Bug#998718: Brasero fails (on Testing) burning an ISO image on a CD-RW

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

Mauro Sacchetto wrote:
> I actually managed to burn a blank CD-RW with brasero as well.
> The problem arises when the CD-RW already has content.

Not for me. Blank CDs behave better with the automounter (but not with
the prompt window which offers me to start the file manager).
But when they are written, Brasero gets stuck after the checkreading
stage and the drive is then unusable until power cycle.

I think we have different desktop systems:
You tested with GNOME or KDE, i tested with XFCE (which i plan to replace
by fvwm2 to get rid of the file manager prompt).
Normally this should make no difference. But if it is about unwanted
disc groping, the desktop is indeed a suspect.


> Do you have any idea what software might be doing this anomalous attempt,
> which is to try to read the data CD as if it were audio?

Not yet. I normally don't use desktops but rather a window manager
and i hate the kind of perky automats which i see on Debian 10 XFCE when
i insert a medium or Brasero is done with writing a medium.
Actually i use that machine mainly headless via ssh from an older machine
which fits me like an old shoe.

When i managed to get rid of XFCE i will try whether Brasero alone is
able to spoil the drive. (I'd expect so, because the desktop's automats
have enough opportunity to grope the medium after a xorriso run, but
don't spoil the ASUS DVD burner.)


> Given their modest cost,

... which might be part of the problem. What costs nothing is nothing.

My ASUS was the second attempt to get a new DVD burner after a
HL-DT-ST (LG) GH24NSC0 became unrealiable after only 2.5 years.
The first new one was a Lite-On which could not read what it had written.
I sent it back and got the ASUS as replacement.
It works well for me, as long as i don't let Brasero act on CD media.

All three burners were at sale for less than 20 dollars. (I pay in EUR.)

Half of my burners are from LG. But this is only due to what was offered
when i wanted a new drive. I have a very good ASUS BW-16D1HT, a noisy
Optiarc BD-5300S (company has vanished), 4 LGs, a Samsung SH-S223B,
and a Pioneer BDR-S09.
Most of them never had to suffer a Brasero burn run. :))

(The Pioneer grips so hard and rotates so fast that modern Verbatim BD-RE
media get cracks at the inner hole after having been read 20 times by it.
Old Verbatims and modern Primeon BD-RE survive undamaged. I blame it on
engraved letters on the modern Verbatim media which are very near to
the inner rim, i.e. the place where the drive grips the medium.
The Pioneer does not react on read speed settings but delivers data at
maximum speed as long as the reader consumes that fast. I had to enhance
libburn so that it can enforce a lower read speed by waiting between READ
commands. At 6x BD speed = 27 MB/s the Verbatim BD-RE survive without
cracks. This speed makes much fewer noise than the drive's favored 10x.)


> Have you encountered any models that offer greater guarantees than the ASUS
> in my possession?

Normally they are ill only individually. The fact that our two burners
of the same model fail in a very similar way is really unusual.

It seems that Blu-ray drives are of better quality than drives which can
only do CD and DVD. The BD drives cost about four times what DVD drives
cost, although BD differs from DVD only by the presence of the third (blue)
laser. The mechanics are mostly the same. DVD drives have only two lasers:
infrared for CD and red for DVD.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas