Fedora 43. I can read BluRays but I can't read DVDs?! I *DO* have libdvdcss installed from rpmfusion

Ask Fedora
1

So when I stick a BluRay video in my drive, it reads it, no problem. Shows up as the name of the movie and everything. On the “Disks and Devices” applet in the task bar there’s a “Mount and Open” button and it works great.

When I stick a DVD video in my drive, it hems and haws and eventually shows up as “DVD ROM” in that “Disks and Devices” applet and does not have a “Mount and Open” button. It has a “view in file manager” button. When I click on that it simply jumps to the “home” folder in the file manager. The disc shows up no where, and neither MakeMKV nor VLC can read it.

I DO have libdvdcss installed from RPM Fusion

$ sudo dnf list --installed libdvd*
Installed packages
libdvdcss.x86_64  1.5.0-1.fc43  rpmfusion-free-tainted
libdvdnav.x86_64  6.1.1-11.fc43 d15e557246b143e68b4d7cf7c8078e9c
libdvdread.x86_64 6.1.3-10.fc43 d15e557246b143e68b4d7cf7c8078e9c

I read somewhere that you needed to run something called ldconfig to create some sort of cache or something? So I did that (sudo ldconfig) and nothing came back. DVDs still don’t work…

So what is the problem?!

EDIT: BTW, I have lbbluray installed from the regular Fedora package-manager, not rpmfusion.

$ sudo dnf list --installed libblu*
libbluray.x86_64                1.3.4-11.fc43   updates

So I guess for Blu-Rays the Fedora package-manager is fine?

EDIT: It is *NOT* the drive. I plug the drive into my Mac, drop a DVD in there, and it plays the video with zero problems. In fact, I can play it using either the Mac’s built-in DVD player or VLC. So the drive reads DVDs with no issues.

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2

You will need to install the RPM Fusion
https://rpmfusion.org/ and add all the multimedia codecs.

3

Already done. Did it back when I was getting VLC to play all the h.264 and h.265 files in my library:

$sudo dnf list –installed | grep rpmfusion
ffmpeg.x86_64 7.1.2-7.fc43 rpmfusion-free
ffmpeg-devel.x86_64 7.1.2-7.fc43 rpmfusion-free
ffmpeg-libs.x86_64 7.1.2-7.fc43 rpmfusion-free
gstreamer1-plugins-bad-freeworld.x86_64 1:1.26.10-1.fc43 rpmfusion-free-updates
gstreamer1-plugins-ugly.x86_64 1:1.26.10-1.fc43 rpmfusion-free-updates
libavcodec-freeworld.x86_64 7.1.2-7.fc43 rpmfusion-free
libavdevice.x86_64 7.1.2-7.fc43 rpmfusion-free
libde265.x86_64 1.0.16-2.fc43 rpmfusion-free
libdvdcss.x86_64 1.5.0-1.fc43 rpmfusion-free-tainted
libfreeaptx.x86_64 0.2.2-2.fc43 rpmfusion-free
libheif-freeworld.x86_64 1.20.2-2.fc43 rpmfusion-free
librtmp.x86_64 2.6-2.20240301.git6f6bb13.fc43 rpmfusion-free
mesa-va-drivers-freeworld.x86_64 25.3.6-1.fc43 rpmfusion-free-updates
mesa-vulkan-drivers-freeworld.x86_64 25.3.6-1.fc43 rpmfusion-free-updates
pipewire-codec-aptx.x86_64 1.4.9-1.fc43 rpmfusion-free-updates
python3-vlc.noarch 3.0.21203-2.fc43 rpmfusion-free
rpmfusion-free-release.noarch 43-1 @commandline
rpmfusion-free-release-tainted.noarch 43-1 rpmfusion-free
rpmfusion-nonfree-release.noarch 43-1 @commandline
svt-hevc-libs.x86_64 1.5.1-9.fc43 rpmfusion-free
vlc-plugins-freeworld.x86_64 3.0.22-1.fc43 rpmfusion-free-updates
vvenc-libs.x86_64 1.13.1-4.fc43 rpmfusion-free
x264-libs.x86_64 0.165-2.20250608gitb35605ac.fc43 rpmfusion-free
x265-libs.x86_64 4.1-3.fc43 rpmfusion-free

But thanks for suggesting that.

4

As you have libdvdcss already, i have no idea :slight_smile:

You could try adifferent file manager such as Thunar.

5

Someone on Reddit suggested I try asking Claude AI and see what happens. After a LOT of back-and-forth and a lot of log-files, he (Claude AI, that is) thinks that the chip in my external USB drive-enclosure is blocking the SCSI decryption commands from libdvdcss. He said there’s a known Linux-incompatibility issue with the USB-bridge chip that’s in my drive-enclosure, and replacing it with a drive-enclosure that has a different chip should solve the problem. I’ve got a new enclosure on order (which will hopefully arrive tomorrow) and I’ll update the status here after I get it. Fingers crossed.

6

See also: DVD playback problems - #2 by klaatu

7

Nope. That didn’t fix it. I had all but the dvdauthor package installed, so I installed dvdauthor and tried to play a DVD. Still no go. But thanks for the suggestion.

8

BTW, the enclosure was not the problem. New enclosure, same issue.

Now Claude AI seems to think that maybe the “LibreDrive” firmware (obtained from MakeMKV) I flashed on my drive several years ago might be the issue? Who knows… I’m open to any ideas…

9

are you using the rpm or flatpak version of VLC?
the installed libdvdcss will work only with the rpm version. Flatpak version will need its own libdvdcss (it may be already included in the flatpak, I don’t know)

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10

I finally managed to downgrade the firmware in the drive. No go. I still can’t read DVDs. BluRays read just fine.

This drive on this computer will not read DVDs. This drive on any other computer I own will read DVDs. What. The. Actual. Fvck?! This is really starting to piss me off. Would I have better luck with Arch, maybe?

And it’s only this drive on this computer. If I plug in my Apple SuperDrive, it reads DVDs perfectly fine. So it’s not a defective libdvdcss file or any other sort of misconfiguration. I can play ‘em in VLC (Flatpak) and I can read ‘em in MakeMKV using that SuperDrive. But not this BD-RE drive.

This is getting to be really stupid now…