shows your disc (you’ll need to have one in the drive, of course).
Or if you want to do it via the terminal, you can use mount|grep ^'/dev' which will display info as follows:
/dev/sda2 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sda1 on /media/Windows-XP-x64 type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sr0 on /media/cdrom0 type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,user=ozzman)
In this case, /dev/sr0 is the device path, and /media/cdrom0 is the mount point, so if you ever come across a command for your disc drive where the mount point is specified as (for example) /media/disk1, you can pretty much expect it not to work, but at least you know that you can replace the incorrect value with /media/cdrom0 (or whatever your mount point actually is).
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Just mount a Disk in your drive, type ‘df’ on the command line and hit ‘Enter’. Among the output you will get something like:
‘/dev/sr2 3569262 3569262 0 100% /media/cdrom0’
Greets,
minas
Thank you.. Thank you!!
I pretty like Ubuntu.
I do not believe I have seen this described in such an informative way before. You really have cleared this up for me. Thank you!
My pleasure! Yes, while there are a lot of kind souls out there willing to spend time and effort putting up guides and answers, sometimes there is so little explanatory information it hardly ends up being useful. I try to leave nothing to the imagination, especially for newbies making the jump from WinDOH!s and Mac.
Sorry I still cannot figure out how to do this. When I put a DVD in, then the path of this disc will be /media/NAMEOFDVD. Why is this not working for me like it is supposed to? Thanks for the effort! I am using Lucid Lynx.
Are you saying you tried the above commands (in blue), but are still not being presented with info as shown? I gather you have a disc in the drive, and have entered the command(s) in a terminal? Any additional info would be most helpful (as I can’t really help unless I know more).
This is the same problem i have.
Here’s a bit more info.
The drive only seems to exist when i have a cd in there, where it gives me /media/NAMEOFDVD.
When i enter the commands into terminal when there is no cd in it, i get this.
/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0)
could you please help?
Can you relate what happens when you run the command with a disc in the drive? See if that makes a difference, and please report back the results.
thanks for the quick reply!
actually it does work using the terminal command you posted. i think i was just too tired when i posted. sorry for that.
but what is definitely different to your description is that i can only do it with the command line. the path in the location bar does not specify the mount point but only says: /media/DVDNAME. also in the media folder all there is, is a folder with the name of my dvd. so i am not sure how to find out the mount point from there.
but in the end i found the information i was looking for with the command. so a belated thanks for that :)
I have a similar problem. The audio cd is not mount on media – it seems that is not mounted at all.
Is the track mounted similar to archive files, in arbitrary point? How do i found this point? (from terminal/sh/python).
None of the commands outlined supply this info for you?
I can’t mount DVD, I tried your command and received following result
mount|grep ^’/dev’
/dev/sda8 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0)
/dev/sda9 on /boot type ext4 (rw,commit=0)
/dev/sda11 on /home type ext4 (rw,commit=0)
/dev/sda12 on /usr type ext4 (rw,commit=0)
/dev/sda13 on /var type ext4 (rw,commit=0)
it looks like ubuntu haven’t assigned anything in /etc/fstab/ for DVD.
Please provide information on how I can add it or if there is any tool.
Thank you,
Can you try sudo mount /media/cdrom0/ -o unhide and see what happens?
I’m currently running Ubuntu 11.04 from a flash drive and it’s mounted as
/cdrom
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
aufs 1006M 310M 697M 31% /
none 1000M 692K 999M 1% /dev
/dev/sdb1 3.9G 952M 2.9G 25% /cdrom
/dev/loop0 658M 658M 0 100% /rofs
none 1006M 112K 1006M 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 1006M 108K 1006M 1% /tmp
none 1006M 96K 1006M 1% /var/run
none 1006M 0 1006M 0% /var/lock
sdb1 is my 4 gb flash drive.
