How to detect USB devices plugged in

[oshunluvr]

Next I would do all that again (cd's in and out, playing one, etc.), but check dmesg output between each activity. Like open Konsole, then type dmesg, then insert cd wait a tic, then dmesg, insert cd in other drive, wait a tic, check dmesg. Ad nausium until you get some useful output - you may not, but you might.

@here - my only issue with my external drive is if I insert a bad disc (I have some old photo discs that have expired I guess) and try to access it. then it gets stuck in an apparently endless loop that I cannot kill by any means I am aware of except a hard reboot.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Just thought of another possibility - did you check your system tray?

Left-click on the arrow and then right-click on the "Disks & Devices" symbol:

[Schwarzer Kater]

[…] Is there some software module which manages that and which I can remove and then re-install? Or reconfigure.

The only thing I can think of in the GUI is -> System Settings -> Hardware -> Removable Storage -> Device Actions …
Perhaps also -> System Settings -> Personalization -> Applications -> File Associations.

Or it is some corrupt cache or settings file in your $HOME…

But I am just guessing now.

[joneall]

Thanks for all the suggestions. The eject command works fine for the internal CD/DVD drive. I only have one in ternal drive, which is /dev/sr0, as shown by eject -T /dev/sr0. It knows the drive is there, but does not detect when there is a CD in it.

When I plug in the external USB drive, I hear a buzz in my speakers. The eject command works on that drive too (/dev/sr1).

I can put a CD in the external drive, then open disc /dev/sr1 with VLC and I get the music. I can also watch a movie on a DVD on the external drive by picking that disc with VLC. It doesn't work with the internal drive tho.

I don't see how it can be only hardware. Maybe the internal drive has a h/w pb, tho.

Thing is, when I insert a medium, I never get a message from the prompter. Is there some software module which manages that and which I can remove and then re-install? Or reconfigure.

[oshunluvr]

Well the next thing I would do is install and boot to an older kernel. You said "several months" since you got the pop-up so go back that far. This will probably require some research to figure out what version to install. You could also just move back a series, like if you're using 5.19 go back to 5.15. It almost sounds like a module is missing so UDEV can't do it's job.

Also I looked back at your first post and one question was left unanswered: If you have more than one CD-ROM drive they would be /dev/sr0, /dev/sr1. etc. I suspect that issuing an eject command would reveal which is sr0.

/usr/bin/eject -T

[Schwarzer Kater]

[…] None of the three systems detects an internal PCI or an external USB CD/DVD reader. […]

The internal CD/DVD drive is probably connected to SATA if it is a more or less modern computer.
Any chance to quickly swap it for another internal one to test if the spare one works?

Has the internal CD/DVD drive ever worked or is it a brand new machine and you are testing this for the first time? Specifications of the computer could be helpful in that case, too.

[joneall]

I wonder if a Live USB session would show different results.

Good idea, thanks! I tried it, but the result is the same. None of the three systems detects an internal PCI or an external USB CD/DVD reader. All three detect external USB disk drives. I don't understand how it could be hardware, in that case. Any more thoughts?

[oshunluvr]

I wonder if a Live USB session would show different results.

[oshunluvr]

For what it's worth, I have a Blu-Ray CD/RW drive in an external enclosure attached to my desktop PC via USB 3.0. Inserting a disc results is the expected notification and pop-up message and it appears in Dolphin.

Frankly, it sounds like a hardware issue OR some past upgrade bug is the problem..

[joneall]

Did you try if you get more information with e.g. lsblk -e7 -f? (the -e7 suppresses snapd's loop devices)

Hm, when I insert an audio CD in my internal drive a message pops up in Plasma and I can see it in the system tray…
The CD is also shown in the "removable devices" section in Dolphin…
Unfortunately I don't have an external USB CD/DVD player to test this.

What kind of CD are you trying to access?

I used to get the popup message too, but not for months now. The CD in question is an ordinary audio CD. It ought to work for DVDs too, tho.

[joneall]

Actually, I have an internal CD drive and that is not detected either. Seems to be a CD reader problem, whatever that can mean.

[Snowhog]

Disk /dev/loop6: 66.56 MiB, 69795840 bytes, 136320 sectors

Those are all SNAP application mounts. SNAP does a crappy job of cleaning up its mounts!

[Schwarzer Kater]

Did you try if you get more information with e.g. lsblk -e7 -f? (the -e7 suppresses snapd's loop devices)

Hm, when I insert an audio CD in my internal drive a message pops up in Plasma and I can see it in the system tray…
The CD is also shown in the "removable devices" section in Dolphin…
Unfortunately I don't have an external USB CD/DVD player to test this.

What kind of CD are you trying to access?

[joneall]

Problem is, fdisk -l gives a long list of stuff and it's impossible for me to know what is what. There are a lot of entries like

Disk /dev/loop6: 66.56 MiB, 69795840 bytes, 136320 sectors

which I do not understand at all. All I see different in lsusb is the following entry:

Bus 005 Device 003: ID 13fd:1040 Initio Corporation INIC-1511L PATA Bridge

I'm trying to use an external USB CD reader, which works just fine on my wife's WIndows 10 machine. Needless to say, I have no Windows system on my computer.

I do have an internal CD/DVD reader. When I put a CD in there, the drive makes some noises, but Kubuntu remains silent without apparently detecting anything. Very annoying.

[joneall]

I missed that one because I thought it was only talking about the mount command and my problem preceded the use of that.

THanks.