CD-Writing HOWTO
Winfried Trmper <
[email protected]>
v2.8.8, 19 September 1999
This document explains how to write CD-ROMs under Linux.
______________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Copyright, license and terms of usage
1.2 Contacting me
1.3 Suggested readings
1.4 Terminology ... lasers at maximum ... fire!
1.5 Supported CD-writers
1.6 Supported "features"
1.7 Mailing Lists
2. Setup the Linux-system for writing CD-ROMs
2.1 Set up the Linux kernel
2.1.1 Special hints up to kernel version 2.2.9
2.1.2 Special hints with kernel version 2.2.10 and later
2.1.3 Special hints for the 2.0.x-series
2.2 Hardware and device files
2.2.1 IDE/ATAPI CD-writers
2.2.2 SCSI CD-writers
2.2.2.1 Generic SCSI devices
2.2.3 CD-writers for the parallel port
2.3 Get the user software for burning CD-Rs
2.3.1 Command line utilities
2.3.2 Graphical user interfaces (optional)
3. Burning CD-Rs
3.1 Writing CD-ROMs (pure data)
3.1.1 Creating an image of the later CD-ROM
3.1.2 Test the CD-image
3.1.3 Write the CD-image to a CD
3.2 Writing audio CDs
3.2.1 DAO
3.3 Mixed mode CD-ROMs
4. Dear Winfried,...
4.1 How sensitive is the burning process?
4.2 Has file fragmentation a bad impact on the throughput?
4.3 Is it possible to store the CD-image on an UMSDOS-filesystem?
4.4 Isn't there some way to get around the ISO-9660 limitations?
4.5 How to read the tracks from audio CDs?
4.6 How to probe for SCSI devices after boot?
4.7 Is it possible to make a 1:1 copy of a data CD?
4.8 Can Linux read Joliet CD-ROMs?
4.9 How do I read/mount CD-ROMs with the CD-writer?
4.10 How to put even more data on the CD-R?
4.11 How to make bootable CD-ROMs?
4.12 How to make CD-ROMs writable somehow?
4.13 Is it possible to use several writers at once?
4.14 Which media is the best?
4.15 What about Solaris, *BSD, AIX, HP-UX, etc.?
4.16 Where to store the local configuration permanently?
4.17 How can the CD-info be retrieved?
4.18 What about re-writing
4.19 How to create a multi-session CD?
5. Troubleshooting
5.1 It doesn't work: under Linux
5.2 Error-message: No read access for 'dev=0,6,0'.
5.3 It doesn't work: under DOS and friends
5.4 SCSI errors during the burning phase
6. Credits
______________________________________________________________________
11.. IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn
Many people use Linux to burn CD-ROMs, because it is reliable and
easy. No bluescreens while burning and no headaches about getting the
right combination of hard- and software. It just works once properly
set up. The CD-writing HOWTO explains the setup, how to put data on
the media and gives some interesting applications kindly submitted by
the readers.
11..11.. CCooppyyrriigghhtt,, lliicceennssee aanndd tteerrmmss ooff uussaaggee
Copyright Winfried Trmper 1996,1997,1998,1999. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use, with or without modification, are permitted
provided that the name of the author may not be used to endorse or
promote products derived from this software without specific prior
written permission. In this sense, translations are welcome and need
not to be authorized by me.
TThhee aauutthhoorr ddiissccllaaiimmss aallll wwaarrrraannttiieess wwiitthh rreeggaarrdd ttoo tthhiiss ddooccuummeenntt,,
iinncclluuddiinngg aallll iimmpplliieedd wwaarrrraannttiieess ooff mmeerrcchhaannttaabbiilliittyy aanndd ffiittnneessss ffoorr aa
cceerrttaaiinn ppuurrppoossee;; iinn nnoo eevveenntt sshhaallll tthhee aauutthhoorr bbee lliiaabbllee ffoorr aannyy
ssppeecciiaall,, iinnddiirreecctt oorr ccoonnsseeqquueennttiiaall ddaammaaggeess oorr aannyy ddaammaaggeess wwhhaattssooeevveerr
rreessuullttiinngg ffrroomm lloossss ooff uussee,, ddaattaa oorr pprrooffiittss,, wwhheetthheerr iinn aann aaccttiioonn ooff
ccoonnttrraacctt,, nneegglliiggeennccee oorr ootthheerr ttoorrttiioouuss aaccttiioonn,, aarriissiinngg oouutt ooff oorr iinn
ccoonnnneeccttiioonn wwiitthh tthhee uussee ooff tthhiiss ddooccuummeenntt..