I want to burn an iso image on a CD and I can’t find the device…
Hmm, update. I inserted a DVD in the optical drive and did a
cat /etc/mtab
/dev/sr0 /media/FreeBSD_Install iso9660 ro,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks,uid=999,gid=999,iocharset=utf8,mode=0400,dmode=0500 0 0
So, it’s /dev/sr0 hehe
I couldn’t find a DVD as well on my UBUNTU 11.10. Anyone can help?
Sir,
I am use ubuntu Os and i install wine to Tally., Tally .ini file path change to mount folder data how?
I am wait for you reply…
Hi. I am unfamiliar with Tally, but will try to help, but not sure I understand the question. But since I gather it has something to do with the differences between Linux and Windows filesystems, you can get Wine config to set up “drives”, which can be folders in your Ubuntu system and home folder, but Windows programs will see as drives. Pretty much any Windows program I use in Ubuntu can see all my folders and files because Wine tricks the programs into thinking it is just like in Windows. Go to “Configure Wine” and in the “Drives” tab you can set up new “drives”. Trying to edit Windows programs’ ini files to see your Linux folders won’t work in most cases, This method will. Hope that helps.
I’m new to Linux.
I’m a former programmer (of 10 years).
I now have 3 kids and a full time job.
WAY TOO COMPLICATED
You’re right. I only have 2 kids, and that’s complicated enough for me! Linux is easy in comparison…
Ubuntu uses some workaround that creates a mount point when a CD or DVD is mounted. There is a hidden file called .hidden that has the entries cdrom and floppy on separate lines. It does not matter if it is a CD or DVD or read-only or writable; the cdrom line covers them all.
This allows the system to use the disc label as a mount point in the media directory. I believe this is considered a convenience. You are less likely to try to write files onto a disc mounted as Wedding Pictures. You would have to intentionally type mv /media/WEDDING_PICTURES /dev/null to delete the contents of a rewritable disc.
Hmmm… I’m guessing .hidden is supposed to be in the home folder, but I don’t have one. I have to say in 12.10 they’ve messed things up a bit. Thanks for the info.
Hi there, I’m not able to see my dev/cdrom in the device manager. I’ve tried the blue command line as in the above and it returned this :
dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro
I then used the sudo mount /media/cdrom0/ -o unhide which returned:
mount: can’t find /media/cdrom0/ in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
So under the command sud lshw -short the left handside colomn show the device:
0/2/0.0.0 /dev/cdrom disk eSAU108 2
This indicate that it must be there so I tried as explained above the unhide command, with the indicated name and pathway as in the original and then with a modified pathway as shown (0/2/0.0.0) but this return the same result.
Help anyone?
Hi,
I’m am owner of a laptop HP Pavilion dv7,and it has worked flawlessly up to now.
Hard disk has two partitions for Kubuntu 12.4 and win-8.
Yesterday I decided to reinstall Kubuntu (clean install) via the built in DVD-drive.
Restarted computer, pushed F9, checked booting from DVD.
Computer booted from hard disk. DVD-drive did not spin at all.
It tuned out that none bootable disk worked in the DVD-drive.
When computer was up and running, in Kubuntu or Win 8, I tried to open the botable disks without success. Other disks works flawlessly. Tried to boot to Kubuntu install disk from an other computer. It worked without problem.
Here is an excerpt of the Syslog.
