PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Configuring a DVD Drive Under Linux

Configuring a DVD drive under Linux requires a bit more work than doing so under Windows. In contrast to recent versions of Windows, which natively recognize a DVD-ROM drive as such, Linux by default sees a DVD-ROM drive as a CD-ROM drive. Without additional configuration, Linux can use a DVD-ROM drive to read a CD-ROM data disc and may be able to read a DVD-ROM data disc formatted as ISO-9660. That’s where it ends, however. By itself, Linux cannot read UDF-formatted discs, which is to say standard DVD-ROM and DVD-Video discs, and it cannot play DVD movies.

In this respect, Linux is similar to Windows NT 4. Although neither understands DVD natively, that problem is not insurmountable. Either operating system can access data and video DVD discs with the help of player applications, many of which are available for Linux. Chances are your Linux distribution installed several player applications by default. If not, it’s easy enough to locate, download, and install the player applications you need.

Configuring an ATA/ATAPI (not SCSI) DVD-ROM drive for optimum performance under Linux is straightforward. Add the following line to your startup script:

/usr/sbin/hdparm -c1d1k1 /dev/hdc

Substitute the appropriate device for /dev/hdc if your DVD-ROM drive is other than Secondary Master (hdc). Our editor, Brian Jepson, notes, “As a general rule when working with hdparm, I usually leave it at -k0 for a couple of days, then check the logs for error messages and ...