erratic behavior when playing audio CDs on Linux Mint

[Jim S]

Sometimes I can hear the drive seeking back and forth rapidly, sometimes it eventually starts playing, sometimes not.

Sometimes it will spin the drive up to maximum speed before starting to play. Sometimes it then drops back to normal speed, sometimes not.

The same drive works fine with other Linux programs. VLC also works perfectly under OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, just not Mint.