DVD burning confusions (Brasero, K3B, and DVD remaining blank or corrupted)

Question

I'm currently trying to burn information from my old PC (Ubuntu 16.04, 64-bit) to a DVD.

Putting any blank DVD in my computer is recognized as a blank DVD, but I also get an error message that says Unable to mount Blank DVD Disc: Location is already mounted. Some googling seems to suggest that this is a harmless message and should be ignored. Opening the file system confirms the disk is empty.

Everyone suggests online to use Brasero to burn the disk. I installed ran it, but even at "maximum speed" it goes extremely slowly in burning the disk, taking up to 12 hours to burn 4.7 GB. However, instead of completing the write, it breaks abruptly at 41% with some generic write error.

Re-inserting the disk gives no change. The DVD shows up blank.

So when I googled the issue, people suggested to use K3B instead. This time at least, it took only 20 min to complete the burning, and the burning was done successfully.

Re-inserted the disk. No change. The DVD shows up blank.

I researched the problem, and it seems a lot of people have complained of this exact behavior periodically over the last ten years: it burns successfully with no error, but the DVD shows up blank. However, none of these complaints seem to have any answers, even over all these years. Only one has any kind of suggestion, running K3B in Sudo.

I ran K3B in Sudo, but the effect is the same. It reports the write was successful, but re-inserting the disk shows it blank.

At this point, I suspected Basero might have corrupted the DVD somehow. I put in a different, completely fresh DVD and ran K3B again, but the effect is the same. It reported as the write was successful, but re-inserting the disc shows up blank.

At last, I began to wonder if maybe the information was written on the disk, but somehow it wasn't mounting correctly. So I attempt to mount the disk manually with sudo mount /dev/sr0 ~/dvd and I get this message:

mount: /dev/sr0 is write-protected, mounting read-only

mount: /dev/sr0: can't read superblock

Evidently, the mount failed. All research I find online says that this error amounts to the DVD being unreadable, as if it was scratched. Indeed, I have seen this same error before for an old DVD that was scratched. However, these disks are brand new.

I suspect, it might be possible that the laser reader itself in my computer might be the problem (somehow). But experimenting that would be a test to disaster, as all my current DVDs have important information on them which I don't want to risk.

At this point, I am super confused. Did the data get written? If so, why can't I find it? If not, why can't I write to it? What stage even is the problem at this point? Hardware? Software? I'm just throwing this question up out of desperation someone has some light to shed, cause after seeing how old those other questions are, I am concerned no one will answer this either.

Any thoughts?

Edit: Here is the result of dvd+rw-mediainfo /dev/sr0:

INQUIRY:                [TSSTcorp][DVD+-RW SN-208BB][D300]
GET [CURRENT] CONFIGURATION:
 Mounted Media:         11h, DVD-R Sequential
 Media ID:              CMC MAG. AM3
 Current Write Speed:   8.0x1385=11080KB/s
 Write Speed #0:        8.0x1385=11080KB/s
 Write Speed #1:        6.0x1385=8310KB/s
 Write Speed #2:        4.0x1385=5540KB/s
 Write Speed #3:        3.0x1385=4155KB/s
 Write Speed #4:        3.0x1385=4155KB/s
 Write Speed #5:        3.0x1385=4155KB/s
 Write Speed #6:        3.0x1385=4155KB/s
 Write Speed #7:        3.0x1385=4155KB/s
 Write Speed #8:        3.0x1385=4155KB/s
GET [CURRENT] PERFORMANCE:
 Write Performance:     3.4x1385=4684KB/s@0 -> 8.0x1385=11080KB/s@2097151
                        8.0x1385=11080KB/s@[2097152 -> 2297887]
 Speed Descriptor#0:    08/2297887 R@8.0x1385=11080KB/s W@8.0x1385=11080KB/s
 Speed Descriptor#1:    08/2297887 R@8.0x1385=11080KB/s W@6.0x1385=8310KB/s
 Speed Descriptor#2:    08/2297887 R@8.0x1385=11080KB/s W@4.0x1385=5540KB/s
 Speed Descriptor#3:    00/2297887 R@8.0x1385=11080KB/s W@3.0x1385=4155KB/s
READ DVD STRUCTURE[#10h]:
 Media Book Type:       00h, DVD-ROM book [revision 0]
 Legacy lead-out at:    2298496*2KB=4707319808
READ DVD STRUCTURE[#0h]:
 Media Book Type:       25h, DVD-R book [revision 5]
 Last border-out at:    2045*2KB=4188160
READ DISC INFORMATION:
 Disc status:           blank
 Number of Sessions:    1
 State of Last Session: empty
 "Next" Track:          1
 Number of Tracks:      1
READ TRACK INFORMATION[#1]:
 Track State:           invisible incremental
 Track Start Address:   0*2KB
 Next Writable Address: 0*2KB
 Free Blocks:           2297888*2KB
 Track Size:            2297888*2KB
READ CAPACITY:          0*2048=0

