MP 1,1-5,1 How to open DVD-ROM tray from macOS?

[dBHz]

After servicing and reviving my oldest, hardly able to read anything and to open/close the tray, IDE/PATA Samsung DVD-ROM drive from year 2000, it now works great and I installed it as a second drive in my Mac Pro 3,1, in addition to Pioneer's DVD-RW / Apple SuperDrive. All discs mount and read fine when I open/close the tray from the button on the drive itself. Once a disc is loaded, I can right-click it and select 'Eject' or just type 'diskutil eject diskX', then macOS sends an EJECT command to the drive and it ejects the disc. So far, so good.

But as you know, optical drives reside mounted in the bay that stays in the tower, so the buttons are inaccessible. The drive should open from macOS. The problem is, the drop-down menu from the eject symbol by the clock does not contain my DVD-ROM, so I cannot click it and make it open. drutil does not 'see' it either. Other than that, it is obviously recognized by the system. Here is a report:

$ system_profiler SPParallelATADataType

ATA:

    ATA Bus:

        PIONEER DVD-RW  DVR-112D:


          Model: PIONEER DVD-RW  DVR-112D             
          Revision: BC14 
          Detachable Drive: No
          Protocol: ATAPI
          Unit Number: 0
          Socket Type: Internal
          Low Power Polling: Yes
          Power Off: No

        SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-612:

          Model: SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-612               
          Revision: BS04 
          Serial Number:                   
          Detachable Drive: No
          Protocol: ATAPI
          Unit Number: 1
          Socket Type: Internal
          Low Power Polling: No
          Power Off: No
        

$ drutil status
 Vendor   Product           Rev
 PIONEER  DVD-RW  DVR-112D  BC14


$ drutil info
 Vendor   Product           Rev
 PIONEER  DVD-RW  DVR-112D  BC14

   Interconnect: ATAPI
   SupportLevel: Apple Shipping
          Cache: 2000k
       CD-Write: -R, -RW, BUFE, CDText, Test, IndexPts, ISRC
      DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW, BUFE, Test
     Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO

QUESTION: Is there any other, possibly lower-level way that I'm missing, to make macOS send an EJECT command to the empty Samsung DVD-ROM drive?

 

[AlixSPQR]

Have you tried Disk Utility?

 

[chown33]

The drutil command you show being used for 'status' and 'info' should have a 'tray' command.

You should be able to get 'drutil' to output its builtin help with:

drutil

That is, the command by itself, with no sub-commands.

You didn't state which OS version is running, so I could be wrong about the 'tray' command.

EDIT
Please post the output of this command:

drutil list

 

[dBHz]

Everything has been tried so far. I did not post the output of the LIST command, but used it in diagnostics. Again, it does not list the device.

$ drutil list
   Vendor   Product           Rev   Bus       SupportLevel
1  PIONEER  DVD-RW  DVR-112D  BC14  ATAPI     Apple Shipping

That is all

I have also tried to eject the tray from drutil. It does not work. More specifically, the eject command can specify the device number, like this:

$ drutil eject -drive 2

 Could not find a valid device.

drutil does not see the second drive. Drive 1 is SuperDrive. Just 'drutil eject' ejects SuperDrive only.

I also tried a NOS LG DVD-RAM burner as the second drive. It appears correctly in drutil. This DVD-ROM, however, does not.

Any other ways?

 

[chown33]

What happens if you disconnect the PIONEER DVD-RW, leaving only the SAMSUNG drive connected?

If that still fails, then maybe there's some incompatibility with the OS version.
Which OS version are you using?

Or maybe there's a cable connector problem. Can you swap the drives between connectors?


Looking at the posted system_info output, the only differences I see are the "Low Power Polling" values. Maybe it's significant, or maybe it's not. What does the NOS LG drive show for that?


If it still doesn't work, I think you might get better responses if this thread is moved to the Mac Pro forum. There are folks there with considerable experience and expertise in Mac Pros of this age. I can do that move.