Short: read and use at your own risk. No money-back guarantee.
11..22.. CCoonnttaaccttiinngg mmee
I get several hundred e-mails concerning the CD-Writing HOWTO each
year. So please be patient with me, as I cannot always answer within
hours. However, I read everything immediatly and put you on my CDR-
queue. Before you ask a question, please make sure you are aware of
the the newest version of this document; it is always available from
<
http://www.guug.de/~winni/linux/>.
11..33.. SSuuggggeesstteedd rreeaaddiinnggss
The CD-R FAQ <
http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/> is a general FAQ about
compact-disk recordables (CD-R), CD-writers and the required software.
As most CD-writers can be used to read CD-ROMs, too, you may want to
read the _L_i_n_u_x _C_D_-_R_O_M _H_O_W_T_O, the _L_i_n_u_x _S_C_S_I _H_O_W_T_O and the _L_i_n_u_x _K_e_r_n_e_l
_H_O_W_T_O.
11..44.. TTeerrmmiinnoollooggyy ...... llaasseerrss aatt mmaaxxiimmuumm ...... ffiirree!!
_C_D_-_R_O_M stands for _C_o_m_p_a_c_t _D_i_s_c _R_e_a_d _O_n_l_y _M_e_m_o_r_y, a storage medium
utilizing an optical laser to sense microscopic pits on a silver
shimmering disk. The silver shimmering comes from an aluminized layer
which is the carrier. The pits represent the bits of the information
and are so petite that some billions of them fit on the disc. Thus a
CD is a mass-storage medium.
The term _C_D_-_R is a short form of _C_D_-_R_O_M _r_e_c_o_r_d_a_b_l_e and refers to a CD
that doesn't have those "microscopic pits" on its surface. Thus it is
empty. Instead of the silver aluminium layer a CD-R has a special film
(colored) into which pits can be burned. This is done by giving the
laser which normally just senses the pits a little bit more power so
it burns the pits. This action can only be taken oonnccee on a CD-R.
Although you can leave out some areas for later writing, creating a so
called _m_u_l_t_i_-_s_e_s_s_i_o_n _C_D.
The _C_D_-_R_O_M _r_e_w_r_i_t_a_b_l_e (short: _C_D_-_R_W) was developed to work around the
limitation of CD-R media. With a CD-RW burner the laser can not even
burn pits into the media, but it can also melt the media back into its
original state. This is possible, because the laser does not really
burn holes into the media, which would get lost in a puff of smoke. A
decent analogy for the technique is an ice-hockey game: by driving
over the ice, a players (laser) leave scratches in it. The pattern in
the ice (media) is a recording of what happened on the ice during one
round. In between the periods of the game, the Zamboni cleaning car
drives over the ice and fills the scratches by melting the very top
layer of the ice. (Zamboni is _t_h_e brand name for cleaning cars in
ice-hockey stadiums). This way the pattern on the ice is cleared and
a new round can begin. The scientific term for (evaporating,
condensing,) melting and freezing is "phase change", thus the name
"phase change devices" for CD-RW-writers.
This HOWTO deals with the task of writing CD-Rs and CD-RWs. Welcome
on board, captain.
