Cannot view, use, or open CDs or DVDs in Ubuntu 12.04

Question

I am fairly new to Ubuntu 12.04 and I have encountered a rather irritating problem. Whenever I insert a CD or DVD (whether it have data, music, movies, or nothing at all), nothing pops up saying "you have inserted a CD", "play with Rhythmbox?" etc. It doesn't show the CD in the launcher/dock or anything of the sort. This is especially peculiar because not only do I have a standard IDE built-in optical drive, but I have an external USB optical drive. Neither work. In addition, whenever I go to "Computer///" and I click (double click, right click, or even left click) on "CD/DVD Drive" nothing happens, when I right click and select "Open" nothing happens either [for either of the two drives (both are listed in Computer///)] And if I insert a blank disk and go to a disk burning program such as Brasero, and try to burn to the drive it detects no CDs or DVDs of any kind.

I'm rather stumped and can't seem to find a question similar to this. :(

Thanks for all your help in advance!! :) ~Preston

Output of sudo lshw

*-cdrom
               description: DVD-RAM writer
               product: CD/DVDW TS-H652M
               vendor: TSSTcorp
               physical id: 0.0.0
               bus info: scsi@5:0.0.0
               logical name: /dev/cdrom
               logical name: /dev/cdrw
               logical name: /dev/dvd
               logical name: /dev/dvdrw
               logical name: /dev/sr0
               version: 0414
               capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram
               configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc

*-cdrom
         description: DVD reader
         product: DVD Writer 300n
         vendor: HP
         physical id: 0.0.0
         bus info: scsi@4:0.0.0
         logical name: /dev/cdrom2
         logical name: /dev/cdrw2
         logical name: /dev/dvd2
         logical name: /dev/sr1
         version: 1.25
         serial: [
         capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd
         configuration: status=nodisc

Solution

1. Open terminal.

2. Install the libdvdnav4, libdvdread4, gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad and gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly packages.

   sudo apt-get install libdvdnav4 libdvdread4 gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
   

3. If you would like to play encrypted DVDs:

   sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
   

4. Insert a DVD into your drive. It should open automatically in the Movie Player.

Source: https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/musicvideophotos/C/video-dvd.html

Comments

[david6]

Please post output of: sudo lshw | grep cdrom If nothing returned, then provide all output from: sudo lshw

[user67592]

Outcome for sudo lsh | grep cdrom *-cdrom logical name: /dev/cdrom *-cdrom logical name: /dev/cdrom2

[david6]

That looks fine. Does it show any additional detail if you insert a disk (try internal drive first). eg. further indented, starting with '*-medium'

[fabricator4]

It looks like the optical drives are not automounting. To test the operation otherwise, put a disk in the IDE optical drive and type the following in a terminal window: sudo mount /dev/sr0 /mnt . The optical drive will be accessable at /mnt

[user67592]

Ok, but I did not find any section labeled *-medium .... And the command sudo mount /dev/sr0/mnt did not work. Although I believed I fixed the USB optical drive, the IDE one doesn't even spin, I will open up case tomorrow and take a look at it! Thanks for everyone's help!!

[david6]

I had assumed issue was much earlier, that is: not loading disk. But this can't hurt either ..

[user67592]

All of those packages were already installed (when ran all the commands in terminal it said I had them and they were newest version). Did what you said about encrypted DVDs, but nothing happens still :(

[LeinardoSmtih]

Sorry, ok, I think it might be a driver issue. I will try and figure this out tomorrow.

[user67592]

Thank you for your help, but I was able to get the usb optical drive working, and I am going to open my computer tomorrow to ensure my IDE optical drive is installed correctly! Thanks again!

[iphigenie]

The first package wasn't found, but this still solved the problem for me. Thanks!