Is the LibreDrive firmware causing Linux to be unable to read DVDs, but still read BluRays just fine?

[Laurence5905]

TL;DR -- is my LibreDrive firmware causing Linux not to read DVDs?

So, I'm having a very weird problem with my BD-RE drive. It's an LG WH14NS40 that was flashed to the LibreDrive MT1959 version 1.05 firmware many, many years ago.

Here's the Info copied directly from MakeMKV:

Drive Information
OS device name: /dev/sr2
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE WH14NS40
Revision: 1.05
Serial number: KLMJ7HC1010
Firmware date: 2120-05-06 14:44
Bus encryption flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 62

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: MT1959
Firmware type: Patched (microcode access re-enabled)
Firmware version: 1.05
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

Been using it on a Windows 10 system for several years now, with zero issues. I just switched to Linux, and now it absolutely *REFUSES* to read DVDs! Just flat will not read them at all. It reads BluRays in Linux, no problem. But it will not read DVDs in Linux. I have tested it again just today -- in Windows and in MacOS, DVDs read with no issues. It's only Linux that has a problem reading, and only DVDs, not BluRays.

My system: Fedora 43 (KDE), kernel version 6.19.8-200, and yes I do have the rpmfusion-tainted libdvdcss library installed, as well as all the various codecs and mesa video-card drivers that you can get from rpmfusion. CPU is AMD Ryzen 5 5600X. GPU is AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT. 32GB of DDR4 RAM. Gigabyte B550i AX Pro motherboard. Oh, and the drive is in an OWC Mercury Pro external enclosure connected via its included USB 3.1 cable to a powered hub.

Anyway -- the reason why I'm posting this here is that I'm wondering if it's the LibreDrive firmware that's causing the issue? Should I flash to that new 1.02MK firmware that's in this topic here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=19634 Are there known issues reading DVDs on Linux with any of these LibreDrive firmwares?

Any help would be appreciated. I've been going crazy trying to figure out why I can read BluRays just fine but DVDs screw up everything.

[olddognewtricks]

Can you dd to create an image of the DVD?

dd if=/dev/sr2 of=~/Desktop/somename.img status=progress conv=noerror,notrunc,sync

There's a wikipedia page for the command if you're not familiar with it....

the above reads all the data from /dev/sr2 and makes a bitcopy img at ~/Desktop/somename.img

You should then be able to open the image in something like handbrake hopefully

What does dmesg -T report when you do the above? (the -T puts human readable timestamps).

[Laurence5905]

Absolutely nothing will read the DVD whatsoever.

I've tried using dd to make an image -- tried it again just now using the exact command you gave me (except I changed /dev/sr2 to /dev/sr1 because the drive now is on /dev/sr1 after a reboot) -- and it simply hangs until I unplug the drive. Then it gives me "failed to open, No such device or address."

I know it's not the drive itself or the enclosure, because when I plug it into a Windows machine or a MacOS machine, it reads DVDs just fine.

At this point, it's *got* to be some sort of incompatibility between the 1.05 firmware and Fedora 43 (KDE), no? Has anyone else had this issue? Will flashing the 1.02MK firmware over the 1.05 firmware screw something up? I surely don't want to brick my drive...

[Laurence5905]

Oh, and here's the `dmesg -T` results:

Code: Select all

[Sun Mar 29 12:27:52 2026] usb 4-3.3: new SuperSpeed USB device number 9 using xhci_hcd
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:52 2026] usb 4-3.3: New USB device found, idVendor=1e91, idProduct=de2c, bcdDevice= 0.01
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:52 2026] usb 4-3.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=1
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:52 2026] usb 4-3.3: Product: Mercury Pro Optical
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:52 2026] usb 4-3.3: Manufacturer: Other World Computing
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:52 2026] usb 4-3.3: SerialNumber: WP9C02268000
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:52 2026] usb-storage 4-3.3:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:52 2026] scsi host8: usb-storage 4-3.3:1.0
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:53 2026] scsi 8:0:0:0: CD-ROM            HL-DT-ST BD-RE  WH14NS40  1.05 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:53 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] scsi3-mmc drive: 47x/47x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:53 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr1
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:53 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg6 type 5
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 Add. Sense: Read of scrambled sector without authentication
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 02 00
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] blk_print_req_error: 8 callbacks suppressed
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] I/O error, dev sr1, sector 4096 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x880700 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 Add. Sense: Read of scrambled sector without authentication
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 02 00
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] I/O error, dev sr1, sector 4096 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x800000 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] buffer_io_error: 3 callbacks suppressed
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] Buffer I/O error on dev sr1, logical block 512, async page read
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 Add. Sense: Read of scrambled sector without authentication
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 3e 4c bc 00 00 02 00
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] I/O error, dev sr1, sector 16331504 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x880700 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 Add. Sense: Read of scrambled sector without authentication
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 3e 4c bc 00 00 02 00
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] I/O error, dev sr1, sector 16331504 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x800000 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] Buffer I/O error on dev sr1, logical block 2041438, async page read
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 Add. Sense: Read of scrambled sector without authentication
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 02 00
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] I/O error, dev sr1, sector 4096 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x800000 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
[Sun Mar 29 12:27:56 2026] Buffer I/O error on dev sr1, logical block 512, async page read
[Sun Mar 29 12:28:12 2026] usb 4-3.3: USB disconnect, device number 9
[Sun Mar 29 12:28:12 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=15s
[Sun Mar 29 12:28:12 2026] sr 8:0:0:0: [sr1] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 3e 4d 88 00 00 38 00
[Sun Mar 29 12:28:12 2026] I/O error, dev sr1, sector 16332320 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x80700 phys_seg 4 prio class 2
[Sun Mar 29 12:28:12 2026] device offline error, dev sr1, sector 16332320 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x800000 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
[Sun Mar 29 12:28:12 2026] Buffer I/O error on dev sr1, logical block 2041540, async page read
[Sun Mar 29 12:28:12 2026] device offline error, dev sr1, sector 16332832 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x80700 phys_seg 26 prio class 2
[Sun Mar 29 12:28:12 2026] device offline error, dev sr1, sector 16332832 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x800000 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
[Sun Mar 29 12:28:12 2026] Buffer I/O error on dev sr1, logical block 2041604, async page read
[Sun Mar 29 12:28:12 2026] device offline error, dev sr1, sector 4096 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x800000 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
[Sun Mar 29 12:28:12 2026] Buffer I/O error on dev sr1, logical block 512, async page read

I ran the dd command you gave me, let it hang for a bit, then unplugged the drive.