How to stop CDRom lockups

Reformist · Guru Joined: 06 Oct 2002 Posts: 323

Just wondering if there is a way with linux to free one's CD rom drive after it has been taken over by the system. What I mean is, if a cdrom has an error, or whatever program is reading the cd rom crashes, or the disc is scratched, the programs etc. can be killed but the cd reader will contiually spin/blink forever until the system is restarted. The cdrom cannot be unmounted because "the device is busy". This is very frustrating and has resulted in about 15 restarts for me today, very unusual for my otherwise stable linux system.

I used to get around such errors in windows by pressing the button located on the cdrom drive marked "eject", the logical step, but that seems to have no effect in linux >=(
_________________
-Phil Crosby

compu-tom · Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2003 4:47 pm Post subject:

Have you used

Reformist · Guru Joined: 06 Oct 2002 Posts: 323

I usually know exactly what is using the cdrom, and a kill command from user or root does nothing. I accidentally hit the eject button without unmounting the disk and after that, trying to umount it yields the dreaded device busy error message. The only thing using cdrom from lpoc is "/mnt/cdrom" by root. Umounting from root yields device busy. If I mess up in any area of scratched disks, or accidently touching the eject button (with my knee sometimes!) to free the cdrom drive I need a reboot.
_________________
-Phil Crosby

compu-tom · Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2003 8:32 am Post subject:

If lsof shows "/mnt/cdrom" are you sure you aren't in this dir? "cd" out first.

Reformist · Guru Joined: 06 Oct 2002 Posts: 323

Hey hey
Your suggestion (above me) solved the eject cdrom problem. I had a terminal open and was in that dir doing random things. After switching out of the dir, I still could not unmount it, but closing the entire termianl solved the problem.

Such an occurance was not immediatley obvious, and I've been using linux for a little more than a year. Perhaps that behavior should be changed.
_________________
-Phil Crosby

Matje · Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2003 12:30 pm Post subject:

It is normal behaviour if you ask me. You don't tear down a house when someone is in it either now do you do? At least... Normal people don't do that :-)

_________________
Life is like a box of chocolates... Before you know it, it's empty...