 

[retta283]

What kind of keyboard are you using? If you have access to an older Mac keyboard with an eject key you should be able to hold Command + Eject to eject the second drive or eject all drives at once. The eject button on these were always funky so I can't guarantee, but it's worth a try. You say it's an IDE drive. Are your jumper settings correct? If both disc drives are IDE you need to change the jumpers.

Edit: It's Option + Eject, apparently.

 

[dBHz]

I tried swapping connectors and I tried leaving just the SAMSUNG drive connected, being the master / primary drive. It cannot be seen by drutil and also does not display under the EJECT icon (it says 'no drive'). However, when I open the tray from the physical eject button and load a disc, everything is fine, then I can eject it using diskutil or right-clicking the disc icon, or from Finder. The only question is, how to eject it when it's empty so that I can load a disc.

Jumpers are set correctly. Whether it's a master or a slave (with two drives) does not matter for the situation.

The OS version is 10.14.6 Mojave.

To clarify, at this point I am looking for something like the camcontrol utility on FreeBSD, but on macOS that could do the job by allowing me to send a command to bus and device number. More from FreeBSD man pages: https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?camcontrol


If moving the thread to the Mac Pro forum would help, please do so.

 

[haralds]

Option-Eject is the key combo for the second drive.

 

[dBHz]

Correct, but not applicable. I wouldn't really post a thread, yet alone with so many details, if I was using an Apple keyboard and could just use the Eject key. I have another, mechanical keyboard installed at that point, which I find to be much better than the Apple keyboard. Perhaps I should just look into mapping an eject key.

 

[bookemdano]

Not positive, but I think he was just correcting the earlier poster who mistakenly said it was Command-Eject. Lots of people find these threads later via a search and it's good to fix errors like that so that people aren't trying the wrong thing and then wondering why it doesn't work.

I did a search in the thread and don't see anywhere that you tried the command:

drutil tray eject

Should also be able to append a 1 or 2 to the end to specify a particular drive. Since the drive doesn't show up in drutil list I guess I don't necessarily expect that command to work, but you should try it anyway.

Have you tried setting the jumper to Cable Select and then try both connectors on the cable? I know you said you've tried the master and slave jumper positions, but might be worth trying CS as well. For that matter, have you tried a different IDE cable?

If other IDE drives work fine then maybe it's just an incompatibility with that particular drive. Another option to try would be to get an IDE->USB 2.0 or Firewire drive enclosure (or simply an adapter if you don't care about the tidyness) and see if it behaves properly that way. If not, then you could also try it that way on another Mac if you have access to one. If it won't show up in drutil even on another Mac then you've pretty much determined the drive to be at fault.

 

[dBHz]

Thanks for all the contributions.

Everything suggested in the comment above has been exhausted earlier in the thread. I can assure you, this has nothing to do with IDE cables or with MA/SL/CS jumper positioning, otherwise the drive wouldn't function & detect correctly (which it does) and the same configuration wouldn't work on other drives. Rather, I think it has to do with drutil registering only drives with burning capabilities and ignoring the rest, and the GUI eject icon from the menubar seems to employ drutil under the hood. If you check man drutil, it says:

NAME
     drutil -- interact with CD/DVD burners
. . .

DESCRIPTION
     drutil uses the DiscRecording framework to interact with attached burning devices.

That is why I am looking for another, low-level approach, to send a command over the ATA bus. Or to map an EJECT key on my non-Apple keyboard. One way to achieve the latter would be employing Keyboard Maestro, but I am not really keen on installing such software just for mapping an Eject key. Alas, macOS keyboard preferences don't provide any option for mapping an Eject key. If they do and I somehow missed it, please correct me and explain how.

 

[equals]

One way to achieve the latter would be employing Keyboard Maestro, but I am not really keen on installing such software just for mapping an Eject key.

I would suggest you try Karabiner-Elements. It is an open source software, quite lightweight and intuitive.

 

[DaveEcc]

The man page for drutil gives a lot of ways to select devices, you could see if any of them help.

