Something blocks my cdrom drive

[Dorsai!]

Hi,
Since I went from Ubuntu to Gentoo (quite some time ago) I have a problem with something blocking my CD drive after some runtime of the system (3-4 hours).
I cant eject it, neither using software nor using the button.
The only two things that help are
1. A complete reboot (that's what I usually do)
2. Opening the drive by the "poke in the hole" method. That works if I just want to get my cd out. I cant get a new one in, because It wouldn't start up this way.

Until now that wasn't a problem, because I did need that drive only now and then. But as I want to reripp my whole CD collection in the near future, I wanted that sorted out.
I am using KDE4; ~amd64; Kernel 2.6.25-r7
I would post some configuration files, but all I can imagine being useful is still in unchanged configuration.

To quote a wise man: "So, what I want to know is: How did we get from the one case of affairs to the other case of affairs?"

[ecroy]

Try checking with the 'mount' command if the drive is mounted. If so, just unmount it by typing 'umount /dev/cdrom'. To see which processes currently accesses your cdrom drive try 'fuser /dev/cdrom' - hope that helps...

[Dorsai!]

Thanks for your answer.

The Drive is unmounted. Thats always the first thin I check.

"fuser /dev/cdrom" gives no output aswell as "fuser /dev/hda" and "fuser /dev/cdrw".
Does that mean, that its not used by any app?
Maybe the Kernel keeps it busy somehow?
Most of the problems I had after switching to gentoo were kernel related,
because I wasn't used to configure a kernel.

Any further ideas?

[ecroy]

Does the drive work normally before it gets stuck (ie: can you actually read CDs with it)? If so, I doubt it is a kernel problem, if not you could check with 'dmesg' whether your drive is correctly identified by the kernel. To be honest, I would not completely rule out a hardware problem as well because the symptoms seem a bit strange (at least to me)... Anyway - good luck

[Dorsai!]

I already thought It could be a hardware Problem, because its not the youngest drive anymore (although a very good one)
Until now it worked when it was not blocked, but now I rebooted to ripp the CD I intitially wanted before I wrote this thread, but after I logged in, the drive was blocked.
Also, when I try to read the cd with rubyripper I get very strange time values.
The only thing that keeps me thinking of it being a software problem is that the problems started when I changed to gentoo (at least when I remember right).
Maybe Ill try a firmware update or something like that, an when that wont help, I'll buy a new drive.

Thanks for your help.

[Schizoid]

I have a similar problem. Even with no disc in the drive, I can not always eject the drive. The button on the drive does not work, and neither does the eject command. When I do either of these the drive makes noise like it is trying to eject for a few moments and then nothing.

Sometimes issuing the eject command and then pressing the eject button will get it to open up, and then it will only stay open half the time, the other times it immediately gets sucked back in!

I have noticed if I stop the hald all these troubles go away. Likewise, the growisofs command that I use a lot normally ejects and closes the drive after a burn, but it wont (cant?) do this if hald is running.

[Section_8]

I have similar occasional annoyances with my CD drive - I think it is some kind of hardware issue. On my previous PIV box, when rebooting, I could eject a CD from the BIOS boot menu (this is how I rebooted from a liveCD). On my current box, the CD eject button doesn't work there.

[pappy_mcfae]

Please post /var/log/dmesg.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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