Feb 19 09:01:17 jan kernel: [ 607.411771] UDF-fs: Partition marked readonly; forcing readonly mount
Feb 19 09:01:17 jan kernel: [ 607.439708] UDF-fs: INFO Mounting volume ‘UDF Volume’, timestamp 2011/06/23 01:00 (103c)
Feb 19 09:01:46 jan kernel: [ 636.388045] VFS: busy inodes on changed media or resized disk sr0
Feb 19 09:02:40 jan kernel: [ 691.163592] ata6.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
Feb 19 09:02:40 jan kernel: [ 691.163607] sr 5:0:0:0: CDB: Xpwrite, Read disk info: 51 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00
Feb 19 09:02:40 jan kernel: [ 691.163636] ata6.00: cmd a0/00:00:00:02:00/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0 pio 16388 in
Feb 19 09:02:40 jan kernel: [ 691.163639] res 40/00:03:00:0c:00/00:00:00:00:00/a0 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
Feb 19 09:02:40 jan kernel: [ 691.163646] ata6.00: status: { DRDY }
Feb 19 09:02:40 jan kernel: [ 691.163658] ata6: hard resetting link
Feb 19 09:02:41 jan kernel: [ 691.483659] ata6: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
Feb 19 09:02:41 jan kernel: [ 691.489428] ata6.00: configured for UDMA/100
Feb 19 09:02:41 jan kernel: [ 691.503652] ata6: EH complete
Feb 19 09:02:41 jan kernel: [ 691.503710] sr0: CDROM (ioctl) error, command: Xpwrite, Read disk info 51 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00
Feb 19 09:02:41 jan kernel: [ 691.503736] sr: Sense Key : Aborted Command [current] [descriptor]
Feb 19 09:02:41 jan kernel: [ 691.503746] sr: Add. Sense: No additional sense information
I’m not clever enough to fix this,
so I need help
Regards
Jan
OK, is the F9 key what you use to get into your BIOS, like hitting Delete will do on most desktop computers? And that is where you told the boot order you wanted to boot off your disc drive before the hard drive (which should be set as 2nd in the boot order)? If yes to the above, that should have you booting from the optical drive instead of the hard drive. My first guess (besides the boot sequence not set properly, which you can check by going back into the BIOS) is that the disc drive is faulty. The error message “CDROM (ioctl) error” seems to suggest this too. A quick Google for that found the following Ubuntu Forums page as the first hit: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1113037 (conclusion = dying drive). If it was booting from the disc but the installation failing, I would suggest rebooting with the disc in the drive, then checking the disc for errors – if it comes up with 70 errors, then running the check again gives you 32 errors, and then 107 errors the third time, then it isn’t the disc, but the drive running it. From what I can see from you not being able to boot from ANY disc at all, your drive is on its way out. Luckily these days a new DVD burner is pretty cheap, even for a laptop.
Thanks for the prompt replay.
First, I have changed in Bios, so that the disk-drive is first in order
After mailing you, I flashed the Bios, with no luck. Later I used the “set default Bios”, and that made partly the trick. I could now boot from a windows 7 installation disk, but now the installation is hanging just when it is supposed to write the boot strap information.
It seems to be no end of my problem.
regards
jan
From your second comment, I would truly be surprised if it isn’t a faulty CD/DVD drive. I have successfully burned Ubuntu Live CDs without errors, and been able to boot from them, only to have the installation fail at some point, and it turned out to be a faulty drive. SO MANY others have experienced the same. As I said, running a check for errors on the disc is a great way to find out. It could pass the first few times even, only to start showing errors once the drive has warmed up. And if the amount of errors always differs, then it’s dead certain the drive is not 100%. So even if you know someone with a Windows machine who suspects their optical drive is dying, you can use an Ubuntu disc to check it for errors.
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It was definitely informative. Your site is extremely helpful.
Thank you for sharing!
when I did the command mount|grep ^’/dev’ I got this message “no such file or directory exists” Does this mean nothing is mounted?
Huh? If you’re in Ubuntu, there simply HAS to be a drive mounted, since your system is using it. Even if you were running off a Live CD, any available drives are generally mounted.
Hi! I’m a Linux/Ubuntu 12.04 LTS newbie.
1. I get the MRL error in VLC.
2. With DVD in drive:
Tried: sudo ln -s /media/cdrom0 /dev/dvd
Response: ln: failed to create symbolic link `/dev/dvd’: File exists
3.
Tried: mount|grep ^’/dev’
Response: /dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
4. from comment: minasmorgul
Tried: df
Response:
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 37956260 10073700 25954472 28% /
udev 229676 4 229672 1% /dev
tmpfs 95052 788 94264 1% /run
none 5120 0 5120 0% /run/lock
none 237620 76 237544 1% /run/shm
5.
