Empty Disc Recognised, but still Asks for Empty DVD upon Burn

[OzzyFrank]

Binary package hint: k3b

Ubuntu 9.10 "amd64" running K3b 1.68.0~alpha3-0ubuntu1

I have used this program countless times to make playable video DVDs, but this time the Burn button was disabled in the final dialogue box. In the folder pane, it shows that I have an empty DVD in there, and in the status bar shows me I have 3Mb of space left on it. I can use the Burn button to bring up the dialogue, but it shows that I need to insert a blank medium, even though it already knows I have one in there. I cannot do anything but hit Cancel, since the Burn button is disabled because apparently there is no disc in the drive.

I've restarted the program a few times, to no avail. I'll see if a reboot does anything. Cheers

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Nov 30 15:06:31 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/k3b
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: k3b 1.68.0~alpha3-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_AU.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: k3b
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64

[Dave Walker (dogatemycomputer)]

Could you tell me if rebooting resolved the problem?

[Nigel Babu (nigelbabu)]

Thank you for reporting this bug. Can you let us know if rebooting solved your issues?

Thanks for helping improve Ubuntu.

[OzzyFrank (ubuntu-ozzyfrank)]

Hi. Just rebooted, and nothing has changed; the main window shows the disc present as soon as the system has mounted it, but the Burn dialogue still says "Please insert an emply DVD-DL medium". I think this may have been the first time I've used K3b since I upgraded Ubuntu to 9.10; I have KDE and Xfce installed along with Gnome, so a lot of KDE apps were replaced with Karmic versions in the upgrade.

I've used K3b without issue for ages now (well, besides that 4Gb limit issue many others had too), and have recommended this over Gnome apps due to the reliable Video DVD burning (ie: they're actually playable). Hopefully this gets resolved soon, as even though I have NeroLinux, I much prefer K3b.

Although I haven't tried it, I'm assuming if I wanted to create an .iso image of the video DVD project, it would let me (since the Start button is not disabled like the Burn one is). Seems purely to be that the dialogue cannot see the disc, even though the main body of the program can. Weird.

[OzzyFrank (ubuntu-ozzyfrank)]

I thought I'd add the "Media Info" on the disc that appears in the right pane, just so there isn't any question that K3b can in fact see the disc, and knows it is an empty DVD:

Medium

Type: DVD-R Sequential
Media ID: CMC MAG. AM3
Capacity: 510:38:38 min (4.4 GiB)
Rewritable: no
Appendable: no
Empty: yes
Layers: 1
Sessions: 0
Supported writing speeds: 4.0x (5540 KB/s)
8.0x (11080 KB/s)
10.0x (13850 KB/s)
12.0x (16620 KB/s)
16.0x (22160 KB/s)

[Nigel Babu (nigelbabu)]

Please try this solution posted at (https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/k3b/+question/92662).

Stop using any AUTO settings and don't use AUTO in any of the drop down box options. Choose DAO and ISO9660 to burn an image or iso. Now DAO appears as the default option when I open K3b. Choose SAO to burn a dvd data disc.

Please get back if you have any queries. Thanks in advance.

[OzzyFrank (ubuntu-ozzyfrank)]

Unfortunately, "AUTO" is now the only option in the dropdown menu of choices. It wasn't like that before - I know, because I seldom use "AUTO", since it isn't always "DAO" (which is what I generally want). And my problem isn't with the burning modes (though I'll try anything, if it can help), but the fact that the Burn dialogue can't see the empty disc, even though the main window of K3b can.

And I'm not trying to burn an .iso to disc, but files to video disc. If you mean the other way round, I don't doubt I can burn the video DVD project to an .iso, but I'd rather get this sorted and save half the work (ie: burn straight to disc).

[Nigel Babu (nigelbabu)]

Since the requested information has been provided, I'm setting this back to new.

[Dave Walker (dogatemycomputer)]

Could you please attach a debug log from K3b for us? If you are running KDE then here are the steps necessary to create the debug log then restore your settings to their previous state. You can copy and paste the commands into these commands into a console.

1) enter this into the console and press enter:
sudo cp ~/.kde/share/config/kdebugrc ~/.kde/share/config/kdebugrc_bak
2) enter this into the console and press enter:
kdebugdialog
3) Click SELECT ALL when the kdebugdialog box appears.
4) enter this into the console and press enter:
k3b 2>k3b_debug.txt
5) K3b should launch. Attempt to recreate the bug.
6) Exit K3b when finished.
7) enter this into the console and press enter:
sudo cp ~/.kde/share/config/kdebugrc_bak ~/.kde/share/config/kdebugrc
8) Attach the resulting k3b_debug.txt to this bug report.

Hopefully this will shine some light on the problem.

[Dave Walker (dogatemycomputer)]

I am sorry.. I missed a step. Here is the amended process:

Could you please attach a debug log from K3b for us? If you are running KDE then here are the steps necessary to create the debug log then restore your settings to their previous state. You can copy and paste the commands into these commands into a console.

1) enter this into the console and press enter:
sudo cp ~/.kde/share/config/kdebugrc ~/.kde/share/config/kdebugrc_bak
2) enter this into the console and press enter:
kdebugdialog
3) Click SELECT ALL when the kdebugdialog box appears.
4) Click OK
5) enter this into the console and press enter:
k3b 2>k3b_debug.txt
6) K3b should launch. Attempt to recreate the bug.
7) Exit K3b when finished.
8) enter this into the console and press enter:
sudo cp ~/.kde/share/config/kdebugrc_bak ~/.kde/share/config/kdebugrc
9) Attach the resulting k3b_debug.txt to this bug report.

Sorry for the confusion.

[OzzyFrank (ubuntu-ozzyfrank)]

cp: cannot stat `/home/ozzman/.kde/share/config/kdebugrc': No such file or directory

The file didn't exist, so ran kdebugdialog and it was then created. After starting K3b I got an "Error - K3b" popup with "The file or folder /media/cdrom0/VIDEO_TS does not exist." which I've not had before. But it runs the same as before, with the empty disc showing in the main window, but not in the Burn dialogue.

[Dave Walker (dogatemycomputer)]

The error "file or folder" .... "does not exist" is usually an indication of a saved bookmark in your "Places" list that no longer exists. You should launch Dolphin, press F9 if your Places tab is not visible by default and check all your "Places" to confirm they all point to valid locations.

Could you please attach a video of the problem you are having? You can use recordMyDesktop and recordMyDesktop-gtk or xvidcap which are both available via the Software Manager. I am hoping a video of the problem and the debug log will provide enough information so a developer can track down the cause and offer a solution.

[skybon (skybon-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

I have had the similar problem. The difference was that I had to write an image to my CD-RW.
At first I tried to write it to the not empty disc. It told me to insert the blank disc.
Then I erased it using that very K3B. The same.
Finally I ticked boxes "Allow overburning", "Show advanced GUI elements" and "Automatically erase CD-RWs and DVD-RWs" and... voila, it has finally discovered an empty medium in my drive on the burn screen!

[OzzyFrank (ubuntu-ozzyfrank)]

I had to install a new disc drive as the previous one started having read errors (was burning absolutely fine, but would come up with non-existent errors when doing an md5 check), and finally K3b's Burn dialogue could recognise I had inserted a blank disc. Not sure if this was actually because of KDE updates or the upgrade for Ubuntu I did just before this, especially since this error started before the drive started being less than perfect.