[PLUG-TALK] ripping a music CD?

[Denis Heidtmann]

On Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 11:36 AM, John Jason Jordan <johnxj at comcast.net> wrote:
> On Sun, 3 Jan 2010 08:49:13 -0800
> Denis Heidtmann <denis.heidtmann at gmail.com> dijo:
>
>>> What does "dmesg | tail" say after inserting the disk? How about
>>> "mount"? What happens if you insert the disk, launch Totem (Movie
>>> Player), and then click on Movie >? Or VLC? Or Rhythmbox, Exaile, or
>>> other music player when you try to open it from File > Open.
>>>
>>> And finally, what happens if you insert it into a Windows machine, or
>>> insert it while running Windows in a virtual machine?
>>>
>>> I'm sure you've tried all of the above, but if any produced even the
>>> slightest disturbance in the force, it would be helpful to know what.
>>>
>>> I'm especially curious about what happens in a Windows machine. If
>>> there's some new kind of DRM thing going on and it also affects
>>> Windows users, the net should be screaming by now.
>
>>When I insert the CD, the light on the drive flashes for perhaps 30
>>seconds, the hard drive light flashes a bit, some slight whirring
>>noises come from the drive, then all is quiet and dark.  When I open
>>the file browser and click on the CD-RW/DVD+RW Drive entry, a dialog
>>box reports "Unable to mount location No media in the drive".
>>
>>If I insert a different CD I get a dialog box which says "You have
>>just inserted an Audio CD.  Choose what application to launch. ..."
>>
>>dmesg | tail
>>
>>[  553.826457] end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 210616
>>[  553.826471] Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 52654
>>[  553.826479] Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 52655
>>[  553.830566] end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 210616
>>[  553.830574] Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 52654
>>[  553.830580] Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 52655
>>
>>There may be some clues in the above to the cluesome among the readers
>>here.  The meaningful word to me is "error".
>
> Indeed. "Error" is the only word I understood also. Except that I dimly
> recall somewhere running into CD drives being referred to as sr<number>.
>
> The "| tail" tells dmesg to list only the last few lines. I am guessing
> there are probably more error messages related to this issue, some of
> which may give more clues. So try just "dmesg" and then scroll up from
> the end. There may also be further information in /var/log/messages. I
> think Gnome comes with a GUI log viewer utility, but you can also just
> open /var/log/messages with any text editor.
>
>>When Evan puts the CD in his drive, the drive makes lots of
>>noise--clicking, whirring.  Eventually it locks up his system, which
>>responds only to the eject button on the drive.
>>
>>Now what?  I can ask Evan to try under Windows--he has a dual boot.
>>If the response of the machine is different, I will report back.
>
> I know that you said this is the second one from the store, but if there
> was a failure in the manufacturing process it may have affected the
> entire shipment. Manufacturing issues may not be visible, but it might
> be worth a phone call to the store manager to see if they have gotten
> any more returns. I'd also see if Google can come up with anything.
>
> In addition to putting it in a Windows machine, do you have access to a
> regular CD player like you see people carry with them? Or a CD player
> in a stereo setup? Maybe you could take it to a hi-fi store and ask
> them to try it.
>
> Too bad this is not Clinic day. This would be a fun project to work on.

Well, the CD has been successfully ripped.  Evan put it in his machine
booted to Windows XP.  It bumped and clicked and bumped and clicked
and spun up and spun down, finally getting the TOC and a first track
with terrible errors.  The other tracks came through fine.  Two more
tries eventually got the first track as well, using CDex.

Our guess as to what is going on is that CDparanoia is too fussy--it
could not resolve the errors to its satisfaction.  Also, the disk may
heat up after some time in the drive, reducing the error rate.

On the Linux side, my machine has an older drive and an slightly
earlier kernel than Evan's.  His at least made attempts to read it.

It seems unlikely that the difficulty is due to DRM.  But blaming
manufacturing error has to include the possibility that many disks
suffer.  The first disk was purchased at the Beaverton Borders store.
The replacement came from the down-town Portland store, some 3 to 4
weeks later.

Thanks for your interest.  I am willing to let you play with the disk
if you want to explore the nature of the problem.  I am curious about
the nature of the errors.

-Denis