New Music CDs and Linux?

[bscott at ntisys.com]

On Wed, 12 Feb 2003, at 12:25pm, mcostolo at yahoo.com wrote:
> This weekend I purchased two music CDs.  I tried to listen to each of them
> in my Linux box at home without success.  I attempted to open the cd by
> clicking the desktop icon but got errors like "you do not have permission
> to enter /mnt/cdrom."

  Try starting your CD player program directly, from menus or a
command-line, rather than by using the CD-ROM drive icon itself.

> I forget the exact message it gave me but I can retry it tonight if anyone
> deems it necessary.

  For future reference: If you get an error message, and you suspect you
will not be able to remember it verbatim, please write it down.  There are
few things more frustrating to those trying to help than someone who says,
"I got an error, but I don't remember what it was".  :-)

  That being said, I think you provide enough other information for me to
deduce the cause.  :-)

> (I can open/read data cds just fine however.)

  I presume from your narrative that you have also successfully played music
CDs in this system before, as well?  Can you still do so?  (I am trying to
eliminate the possibility of a software configuration change or hardware
failure.)

> Inspection of the CDs themselves revealed a suspicious looking first track
> ...

  If this is a mixed-mode CD (one containing both "Red Book" audio and
"Orange Book" data), then most likely, the software behind the desktop icon
is detecting that first track and deciding the CD is a data CD, and thus
trying to mount it as a filesystem.  It is failing to do so (I cannot say
why without more information), and giving up.

  By invoking the CD player program directly, you bypass that false
detection.  If the system is capable of seeing beyond the data track, this
should work.

  As for why that data track is there, I cannot say.  It may be a legitimate
"multimedia extra".  Publishers sometimes include commentary, lyrics, links
to websites, or even motion-video on music CDs.

  Or it may be a misguided attempt at copy-protection, as you mention.  If
that proves to be the case, I advise you to contact the publisher's customer
service department, for they are selling defective goods.  Also contact the
retailer who sold it to you, with the same compliant.  Also contact Philips,
the inventors of the CD, who are quite upset that Sony, et. al., are selling
goods claiming to be a "Compact Disc(TM)", when in fact they are not.

  More information:
  http://pgse.cis.drexel.edu/pgsit/pages/driscoll/cdda/

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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