11..55.. SSuuppppoorrtteedd CCDD--wwrriitteerrss
You can safely assume that most newer IDE/ATAPI- and SCSI-writers work
under Linux. Newer drives are mostly MMC-compliant and therefore
supported. If the SCSI-version of a particular writer works, the
IDE/ATAPI-version will most likely work and vice versa. However, some
people want to get a warm and fuzzy feeling by reading the exact model
of their writer in some sort of compatibilty list. That is the reason
why I didn't throw the following list out of the HOWTO:
Here is a comprehensive summary of drives reported to work with
cdrecord:
Acer: CDRW 6206A
BTC: BCE 621E (IDE)
Compro: CW-7502, CW-7502B
Creative: RW 4224E, MK 4211
Dysan: CRW-1622
Elite: Elite b444.41
Grundig: CDR 100 IPW
Guillemot: Maxi CD-R 4X/8X
HP: SureStore 4020i, SureStore 6020i,
C4324, C4325
CD-writer+ 7100, CD-writer+ 7200i, CD-writer+ 7500e,
CD-writer+ 8100i, CD-writer+ 8110i,
Hi-Val: CDD 2242, CDD-3610,
JVC: XR-W2001, XR-W2010, XR-W2042, R-2626
Kodak: PCD 200, PCD 225, PCD 260, PCD 600
Matsushita: CW-7502
Memorex: CRW-620, CRW-1622, CRW-2224
Microboards: PlayWrite 2000, PlayWrite 4000RW, PlayWrite 4001RW
MicroNet: MasterCD Plus 4x4, MasterCD Plus 4x6
Mitsubishi: CDRW-226
Mitsumi: CR-2401-TS, CR-2600 TE, CR-2801 TE,
CR-4801 TE, CR-4802 TE
Nomai: 680.RW
Olympus: CDS 615E, CDS 620E
Optima: DisKovery 650 CD-R
OTI: CDRW 965, CDRW 975 (Socrates 1.0)
Panasonic: CW-7502, CW-7582
Philips: CDD-521/10, CDD-522
CDD-2000, CDD-2600, CDD-3600, CDD-3610
Omniwriter 26, Omniwriter 26A
Plasmon: CDR 480, CDR 4220, RF-4100, RF-4102, CDR 4400
Plextor: CDR PX-24 CS, PX-412 C, PX-R412 C
PX-R810Ti, PleXwriter 412C
Procom: PCDR 4
Ricoh: RO-1420C+, MP 1420C, MP 6200S, MP 6201S, MP 7040A
Samsung: SW-204
Sanyo: CRD-R24S
Smart and
Friendly: CD-RW226, CD-R1002, CD-R1002/PRO, CD-R1004,
CD-R2004, CD-R2006 PLUS, CD-R2006 PRO,
CD-R4000, CD-R4006, CD-R4012
Sony: CDU 920S, CDU 924, CDU 926S, CDU-928E,
CDU 948S, CDRX 100E, CDRX 120E
Taiyo Yuden: EW-50
TEAC: CD-R50S, CD-R55S, CDR-55S, CDR-56S-400
Traxdata: CRW 2260, CDR 4120, CDR 4120 Pro, CDRW 4260,
Turtle Beach: 2040R
WPI (Wearnes): CDRW-622, CDR-632P
YAMAHA: CDR-100, CDR 102, CDR-200, CDR-200t, CDR-200tx
CDR-400, CDR-400c, CDR-400t, CDR-400tx, CDR-400Atx
CRW-2260, CRW-2260t,
CRW-4250tx, CRW-4260 t, CRW-4260 tx, CRW-4261,
CRW-4416 S
The detailed list of models which have been reported to work or not to
work under various Unix-like operating systems is available online
from <
http://www.guug.de:8080/cgi-bin/winni/lsc.pl>.
If your hardware isn't supported you can still use Linux to create an
image of the CD. You may wish to do so because most burning software
for DOS does not deal with RockRidge-extensions. In a second step, you
can use DOS or Macintosh software to write the image to the CD-R.
11..66.. SSuuppppoorrtteedd ""ffeeaattuurreess""
There are two classes of utilities for writing CD-Rs: the hardware
drivers and the data-formatters. The hardware drivers support the
following features:
Supported Feature cdwrite-2.1 cdrecord-1.6 cdrdao
----------------------------------------------------------
IDE/ATAPI no yes yes
Parallel Port no yes yes
CD-RW no yes yes
Audio CD yes yes yes
Data CD-ROM yes yes partial
Multisession partial yes no
TAO (Track at once) yes yes yes
DAO (Disk at once) no no yes
cdwrite is unmaintained software referenced only for completeness.
