Growisofs fails repeatedly while trying to do backup.

[Kenneth P. Turvey]

I think this is a Ubuntu compatibility problem. The following command line is
executed from the shell:

kt@volkswagon:~$ tar --create --bzip2 \
      --exclude ./subversion \
      --exclude-from=./.backup.daily.exclude \
      --sparse . | sudo nice -n -20 \
      growisofs -use-the-force-luke \
      -Z /dev/dvdrw=/proc/self/fd/0

This should create an archive of my home directory minus some files and dump it
as raw data to the DVDRW. Instead I'm getting the following output:

Executing 'builtin_dd if=/proc/self/fd/0 of=/dev/dvdrw obs=32k seek=0' /dev/dvdrw:
FEATURE 21h is not on, engaging DAO... /dev/dvdrw: "Current Write Speed" is
2.0x1385KBps.
:-! "COMMAND SEQUENCE ERROR"@LBA=0h. Is media being read?
:-! the LUN :appears to be stuck at 0h, retrying in 5 secs...
         0/4707319808 ( 0.0%) @0x, remaining ??:??

The last part of this error message repeats every five seconds when it does a retry.
This error only occurs if the DVD in the drive is blank or has just been
blanked. At
least that is the only time I've experienced it so far.

Thanks.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

Do you see any messages in the output of 'dmesg' after this happens?

[Kenneth P. Turvey (ktectropy)]

(In reply to comment #1)
> Do you see any messages in the output of 'dmesg' after this happens?

Just to make sure that it was the Gnome or some part of the user interface
getting in the way, I booted up under the rescue kernel and tried it from
single user mode. Surprisingly, I got the exact same error.

I looked in dmesg and there doesn't appear to be any logging going on. If
you need me to flip some switch to get more detail, let me know.

This is the error I just got from running it in a gnome-terminal.

I'm beginning to wonder if my script has changed somehow. I'll check
version control. It doesn't look like it has changed. I just put it
under source control recently, so maybe I changed something then. I
looked on USENET and found several examples of people using the same
command I'm using (with appropriate devices), so it doesn't look like
the problem is in my script.

I'm beginning to think it is a problem with an update I applied.

This is the exact output I got maybe an hour ago under gnome-terminal.

Executing 'builtin_dd if=/proc/self/fd/0 of=/dev/dvdrw obs=32k seek=0'
/dev/dvdrw: FEATURE 21h is not on, engaging DAO...
/dev/dvdrw: "Current Write Speed" is 2.0x1385KBps.
:-! "COMMAND SEQUENCE ERROR"@LBA=0h. Is media being read?
:-! the LUN appears to be stuck at 0h, retrying in 5 secs...
         0/4707319808 ( 0.0%) @0x, remaining ??:??
:-! "COMMAND SEQUENCE ERROR"@LBA=0h. Is media being read?
:-! the LUN appears to be stuck at 0h, retrying in 5 secs...

I am getting the following in /var/log/messages:

Oct 12 13:48:30 localhost kernel: [4302369.576000] cdrom: This disc doesn't have
any tracks I recognize!

This seems reasonable, as the DVD was just blanked (or never used).

[Kenneth P. Turvey (ktectropy)]

I just thought I would add a note. I just did a full backup using this command
line. It worked fine with a DVD-R disk. Then I tried running my daily backup
script (same command line) with a DVD-RW disk and it failed. So the problem
doesn't seem to effect all kinds of media, but only DVD-RW disks. I just tried
it again with a DVD+RW disk and again it worked fine.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

Are you still experiencing this problem with current Dapper?

[Kenneth P. Turvey (ktectropy)]

On Fri, 2006-03-31 at 17:22 +0000, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> Are you still experiencing this problem with current Dapper?
>
> ** Changed in: dvd+rw-tools (Ubuntu)
> Status: Unconfirmed => Needs Info

I'm still running breezy, but I tried to update the bug report the other
day unsuccessfully. I think it may have been a media problem. It is
really still a bug because growisofs should indicate it as such instead
of the cryptic message it provides.

--
Kenneth P. Turvey <email address hidden>
Phone : [phone]

XMPP IM: <email address hidden>
Yahoo IM: kpturvey2

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering is this still an issue for you? Thanks in advance.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

We are closing this bug report as it lacks the information, described in the previous comments, we need to investigate the problem further. However, please reopen it if you can give us the missing information and feel free to submit bug reports in the future.