Member Avatar for Saleh

Is there any reference or step-by-step tutorial available on-line showing how to control CD-Drive tray?

thanx in advance.

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Controlling a CD tray is OS- and hardware-dependent. As asked, clarify whether “control” means eject/close the tray, load/eject media, lock/unlock, or issuing low-level MMC/SCSI commands. As noted, third‑party tray utilities exist for quick end‑user tasks, but developers typically use OS APIs. As hinted, optical drives commonly speak ATAPI/MMC and often require a SCSI/ATAPI pass‑through layer for vendor or low‑level commands.

Windows — high level and reliable options:

  • Simple: MCI (mciSendString) for basic audio CD tray actions (MCI commands).
  • Robust: open a handle to the drive (e.g. \\\\.\\E:) and call DeviceIoControl with IOCTL_STORAGE_EJECT_MEDIA / IOCTL_STORAGE_LOAD_MEDIA (DeviceIoControl, IOCTL_STORAGE_EJECT_MEDIA). Minimal C example:
#include <windows.h>
#include <winioctl.h>

BOOL EjectCdRom(char driveLetter)
{
    char path[] = "\\\\.\\A:";
    path[4] = driveLetter;
    HANDLE h = CreateFileA(path, GENERIC_READ, FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE, NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, NULL);
    if (h == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) return FALSE;
    DWORD bytes;
    BOOL ok = DeviceIoControl(h, IOCTL_STORAGE_EJECT_MEDIA, NULL, 0, NULL, 0, &bytes, NULL);
    CloseHandle(h);
    return ok;
}

Linux — ioctl or utilities:
Open the block/device node and use ioctl(fd, CDROMEJECT) / CDROMCLOSETRAY (see cdrom(4)), or use the eject command (eject, eject -t to close) for quick tests (, eject(1)). Minimal C example:

#include <fcntl.h>
#include <linux/cdrom.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
    int fd = open("/dev/cdrom", O_RDONLY | O_NONBLOCK);
    if (fd < 0) { perror("open"); return 1; }
    if (ioctl(fd, CDROMEJECT) == -1) { perror("CDROMEJECT"); close(fd); return 1; }
    close(fd);
    return 0;
}

Notes and troubleshooting:

  • Low‑level or vendor commands require SCSI pass‑through (Windows SPTI: ; Linux SG_IO). This matches ’s suggestion about a SCSI layer.
  • Cross‑platform helper: libcdio (libcdio).
  • Many USB enclosures do not implement close-tray, and virtual drives behave differently. Device-level calls generally need elevated privileges; if operations fail, confirm the correct device node/drive letter, test with the OS eject tool, and check permissions and share modes.

Recommended Answers

All 3 Replies

Member Avatar for kc0arf

Hello,

What do you mean by "control"?

I would think that this functionality would be limited by the operating system you are using. Are we working with data CD's, or music ones?

Christian

Member Avatar for BountyX

Google "SCSI", get a SCSI layer if you plan to target IDE devices.

Member Avatar for Yzk

Control? Do you want a coffee-cup holder? Hehe.. just kiddin'

I think you'll find something useful click here, I think I saw some CD-tray controller programs there. And if you want tutorials, try looking at the program creators page. Or otherwise contact them.

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