Tried: sudo mount /media/cdrom0/ -o unhide
Response: mount: can’t find /media/cdrom0/ in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
Please help. Thank you!
Hi, and hope the following helps (perhaps try the 2nd option first, which is just editing options within VLC). Unfortunately, things have changed from the time of that article, and you should find /dev/sr0 is now common for the disc drive. Check it with the following command:
ls -l /dev/{cd,dvd,scd,sr}*
You’ll probably find the output similar to this:
ls: cannot access /dev/scd*: No such file or directory
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 May 25 16:52 /dev/cdrom1 -> sr0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 May 25 16:52 /dev/cdrw1 -> sr0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 May 25 16:52 /dev/dvd1 -> sr0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 May 25 16:52 /dev/dvdrw1 -> sr0
brw-rw—-+ 1 root cdrom 11, 0 May 25 16:52 /dev/sr0
So now try to fix this with this command:
sudo ln -s /dev/sr0 /dev/dvd
Also, looking at it as a VLC error specifically, you can try editing the disk device box within VLC, as this has helped others with the same error. You do that by going to Media > Open Disc, and in the Disc tab (which it should open to) select DVD or Audio CD and manually edit the Disc device box as appropriate.
Thank you Genius for responding so quickly!
1. Without DVD
Tried: ls -l /dev/{cd,dvd,scd,sr}*
Response:
ls: cannot access /dev/dvd*: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access /dev/scd*: No such file or directory
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 May 25 12:53 /dev/cdrom -> sr0
brw-rw—-+ 1 root cdrom 11, 0 May 25 12:53 /dev/sr0
2.
Tried: sudo ln -s /dev/sr0 /dev/dvd
Response: ln: failed to create symbolic link `/dev/dvd’: File exists
3. With DVD
Tried: ls -l /dev/{cd,dvd,scd,sr}*
Response:
ls: cannot access /dev/scd*: No such file or directory
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 May 25 13:08 /dev/cdrom -> sr0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8 May 25 13:06 /dev/dvd -> /dev/sr0
brw-rw—-+ 1 root cdrom 11, 0 May 25 13:08 /dev/sr0
4.
Tried: sudo ln -s /dev/sr0 /dev/dvd
Response: ln: failed to create symbolic link `/dev/dvd’: File exists
I tried your last instructions, the DVD button is selected “Disc Device” is set at /dev/dvd.
Hit play response:
Playback failure:
DVDRead could not open the disc “/dev/dvd”.
Your input can’t be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL ‘dvd:///dev/dvd’. Check the log for details.
Any other suggestions? Thanks again for all of your help.
In VLC, did you try setting the DVD path to /dev/sr0?
Hello Genius:
Sorry it took so long to respond. I got the “Lock GNU GRUB V 1.99-21 Ubuntu 3.9” purple screen of death. The arrows on the keyboard weren’t working, then I tried every F, shift, control and combination of keys to no avail. Researched on Google and couldn’t try any suggestions since I couldn’t get into Ubuntu. Then I decided to change keyboards and it worked. Fluke!
Anyways, I tried your suggestion with DVD in player:
Response:
Playback failure:
DVDRead could not open the disc “/dev/sr0”.
Your input can’t be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL ‘dvd:///dev/sr0’. Check the log for details.
Any other suggestions?
Hmmm… since this is a problem specific to VLC, I suggest maybe go to their forum and start a thread there, as someone else has probably come across this and can help. Might even pay to start a thread in the Ubuntu Forums too, as it gets a lot of traffic, and someone who has come across this before might have the answer. Just make sure to make the title descriptive, and the description to include everything you’ve posted here. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.
Hi Genius, thanks for your advice, help and time, however, I had issues with other players as well. ;(
Anyways, as a newbie, I am reading your past blogs and learning alot.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge! Have a great day!
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