Please use cdrecord instead, as it supports a wider range of hardware
and has significantly more features. The main benefit of cdrdao is the
ability to create audio CDs without two seconds of silence between the
tracks (writing in disk-at-once mode).
The tools classified as "data-formatters" organize the data on the
media ("put a filesystem on it").
Feature mkisofs mkhybrid
----------------------------------------
ISO 9660 yes yes
RockRidge yes yes
El Torito yes yes
HFS no yes
Joliet yes yes
Multisession yes yes
The most obvious difference between the ISO 9660 filesystem compared
to the Extended-2 filesystem is: you can't modify files once they are
written in ISO 9660. Other limitations of the ISO-9660-filesystem
include:
+o only 8 levels of sub-directories allowed (counted from the top-
level directory of the CD)
+o maximum length for filenames: 32 characters
+o 650 MB capacity
_R_o_c_k_R_i_d_g_e is an extension to allow longer filenames and a deeper
directory hierarchy for the ISO-9660 filesystem. When reading a CD-ROM
with RockRidge extensions under Linux, all the known properties of
files like owner, group, permissions, symbolic links appear (feels
like a Unix filesystem). These extensions are not available when
reading the CD-ROM under DOS or the Windows-family of operating
systems.
_E_l _T_o_r_i_t_o can be used to produce bootable CD-ROMs. In order to use
this feature, the BIOS of your PC must support it. Roughly speaking,
the first 1.44 (or 2.88 if supported) Mbytes of the CD-ROM contains a
floppy-disk image supplied by you. This image is treated like a floppy
by the BIOS and booted from. (As a consequence, while booting from
this virtual floppy, your original drive A: (/dev/fd0) may not be
accessible.)
_H_F_S lets a Macintosh read the CD-ROM as if it were an HFS volume (the
native filesystem for MacOS).
_J_o_l_i_e_t brings long filenames (among other things) to newer variants of
Windows (95, 98, NT). However, the author knows of no tool that allows
long filenames under plain DOS or Windows 3.11.
Section 2.8 lists the availability of the mentioned software.
11..77.. MMaaiilliinngg LLiissttss
If you want to join the development team (with the intention to
actively _h_e_l_p them), send e-mail to
[email protected]
and put the word subscribe in body of the message.
22.. SSeettuupp tthhee LLiinnuuxx--ssyysstteemm ffoorr wwrriittiinngg CCDD--RROOMMss
This section applies to all types of CD-writers, including devices for
SCSI, IDE/ATAPI and the parallel port. The later two types of devices
require compatibility drivers, which make them appear as if they were
real SCSI devices. On the one side such a unifying strategy is easy
("everything is SCSI"), because on the application level you can share
your knowledge with other users regardless of their kind of CD-writer.
On the other side, you have to reconfigure applications like audio CD
players or the mount utility to reflect the change of the driver name.
For example, if you accessed your ATAPI CD-writer through the device
file /dev/hdc before, you will have to access it through /dev/scd0
after activating the SCSI compatibility drivers.
