Comment 4 for bug 182996

I too am experiencing this in Hardy with 2.6.24 when I was not in Gutsy merely an hour ago. My optical drive (a Plextor PX-740A, connected as master to my only IDE controller as /dev/hda) is empty to start with, refuses to open once in Ubuntu (but works fine elsewhere), and I receive a large amount of output. All HDDs are connected through SATA and continue to work properly. This particular Plextor uses a Philips chipset if I recall correctly, if that matters at all...

$ uname -a
Linux seeker 2.6.24-4-386 #1 Mon Jan 14 16:49:51 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

From dmesg (extra verbose, just in-case it helps):
[ 28.768452] Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
[ 28.768454] ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
[ 28.768783] NFORCE-MCP55: IDE controller (0x10de:0x036e rev 0xa1) at PCI slot 0000:00:04.0
[ 28.768798] NFORCE-MCP55: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
[ 28.768801] NFORCE-MCP55: 0000:00:04.0 (rev a1) UDMA133 controller
[ 28.768805] ide0: BM-DMA at 0xf000-0xf007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA
[ 28.768809] NFORCE-MCP55: IDE port disabled
[ 28.768812] Probing IDE interface ide0...
[ 28.782775] SCSI subsystem initialized
[ 28.806646] ohci_hcd: 2006 August 04 USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver
[ 28.822517] libata version 3.00 loaded.
[ 28.986818] Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
[ 29.003938] FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
[ 30.204248] hda: PLEXTOR DVDR PX-740A, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
[ 30.204266] hda: host max PIO5 wanted PIO255(auto-tune) selected PIO4
[ 30.204714] hda: UDMA/33 mode selected
[ 30.205099] ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
[ 30.205298] hda: task_in_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
[ 30.205301] hda: task_in_intr: error=0x04 { AbortedCommand }
[ 30.205302] ide: failed opcode was: 0xa1
...
[ 31.528645] scsi0 : sata_nv
[ 31.528934] scsi1 : sata_nv
[ 31.529066] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x9f0 ctl 0xbf0 bmdma 0xdc00 irq 16
[ 31.529068] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x970 ctl 0xb70 bmdma 0xdc08 irq 16
[ 31.995930] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[ 32.046691] ata1.00: ATA-7: ST3320620AS, 3.AAK, max UDMA/133
[ 32.046693] ata1.00: 625142448 sectors, multi 1: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
[ 32.113330] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
[ 32.579846] ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[ 32.630990] ata2.00: ATA-7: ST3160812AS, 3.AAH, max UDMA/133
[ 32.630992] ata2.00: 312581808 sectors, multi 1: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
[ 32.697624] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133
[ 32.697681] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA ST3320620AS 3.AA PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 32.697881] scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA ST3160812AS 3.AA PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 32.697917] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:05.1[B] -> Link [APSJ] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[ 32.697944] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:05.1 to 64
[ 32.698089] scsi2 : sata_nv
[ 32.698176] scsi3 : sata_nv
[ 32.698303] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x9e0 ctl 0xbe0 bmdma 0xc800 irq 17
[ 32.698305] ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x960 ctl 0xb60 bmdma 0xc808 irq 17
[ 33.163766] ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[ 33.217388] ata3.00: ATA-7: ST3160812AS, 3.AAH, max UDMA/133
[ 33.217389] ata3.00: 312581808 sectors, multi 1: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
[ 33.284020] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133
[ 33.595697] ata4: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
[ 33.605932] scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA ST3160812AS 3.AA PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 33.605964] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:05.2[C] -> Link [ASA2] -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[ 33.605985] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:05.2 to 64
[ 33.606158] scsi4 : sata_nv
[ 33.606253] scsi5 : sata_nv
[ 33.606370] ata5: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xc400 ctl 0xc000 bmdma 0xb400 irq 18
[ 33.606372] ata6: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xbc00 ctl 0xb800 bmdma 0xb408 irq 18
[ 33.915652] ata5: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
[ 34.235608] ata6: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
[ 34.246150] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APC4] enabled at IRQ 19
[ 34.246157] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:0b.0[A] -> Link [APC4] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
[ 34.295879] ohci1394: fw-host0: OHCI-1394 1.1 (PCI): IRQ=[20] MMIO=[fdeff000-fdeff7ff] Max Packet=[2048] IR/IT contexts=[4/8]
[ 34.300872] Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
[ 34.301094] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 625142448 512-byte hardware sectors (320073 MB)
[ 34.301101] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 34.301103] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 34.301112] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 34.301137] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 625142448 512-byte hardware sectors (320073 MB)
[ 34.301142] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 34.301144] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 34.301151] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 34.301153] sda:hda: status error: status=0x59 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error }
[ 34.312891] hda: status error: error=0x00 { }
[ 34.312892] ide: failed opcode was: unknown
[ 34.312895] hda: drive not ready for command
[ 34.312898] hda: ATAPI CD-ROM drive, 0kB Cache
[ 34.312901] Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
[ 34.312922] hda: status error: status=0x59 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error }
[ 34.312924] hda: status error: error=0x00 { }
[ 34.312925] ide: failed opcode was: unknown
[ 34.312927] hda: drive not ready for command
[ 34.312946] hda: status error: status=0x59 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error }
... for all eternity.

"sudo hdparm -w /dev/hda" seemingly fixes the error and the drive is able to open once more.