Here is the result of dmesg | less:

[  837.287319] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#18 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  837.287327] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#18 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
[  837.287332] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#18 Add. Sense: Logical block address out of range
[  837.287337] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#18 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00
[  837.287341] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 0
[  837.312074] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#19 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  837.312081] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#19 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
[  837.312085] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#19 Add. Sense: Logical block address out of range
[  837.312089] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#19 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00
[  837.312092] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 0
[  837.312096] Buffer I/O error on dev sr0, logical block 0, async page read
[  837.453615] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#7 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  837.453625] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#7 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
[  837.453629] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#7 Add. Sense: Logical block address out of range
[  837.453635] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#7 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00
[  837.453638] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 0
[  837.453717] EXT4-fs (sr0): unable to read superblock
[  837.517704] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#16 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  837.517714] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#16 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
[  837.517721] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#16 Add. Sense: Logical block address out of range
[  837.517728] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#16 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00
[  837.517733] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 0
[  837.517772] EXT4-fs (sr0): unable to read superblock
[  837.581750] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#25 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  837.581758] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#25 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
[  837.581763] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#25 Add. Sense: Logical block address out of range
[  837.581768] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#25 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00
[  837.581772] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 0
[  837.581873] EXT4-fs (sr0): unable to read superblock
[  837.649665] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#3 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  837.649674] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#3 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
[  837.649679] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#3 Add. Sense: Logical block address out of range
[  837.649684] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#3 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00
[  837.649687] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 0
[  837.649757] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x0
[  837.649763] squashfs: SQUASHFS error: unable to read squashfs_super_block

That is a lot I know.... if you want me to separate it out somehow, I can do that too.

Edit: I went ahead and ran the command sudo growisofs -Z /dev/sr0 -r -J ~/Documents/ on a completely fresh DVD and it returned the following output:

Executing 'genisoimage -r -J ~/Documents/ | builtin_dd of=/dev/sr0 obs=32k seek=0'
I: -input-charset not specified, using utf-8 (detected in locale settings)
Using HOMEW000 for  /first_file
....
Using FINAL001.EXE;1 for  /last_file
  0.73% done, estimate finish Wed Jan 17 21:37:43 2018
  ...
  99.88% done, estimate finish Wed Jan 17 21:40:52 2018
Total translation table size: 0
Total rockridge attributes bytes: 452345
Total directory bytes: 1208320
Path table size(bytes): 6206
Max brk space used 480000
685813 extents written (1339 MB)
builtin_dd: 685824*2KB out @ average 3.2x1352KBps
/dev/sr0: flushing cache
/dev/sr0: updating RMA
/dev/sr0: closing session
/dev/sr0: reloading tray

No change in the result. The DVD is still empty.

As for xorisso, I ran the command sudo xorriso -md5 on -outdev /dev/sr0 -blank as_needed -joliet on -volid Ubuntu011617 -map ~/Documents/ -find and it gave this result:

xorriso 1.4.2 : RockRidge filesystem manipulator, libburnia project.

Drive current: -outdev '/dev/sr0'
Media current: DVD-R sequential recording
Media status : is blank
Media summary: 0 sessions, 0 data blocks, 0 data, 4489m free
xorriso : NOTE : -blank as_needed: no need for action detected
xorriso : WARNING : -volid text does not comply to ISO 9660 / ECMA 119 rules
xorriso : UPDATE : 4658 files added in 1 seconds
Added to ISO image: directory '/-find'='~/Documents'
xorriso : UPDATE : Writing:         16s    0.0%   fifo 100%  buf 100%
...
xorriso : UPDATE : Writing:     685904s  100.0%   fifo   0%  buf  99%    0.0xD 
xorriso : UPDATE : Closing track/session. Working since 340 seconds
...
xorriso : UPDATE : Closing track/session. Working since 396 seconds
ISO image produced: 685754 sectors
Written to medium : 685904 sectors at LBA 0
Writing to '/dev/sr0' completed successfully.

No change in result. The DVD is still empty.

I also went ahead and attempted to open all the DVDs I've been using so far on a different, Windows 10 computer. I found that any untouched DVD is treated as a normal blank disk. However, any of the DVDs I've tried to write to so far generates the error message:

D:\ The directory name is invalid

Any attempt to open the directory in a windows file browser has gives no result.

