External Blu‑ray drive not recognized on Arch Linux with MakeMKV 1.18.x – makemkvcon becomes zombie
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2025 6:49 am
Hello,
I am running MakeMKV 1.18.1 on an Arch‑based Linux distribution (kernel 6.x) with an external Blu‑ray drive (BRXL-PTV6U3-RDB [USB-A]) and an internal DVD drive. My user is in the optical/cdrom group, and the `sg` kernel module is loaded automatically.
**Issue**
- When I insert a Blu‑ray disc into the external drive and launch MakeMKV, the GUI shows “Opening disc…” but never proceeds. The `makemkvcon` process becomes a zombie and must be killed manually.
- Strangely, if I first insert a DVD into my internal DVD drive, allow MakeMKV to scan that disc, eject it, and then insert the Blu‑ray disc into the external drive, MakeMKV reads the Blu‑ray normally.
**Troubleshooting steps**
- Loaded the `sg` module via `sudo modprobe sg` and added it to `/etc/modules-load.d/sg.conf`:contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}. Confirmed `/dev/sg*` devices exist. Despite this, the problem persists.
- Tried both the AUR version and the official binary of MakeMKV 1.18.1; both exhibit the same behaviour.
- Verified that udev lists the drives correctly and that the drives function normally with other software (e.g., VLC can mount the disc).
- Running `makemkvcon info /dev/sr0 --debug=/tmp/makemkv_debug.txt` hangs with no output; the process becomes defunct.
**Expected behaviour**
MakeMKV should be able to detect and parse a Blu‑ray disc from the external drive without requiring a second optical drive or a preliminary DVD scan.
If you need additional debug logs or more system details, please let me know. I appreciate any guidance on resolving this issue or confirming whether it is a bug in MakeMKV 1.18.1.
Thank you.
I am running MakeMKV 1.18.1 on an Arch‑based Linux distribution (kernel 6.x) with an external Blu‑ray drive (BRXL-PTV6U3-RDB [USB-A]) and an internal DVD drive. My user is in the optical/cdrom group, and the `sg` kernel module is loaded automatically.
**Issue**
- When I insert a Blu‑ray disc into the external drive and launch MakeMKV, the GUI shows “Opening disc…” but never proceeds. The `makemkvcon` process becomes a zombie and must be killed manually.
- Strangely, if I first insert a DVD into my internal DVD drive, allow MakeMKV to scan that disc, eject it, and then insert the Blu‑ray disc into the external drive, MakeMKV reads the Blu‑ray normally.
**Troubleshooting steps**
- Loaded the `sg` module via `sudo modprobe sg` and added it to `/etc/modules-load.d/sg.conf`:contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}. Confirmed `/dev/sg*` devices exist. Despite this, the problem persists.
- Tried both the AUR version and the official binary of MakeMKV 1.18.1; both exhibit the same behaviour.
- Verified that udev lists the drives correctly and that the drives function normally with other software (e.g., VLC can mount the disc).
- Running `makemkvcon info /dev/sr0 --debug=/tmp/makemkv_debug.txt` hangs with no output; the process becomes defunct.
**Expected behaviour**
MakeMKV should be able to detect and parse a Blu‑ray disc from the external drive without requiring a second optical drive or a preliminary DVD scan.
If you need additional debug logs or more system details, please let me know. I appreciate any guidance on resolving this issue or confirming whether it is a bug in MakeMKV 1.18.1.
Thank you.