VLC looks for /dev/dvd which does not exist

This is not a VLC bug. There should be a udev rule that creates the /dev/dvd symlink to the drive when inserting a DVD.

I can reproduce the problem by inserting a DVD:

$ udevadm info /dev/sr0
P: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.2/ata1/host0/target0:0:0/0:0:0:0/block/sr0
N: sr0
L: -100
S: cdrom
S: disk/by-id/ata-HL-DT-ST_BDDVDRW_CH10LS20_K9VA5JL2620
S: disk/by-label/THE_BOURNE_SUPREMACY
E: DEVLINKS=/dev/cdrom /dev/disk/by-id/ata-HL-DT-ST_BDDVDRW_CH10LS20_K9VA5JL2620 /dev/disk/by-label/THE_BOURNE_SUPREMACY
E: DEVNAME=/dev/sr0
E: DEVPATH=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.2/ata1/host0/target0:0:0/0:0:0:0/block/sr0
E: DEVTYPE=disk
E: ID_ATA=1
E: ID_ATA_FEATURE_SET_PM=1
E: ID_ATA_FEATURE_SET_PM_ENABLED=0
E: ID_ATA_SATA=1
E: ID_ATA_SATA_SIGNAL_RATE_GEN1=1
E: ID_BUS=ata
E: ID_CDROM=1
E: ID_CDROM_BD=1
E: ID_CDROM_CD=1
E: ID_CDROM_CD_R=1
E: ID_CDROM_CD_RW=1
E: ID_CDROM_DVD=1
E: ID_CDROM_DVD_PLUS_R=1
E: ID_CDROM_DVD_PLUS_RW=1
E: ID_CDROM_DVD_PLUS_R_DL=1
E: ID_CDROM_DVD_R=1
E: ID_CDROM_DVD_RAM=1
E: ID_CDROM_DVD_RW=1
E: ID_CDROM_MEDIA=1
E: ID_CDROM_MEDIA_DVD=1
E: ID_CDROM_MEDIA_SESSION_COUNT=1
E: ID_CDROM_MEDIA_STATE=complete
E: ID_CDROM_MEDIA_TRACK_COUNT=1
E: ID_CDROM_MEDIA_TRACK_COUNT_DATA=1
E: ID_CDROM_MRW=1
E: ID_CDROM_MRW_W=1
E: ID_FS_LABEL=THE_BOURNE_SUPREMACY
E: ID_FS_LABEL_ENC=THE_BOURNE_SUPREMACY
E: ID_FS_TYPE=udf
E: ID_FS_USAGE=filesystem
E: ID_MODEL=HL-DT-ST_BDDVDRW_CH10LS20
E: ID_MODEL_ENC=HL-DT-ST\x20BDDVDRW\x20CH10LS20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20
E: ID_REVISION=1.01
E: ID_SERIAL=HL-DT-ST_BDDVDRW_CH10LS20_K9VA5JL2620
E: ID_SERIAL_SHORT=K9VA5JL2620
E: ID_TYPE=cd
E: MAJOR=11
E: MINOR=0
E: SUBSYSTEM=block
E: TAGS=:seat:uaccess:
E: UDISKS_PRESENTATION_NOPOLICY=0
E: USEC_INITIALIZED=83774

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Upstream udev has dropped the old /dev/cdrom and /dev/dvd aliases ages ago. We kept it around in Ubuntu for a little longer, but at some point video players have to enter this century and stop relying on hardcoded device names. It should detect all available CD/DVD drives and their capabilities using sysfs or libudev.

Good to know. Do you have some pointers to how the usual way to probe for DVD drives look like?

That's already implemented in the Disc category of the playlist. Unfortunately, in my experience, detecting discs that get inserted while the software is already running is a bit flaky with udev.

Could you test if your problem with VLC is not fixed in latest upstream version (2.1.1)?
You can install VLC 2.1.1 from ppa:dirk-computer42/c42-backport

See https://launchpad.net/~dirk-computer42/+archive/c42-backport for more info about installing.

I didn't have this problem in 12.05... so, /dev/dvd is considered obsolete??? and is now removed?!?!? Well, somebody forgot to tell that to all the app developers.

In BETA 14.04 the following are broken due to this *feature*
xine, gxine, (totem) Videos
I didn't test VLC but this bug was orignally entered for vlc.

So, Basically any and every video player in existance is broken by the remove of /dev/dvd

is that really such a good idea??? especially since xine sucks at trying to manually select a disk.

I can get the players to work by creating a symlink to /dev/cdrom, which itself appears to be a link to /dev/sr0
but every time that I reboot the computer I have to recreate the symlink. This is a major headache and 80% of end users will not figure this out, instead they will conclude that Ubuntu won't play DVD's and they should use windows instead.

This should be a death by 1000 cuts item....

Why would anyone ever think that removeing /dev/dvd and breaking all of the video players in existance was actually a good idea?!?!?!?

related/dup bugs

bug #1084855 udev is creating symlinks for optical drives incorrectly
bug #1098323 Parole failes to play DVD
bug #237874 kaffeine refers to "/dev/dvd
bug #1248194 Gnome-Mplayer cannot play commercial videos: Couldn't open DVD device: /dev/dvd
bug #1295561 /dev/dvd doesn't exist

affected apps: Gnome-Mplayer, kaffeine, xine, gxine, (totem) Videos, vlc ...
they all expect /dev/dvd and are broken without it.

How can you say that udev should not support /dev/dvd unless you intend to also at the same time coordinate the modification of every single video player program -- all of them -- at the same time. Otherwise all you are delivering is *MAJOR* Breakage of Ubuntu.

This affects all flavors of ubuntu...

I found this in the 14.04 BETA, but apparently it's been broken since 13.04 (which I never ran due to other bugs), it works fine in 12.04 which has the /dev/dvd.

I fully agree with codeslinger.

This is a MAJOR BUG. It should have been solved in 13.04.

2.2.0-pre2 is in Utopic