There is a lot of information here, and I'm not sure what it means so could someone please help.

Answer 1

Did the data get written?

Probably not. At least they are not readable by that drive.

Hardware? Software?

The issue looks like a problem between drive and medium, accompanied by not-so-smart messages from the automatic mounter.

it burns successfully with no error, but the DVD shows up blank. none of these complaints seem to have any answers, even over all these years.

Hardware problems cannot be solved by answers. They can only be diagnosed (if the bug reporter is endurant enough).

Brasero [...] breaks abruptly at 41% with some generic write error.

Such error messages could probably shed light on parts of the problem. If you get them again, please post them.

All my current DVDs have important information on them

So they are re-usable ones ? Which type exactly ? DVD-RAM, DVD+RW, DVD-RW ? If DVD-RW: are they formatted or are they sequential ?

Any thoughts?

Inspect your drive and medium by this shell command and post the outcome

dvd+rw-mediainfo /dev/sr0

(The medium must be inserted and the drive tray closed already.)

After unsuccessful mount attempt, look into the system logs for SCSI error messages. E.g. by

dmesg | less

(If you are unfamiliar with "less": Press "q" to end it.) Interesting messages would look like

[...timestamp...] sr 2:0:0:0: [sr0]
[...timestamp...] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[...timestamp...] sr 2:0:0:0: [sr0]
[...timestamp...] Sense Key : Illegal Request [current]
[...timestamp...] Info fld=0x2665b, ILI
[...timestamp...] sr 2:0:0:0: [sr0]
[...timestamp...] Add. Sense: Illegal mode for this track
[...timestamp...] sr 2:0:0:0: [sr0] CDB:
[...timestamp...] Read(10): 28 00 00 02 66 5a 00 00 02 00
[...timestamp...] end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 629096
[...timestamp...] Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 157274

Try to perform the burning by a command line program like growisofs or xorriso. Report problems or ask for advise at mailing list bug-xorriso@gnu.org . (We can later report any useful results here.)

---

Edit

Results are in from growisofs and xorriso runs.
Both look just normal. The drive accepted all SCSI WRITE commands and confirmed to the burn programs that they were performed. Else we would see error messages and abort of the burn run.

The output of dvd+rw-mediainfo looks much like an unused DVD-R, but not perfectly:

 Track State:           invisible incremental

means that write preparations have been made. An unused DVD-R should show up with:

 Track State:           blank

But no blocks are recognized as written:

 Track Start Address:   0*2KB
 Next Writable Address: 0*2KB
 Free Blocks:           2297888*2KB
 Track Size:            2297888*2KB
READ CAPACITY:          0*2048=0

The told size is unusual. Normally a DVD-R has 2295104 blocks. Yours consistently offers 2297888. That's 2784 more. Googling for the media id "CMC MAG. AM3" yields even more and different numbers in (mainly MS-Windows) burner forums: 2298496, 2297344(+/- 512). So this seems to be normal for these media. (I have "CMC MAG/M01".)

The error messages from dmesg are only consequential, given the medium state which is reported by the drive to dvd+rw-mediainfo.

Conclusion: Drive and medium do not work together. Either because the drive does not work with any DVD-R, or because it particularly fails with these DVD-R media. Try the media in other drives, try other media with your drive in order to find out more.

I have no experience with DVD-R in the peculiar state after a pseudo-successful burn run. Maybe some burn programs refuse to start writing to them. In this case try again with a really unused medium.

---

With my xorriso developer's hat on:

The xorriso command

-map ~/Documents/ -find

causes

Added to ISO image: directory '/-find'='~/Documents'

which may or may not be what you intended. Maybe you rather meant

-map ~/Documents/ /

to achieve what you did with growisofs. But it does not hamper burn success.

Answer 2

This could have been me writing exactly the same thing in every respect. Since approx a year ago I have been perfectly ok with burning ISO downloads onto whatever Linux distribution that I endeavoured to use. I used both Brasero and k3b. Just lately the only thing that seems to work is

1. Download the ISO to your desktop or download file.

2. I cleaned an old 16 GB USB stick on gparted and made it ready with FAT32

3. I copied the ISO on to the USB stick.

4. I rebooted the Computer and inspected the BIOS system ensuring it would accept the USB media was the FIRST port of call. On my keyboard I pressed the F2 button.

5. Then I installed the new Linux system on to my computer, using UBUNTU 20 mate.

6. It is a quicker and much better way than via the old DVD way of doing things. The weird thing is that my new laptop will accept existing DVD downloads but not any new ones.