Once you succeed setting up your hardware and the rest of your Linux-
system, the command cdrecord -scanbus shows you a list of devices on
your SCSI busses. The goal of this section is to guide you in setting
up your Linux-system, so that you finally end up seeing something
like:
shell> cdrecord -scanbus
Cdrecord release 1.7a1 Copyright (C) 1995-1998 Jrg Schilling
scsibus0:
0) 'Quantum ' 'XP34300 ' 'F76D' Disk
1) 'SEAGATE ' 'ST11200N ' '8334' Disk
2) *
3) 'TOSHIBA ' 'MK537FB/ ' '6258' Disk
4) 'WANGTEK ' '5150ES SCSI 36 ' 'ESB6' Removable Tape
5) 'EXABYTE ' 'EXB-8500-85QUE ' '0428' Removable Tape
6) 'TOSHIBA ' 'XM-3401TASUNSLCD' '3593' Removable CD-ROM
7) *
scsibus1:
100) 'Quantum ' 'XP31070W ' 'L912' Disk
101) *
102) *
103) 'TEAC ' 'CD-R55S ' '1.0H' Removable CD-ROM
104) 'MATSHITA' 'CD-R CW-7502 ' '4.02' Removable CD-ROM
105) *
106) 'YAMAHA ' 'CDR400t ' '1.0d' Removable CD-ROM
107) *
The example was provided by Jrg Schilling and shows a total of four
CD-writers. Please note that -scanbus also reports other devices, e.g.
regular CD-ROMs and hard disk drives. The last column gives the SCSI
description of the device, from which you cannot clearly distinguish
ordinary CD-ROM drives from those with burning capability. But the
product identification (middle column) often has hints about the
feature in form of a R, -R or -RW.
22..11.. SSeett uupp tthhee LLiinnuuxx kkeerrnneell
The Linux kernel can be equipped with drivers for various features.
You can compile the drivers into the kernel image statically or you
can compile them as a module for on-demand loading. The last method is
preferred for drivers not essential for bringing your Linux-system
into life, because your kernel will be smaller and faster then.
However, some drivers are essential for the system to come up and you
shouldn't compile them as a module. Example: if your system lives on
an IDE hard disk, you must have the driver for IDE hard disks in the
kernel -- not as a module.
There are three different types of CD-writers: SCSI, IDE/ATAPI and
external writers that work through the parallel port. The table shows
how to configure the Linux kernel for those hardware types. The first
column of the table is the section of the kernel configuration menu,
where you can find the setting. The second column is the description
of the feature (taken from the kernel configuration menu, too). The
third column gives the name of the resulting module. The columns named
SCSI, IDE and PP contain the necessary options for the associated
hardware (PP = parallel port).
Sect. Description Module SCSI IDE PP
------------------------------------------------------------
BLOCK Enhanced IDE/MFM/RLL... Y
BLOCK IDE/ATAPI CDROM ide-cd M
BLOCK SCSI hostadaptor emulation ide-scsi M
BLOCK Loopback device loop M M M
PARIDE Parallel port IDE device paride Y/M
PARIDE Parallel port ATAPI CD-ROMs M
PARIDE Parallel port generic ATAPI M
PARIDE (select a low-level driver) Y
SCSI SCSI support scsi_mod Y/M Y/M
SCSI SCSI CD-ROM support sr_mod Y/M Y/M
SCSI Enable vendor-specific Y Y
SCSI SCSI generic support sg Y/M Y/M
SCSI (select a low-level driver) Y
FS ISO 9660 CDROM filesystem iso9660 Y Y Y
FS Microsoft Joliet cdrom... joliet M/Y M/Y M/Y
Y stands for yes and means you should put the beast into the kernel.
M stands for module and means you should or must compile this feature
as a module. Y/M gives you the option to decide between either (order
indicates choices with less potential problems). Empty settings don't
need to be modified and not changing them increases the chance that
the resulting kernel will work for you (if it did before...).
Especially in environments where SCSI and ATAPI devices are mixed, you
better build most things as modules.
Compiling loopback device is optional. It allows you to test the
image before writing it to the media. If you want to be able to read
CD-ROMs, you need support for the ISO 9660 filesystem. This driver
automatically includes RockRidge Extensions. The Microsoft Joliet CD-
ROM extensions have to be explicitely added to the ISO 9660
filesystem. In any case, you need a low-level driver for your
hardware. Low-level refers to the driver, which interacts directly
with the hardware. For SCSI and the parallel port, there are a lot of
low-level drivers available.
