Experimenting with GNU/Linux: How to eject a stuck CD/DVD

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

How to eject a stuck CD/DVD

Some times CD/DVD drives get stuck and will not eject even if you press the eject button on the front panel. The is especially true when any application that was using the CD drive has gone astray. You can try the following steps to get out of the situation.

   Open a terminal and become root.

$ sudo su
#

Try eject command.

    # eject

If some application of is using cdrom you will get a message like

      umount: /media/cdrom: device is busy

To eject the CD you may have to stop the application. First, let us find out who is using the CD drive.

     #fuser /media/cdrom
   /media/cdrom:         5929c 6018c 6020c

You can kill all processes accessing using /media/cdrom

        # fuser -km /media/cdrom

Then try
        #eject

1 comment:

cwsnyder said...: You could also try sticking a straightened paper clip or long pin in the eject hole in the faceplate of the drive (if accessible). This works best if the computer is powered down, but can occasionally work on borked systems when you need to eject the CD/DVD.; February 3, 2011 at 6:05 PM