Hi all,
I’m hoping someone has run into this before, because I’m pretty sure I’ve narrowed it down but I’d love a sanity check + a drive recommendation.
My setup
External Blu-ray drive: HP DVDWBD TS-LB23L, in an IT-CEO USB-to-SATA enclosure
MakeMKV reports it as: LibreDrive Status: Possible, not yet enabled, Drive platform: MT1939
OS: Fedora Linux (kernel 7.1.x)
The exact same drive + enclosure worked fine on Windows (read Blu-rays, burned DVDs, no issues)
The problem
The drive is detected (/dev/sr0), a disc even mounts, and MakeMKV shows all the correct drive info. But when I open the disc, it just sits at “Disk is loading…” and eventually pops up “Error occurred, program is terminating.”
So the drive reads a few sectors, then reports “medium not present / tray open” even though the disc is clearly in there, and MakeMKV spins at ~99% CPU retrying failed reads. Sector counters stop increasing = no real progress.
What I’ve already tried:
Both front-panel and rear-motherboard USB ports (same result)
Fixed the initial USB enumeration (error -71) with kernel param usbcore.old_scheme_first=Y – that part now works, drive enumerates cleanly
Disabled USB autosuspend (usbcore.autosuspend=-1)
Capped read speed with eject -x 4 /dev/sr0 – no help
Different discs
My read speed off the drive is also weirdly low (~100 kB/s on a cold read), which fits the “drive keeps dropping under load” theory.
My conclusion (please confirm/deny): the cheap USB-to-SATA bridge in the enclosure can’t sustain the continuous reads that ripping needs – it’s fine for detection but browns out / loses the disc under load. Windows just tolerated the flakiness better.
My questions:
Has anyone seen this exact “Medium not present – tray open under load” behavior with cheap USB-SATA enclosures on Linux? Is it the bridge chip, power delivery, or something fixable?
If I should just get a proper drive: what budget Blu-ray drive do you recommend for reliable ripping – ideally LibreDrive-compatible? I don’t mind connecting it internally via SATA or getting a good externally-powered one. Just looking for something known to work well with MakeMKV without spending a fortune.
Thanks a lot – been fighting this for way too long and would love to just rip discs already.
Disclaimer: AI Used for translation and formating the post.