DVD Playback doesn't work on recent Knoppix 3.3 install

[totothehero]

Hi all-

I've been happily running my first Debian distribution (via Knoppix3.3) for a few days now, and am finally getting around to trying to play a dvd.

I've been able to play dvds on RH9.0 and Mandrake successfully (and without any extra work), and expected the same with Knoppix. But no luck.

Here's some relevant info:

arky@castalia:/proc/ide/ide1/hdc$ ls -al /dev/dvd
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           10 Feb 11 16:16 /dev/dvd -> /dev/cdrom

arky@castalia:/proc/ide/ide1/hdc$ cdrecord -scanbus
Linux sg driver version: 3.1.25
Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'.
scsibus0:
      0,0,0     0) 'ATAPI   ' 'CD-RW 32/12/40X ' '140C' Removable CD-ROM
      0,1,0     1) 'IDE     ' 'DVD-ROM 16X     ' '3.10' Removable CD-OM
      [snip...]
scsibus1:
      1,0,0   100) '' '' '' Removable not present Disk [for my Neuros portable ogg player...]
      [snip...]

arky@castalia:~$ mount
/dev/hdb2 on / type reiserfs (rw)
/dev/root.old on /initrd type ext2 (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
/dev/hda1 on /media type reiserfs (rw)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)

arky@castalia:~$ less /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: filesystem table.
#
# filesystem  mountpoint  type  options  dump  pass
/dev/hdb2  /  reiserfs  defaults  0  1
/dev/hdb3  none  swap  sw  0  0
proc  /proc  proc  defaults  0  0
/dev/fd0  /floppy  vfat  defaults,user,noauto,showexec,umask=022  0  0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom  iso9660  defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto  0  0
/dev/cdrom1 /cdrom1  iso9660  defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto  0  0
/dev/dvd /dvd  iso9660  defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto  0  0
/dev/cdaudio /cdaudio  iso9660  defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto  0  0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 reiserfs noauto,users,exec 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hdb1 /mnt/hdb1 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/sda1 /media/neuros vfat user,noauto,rw,umask=000 0 0

I've also run xine-check a couple times...here's the relevant output:

[ hint ] Your DVD drive seems not to be attached via ATAPI.
       This might be due to the use of an ide-scsi emulation.
       If you really have a SCSI DVD drive, your SCSI controller is likely
       to do perfect DMA, so there's no reason to worry about this.
       However, if you're using ide-scsi, there is a chance that DMA is
       disabled for the DVD drive. Moreover, I don't know how to enable
       DMA in that case, so you probably have to live with some performance
       loss. (FIXME: check for /proc/ide, provide solution)
       press <enter> to continue...
[OUCH!!] There are no input plugins.
       xine needs at least one input plugin, but none is installed.
       You should probably reinstall xine-lib...
       press <enter> to continue...
[snip...it does the same for all the different plugins one would need]
[OUCH!!] There are no audio_out plugins.
       xine needs at least one audio_out plugin, but none is installed.
       You should probably reinstall xine-lib...
       press <enter> to continue...

In conclusion, I have no idea as to how to proceed. It seems like it may be an IDE/SCSI issue, or a software issue (the xine plugins...it suggests reinstalling xine-lib, but I don't see why the apt-get installation of xine-gui wouldn't install the appropriate libs...oy!).

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Will Maier

[violinist]

give a look at this link:
http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/FaqUsing

also check how yor devices are listed and configure the player accordnigly.

if the drive uses scsi-emulation it ,may be listed as scd0 or scd1 etc.
if its ide then it should be hda, hdb, hdc, or hdd. (probably not hda as this is the primary master hard-drive!)

check whether DMA is enabled for the DVD drive.

good luck

if it still does not work please give more details about your system cofiguration.

[totothehero]

give a look at this link:
http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/FaqUsing

I read that doc first (actually before I installed knoppix). It doesn't cover the device not being found at all.

also check how yor devices are listed and configure the player accordnigly.

Could you explain? I'm not sure if you mean the player as in Xine or the DVD drive itself. I do not think it is a software issue, as I can't mount DVDs at all or play them through Xine or VideoLan.

[if the drive uses scsi-emulation it ,may be listed as scd0 or scd1 etc.
if its ide then it should be hda, hdb, hdc, or hdd. (probably not hda as this is the primary master hard-drive!)

From the output I pasted above, I believe it is a IDE drive under SCSI emulation. It's either hdc or hdd (not certain which; I do have two harddrives, though, taking up hda and hdb).

check whether DMA is enabled for the DVD drive.

arky@castalia:~$ hdparm -d 1 /dev/dvd

/dev/dvd:
 operation not supported on SCSI disks

I can't enable DMA on the dvd (see above).

if it still does not work please give more details about your system cofiguration.

What would you like to know? I posted the info I thought might be useful above. I'd be glad to post other stuff, too...

Thanks for your (quite prompt) help!
Will Maier

[Stephen]

You need to as root rm /dev/dvd then ln -s /dev/scd1 /dev/dvd to link the dvd to the actual device being used, the link is now pointing to your cdr/w drive (/dev/cdrom).

Edit: To enable the DMA for the drive edit as root the file /etc/hdparm.conf and create a section that looks like this at the bottom.

## Added by me for DMA
/dev/hdd {
        dma = on
}

[rickenbacherus]

1) Most apps look for your dvd drive to be called /dev/dvd but this is really a symbolic link to your actual drive. Do this:

ls -al /dev/dvd

It should look something like so.

/dev/dvd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Feb 3 23:41 /dev/dvd -> /dev/scd0

what this says is that /dev/dvd is a symlink pointing to -> /dev/scd0 the actual device (which is under scsi emulaiton).

So if your drive isn't linked properly simply do:

ln -s /dev/scd0 /dev/dvd

Try checking dma on the proper device name like so:

hdparm /dev/hdb

/dev/hdb:
HDIO_GET_MULTCOUNT failed: Invalid argument
IO_support = 1 (32-bit)
unmaskirq = 1 (on)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
BLKRAGET failed: Invalid argument
HDIO_GETGEO failed: Invalid argument

You see the errors above becuase the device is a cdrom and doesn't have the HD parameters but dma is in fact turned on for the drive.

[totothehero]

Thanks for the help; I rm'd the /dev/dvd symlink and made a new one from /dev/scd1. Popped in my Sopranos test disc, a voila! Thanks again. I not only have my DVD player running, but understand why it wasn't working.