Making hd-dvd toshibaTS-L802A able to read under linux

There is apparently a kernel level bug/problem with the TS-L802A toshiba hd dvd drive working under linux.

I can burn cds and dvds, but then can not read the burned disks, nor any factory new discs, though all can be read on other systems, and if I boot the exact same system

into windows, the same system can read all those disks.

This bug first started rearing it's ugly head in 2005 apparently. And is still ongoing in apparently most/all distros of linux according to these posts:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/mandriva/+bug/14692

There is a kludge work around.

First download the python script from the above site, the link to the revised script is:

http://librarian.launchpad.net/1509522/cdcaps.py

I've also included here in case that disappears from that site at any point (click the "read more" link to get the source code, it's a short, simple script).

You run the script as follows:

python cdcaps.py /dev/hda

Where hda is my dvd drive *replace that with whatever youd dvd drive  (sda, etc.).

Then, you have to manually mount the drive from the command prompt to view the content:

mount /dev/hda /media/dvd

Now you will be able to view the contents.

I then worked out how to automated this process a little bit more by adding an init.d script and then editing fstab.

This is a kludge. It works on my laptop HP dv9000 custom on OpenSuse 10.2 with all the updates as of April 2007.

Script in init.d calling it prep-dvd-drive-to-read-kludge

#!/bin/sh
echo "preparing DVD drive to be readable via python kludge..."
/usr/bin/python /usr/local/bin/cdcaps.py /dev/hda

I then added that to the default run levels with (under suse):

chkconfig --add prep-dvd-drive-to-read-kludge

Then I edited /etc/fstab with the following added (or replacing if you already have an entry in there for this drive) entry:

/dev/hda                /media/dvd      udf,iso9660 ro,user,noauto      0 0

Now when i stick in a cd it works for both reading and writing.  I haven't tested playing dvd movies yet, I'll post a reply if there are any problems with that.

I hope this helps others out.

Below is the source to the cdcaps.py script:

#!/usr/bin/python
import fcntl
import os
import CDROM
import sys

if len(sys.argv) != 2:
    print "Usage:", sys.argv[0], "<device>"
    sys.exit(0)

f=os.open(sys.argv[1], os.O_RDONLY|os.O_NONBLOCK)

r = fcntl.ioctl(f, CDROM.CDROM_SET_OPTIONS, CDROM.CDO_USE_FFLAGS)
print "CDO_USE_FFLAGS returned", r

cap = fcntl.ioctl(f, CDROM.CDROM_GET_CAPABILITY, 0)

print "got drive capabilities: %x" % cap
if cap & CDROM.CDC_DVD_RAM:
    print "CDC_DVD_RAM support"
if cap & CDROM.CDC_DVD_R:
    print "CDC_DVD_R support"
if cap & CDROM.CDC_DVD:
    print "CDC_DVD support"
if cap & CDROM.CDC_CD_RW:
    print "CDC_CD_RW support"
if cap & CDROM.CDC_CD_R:
    print "CDC_CD_R support"

stat = fcntl.ioctl(f, CDROM.CDROM_DISC_STATUS, 0)
print "got disc status:", stat