Alternatively, at the end of the man page it gives a list of "See Also" commands. /usr/sbin/diskutil is one such command, and has an eject option. Perhaps it can see your drive.

 

[dBHz]

I would suggest you try Karabiner-Elements. It is an open source software, quite lightweight and intuitive.

Thank you for the suggestion. I installed it and remapped the application button (which I normally don't use) to eject. Now, Alt+App opens the second tray.

Still interested in a direct, low-level ATAPI approach, though.

(The only other problem is the unimaginative design of the Mac Pro frontal gates — they are too narrow for that drive's tray (with the plate removed, of course). It does not come in/out without using my hand due to the friction with the narrow opening. Maybe I should rasp the tray a bit. These gates have always annoyed me, as they require unmounting the drive's tray plate.)

 

[bookemdano]

Thank you for the suggestion. I installed it and remapped the application button (which I normally don't use) to eject. Now, Alt+App opens the second tray.

Still interested in a direct, low-level ATAPI approach, though.

(The only other problem is the unimaginative design of the Mac Pro frontal gates — they are too narrow for that drive's tray (with the plate removed, of course). It does not come in/out without using my hand due to the friction with the narrow opening. Maybe I should rasp the tray a bit. These gates have always annoyed me, as they require unmounting the drive's tray plate.)

This drive must have some incredible utility (or sentimental value) for you to be spending so much time and effort to get it working. Impressed with your determination!

 

[dBHz]

This drive must have some incredible utility (or sentimental value) for you to be spending so much time and effort to get it working. Impressed with your determination!

This was my first DVD drive ever, on my first personally owned PC from 2000, which was in use for 10+ years. About 14-15 years ago, I had to replace some of the electrolytic capacitors on its (cheap) motherboard. It has been long out of use, so I decided to pull out and save what I can and throw away just the mainboard. Among the P3 CPU, SDRAM modules, Riva TNT2, Repotec ethernet adapter, floppy drive, I also had a Samsung CD-RW burner and this Samsung DVD-ROM. I generally don't throw away usable hardware; plus, the engineer in me looks for solutions.

Now, it might be that the old firmware is (part of) the reason that drutil does not register the drive. For example, although the drive supports DVD, it registers as CD drive in Windows. I don't ever remember it registering as DVD. The firmware reports no speeds and no copy protection / data security mechanisms to (current) optical drive test tools, although specs say up to 40x for CD and 12x for DVD. This old drive has no belt, only gears, so any problems with the tray are easily fixable. In this case, light lubrication and fixing the apparently slipping little gear on the tray motor shaft. The laser pickup assembly employs real bearing for the rail, unlike various newer drives which seem to employ plastic. Spindle motor, step motor, rails were lubricated, lens cleaned, alignment visually checked (though it has not springs to align anything), and it was up and running.

That said, the Super Drive also needed some cleaning and lubrication, followed by coarse and fine alignment of the laser pickup after the reassembly - first, to recognise and read the disc, then, to perform with the specified speeds and no slowdowns between the endpoints. The belt was slipping, causing problems opening the tray. With no new belt under my belt at the time, cleaning the pulleys with isopropyl alcohol and bathing the belt in Platenclene to refresh the rubber fixed it, at least for now.

Regards

 

[Macsonic]

@dBHz Many years ago, I had two internal optical drives installed in my 2006 1,1 Mac Pro. To open the tray of the bottom DVD drive, I would press Option+Eject button ( could not recall if it is Control+Option+Eject ). Other alternate ways to open the empty tray was using iTunes, Toast Titanium app and MakeMKV app in Leopard OS. Toast Titanium and MakeMKV apps have eject buttons and you can toggle the different optical drive brands to open the tray and load a disc. Toast Titanium is a bit pricey. I’ve used Pioneer, LG and Asus blu-ray drives and Sony, iOmega DVD drive.

In later years, decided to use external optical drives instead. I’ve observed, internal drives residing in the Mac Pro tower would accumulate a lot of dust. With external optical drives, would just tuck it away safe from dust. And easier to load a disc.

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