_T_o _h_a_v_e _t_h_e _m_o_d_u_l_e_s _l_o_a_d_e_d_, _y_o_u _s_h_o_u_l_d _e_i_t_h_e_r _l_i_s_t _t_h_e_m _i_n _a
_c_o_n_f_i_g_u_r_a_t_i_o_n _f_i_l_e _l_i_k_e _/_e_t_c_/_m_o_d_u_l_e_s _o_r _r_u_n _t_h_e _d_a_e_m_o_n_s _k_e_r_n_e_l_d _o_r
_k_m_o_d_, _w_h_i_c_h _b_o_t_h _l_o_a_d _t_h_e _r_e_q_u_i_r_e_d _m_o_d_u_l_e_s _a_u_t_o_m_a_t_i_c_a_l_l_y _f_o_r _y_o_u _w_h_e_n
_t_h_e _k_e_r_n_e_l _s_e_e_s _a _n_e_e_d_s _f_o_r _t_h_e_m_. To make your life with modules
easier, you can add the following lines to /etc/conf.modules:
alias scd0 sr_mod # load sr_mod upon access of scd0
alias scsi_hostadaptor ide-scsi # SCSI host adaptor emulation
options ide-cd ignore=hdb # if /dev/hdb is your CD-writer
The aliases provide alternate names for the same module and are not
essential. The options provide a way to make options for module
loading permanent, i.e. after you have sucessfully used them with
modprobe/insmod. To learn about different options for different
modules, read on.
Description command
-------------------------------------------------
Show active drivers cat /proc/devices
List active modules cat /proc/modules
List available modules modprobe -l
Remove a module modprobe -r
Load a module manually modprobe
Load a module upon startup echo "list it in /etc/modules"
(please consult the docs of your distr.)
Load modules on demand echo "have kmod or kerneld running"
If you need a module not available on your system, you must recompile
and reinstall the kernel. Please read the Kernel HOWTO for more
information on this. The most recent information about handling of
kernel modules can be read in the Module HOWTO. If you succeed in
building or finding the required modules, either add their names to
/etc/modules or let an automatic facility (kmod, kerneld) load them
for you. Consult the documentation of your Linux-distribution if you
are unsure.
If you are on your own, then try to install a package called "Linux
Kernel source", which was shipped with your distribution. Afterwards
issue the following commands:
cd /usr/src/linux
make menuconfig # follow instructions and menu
make dep
make zImage # or "make bzImage"
# insert a floppy-disk before proceding
dd if=arch/i386/boot/zImage of=/dev/fd0
make modules
make modules_install
This will produce a bootable floppy disk. If you are really clueless
about this whole stuff, you better read other documentation like the
Kernel HOWTO or get help from a friend before you completely mess up
your system. Remember the kernel is the heart of the system.
22..11..11.. SSppeecciiaall hhiinnttss uupp ttoo kkeerrnneell vveerrssiioonn 22..22..99
Owners of ATAPI CD-writers beware: if your kernel detects your writer
as an ATAPI device during system startup, you have no chance of
getting it to work as a CD-writer under Linux. Once the IDE/ATAPI
driver grabs the device, the SCSI driver (on the top of the host
adaptor emulation) can no longer do so. Please recompile a kernel with
the CD-ROM stuff as a module like it is shown in the table above.
With 2.2 and above, you can control the greediness of the ide-cd
driver with the parameter "ignore=". If you enable this, the driver
won't grab the specified device, so it will be available when the SCSI
host adaptor emulation is activated. Example: use "modprobe ide-cd
ignore=hdb", if your ATAPI writer is hdb and you want the ide-scsi
driver to treat hdb as a scsi device [usually sr0]. There is no way to
specify this on the kernel commandline (like in 2.0).
Up to kernel version 2.2.9, don't enable CONFIG_SCSI_MULTI_LUN ('probe
for multiple luns') and ide-scsi support at the same time, there is
an ide-scsi bug that prevents this.
Some users reported conflicts with pre-compiled binaries and the
2.2-release. This is a problem with the Linux kernel. Possible
solutions:
+o It may go away if you recompile cdrecord so that it adopts to the
actual values in linux/include/scsi/sg.h. These values must be the
values of the runing kernel due to the dumb sg user interface.
+o It may be caused by a loadable sg driver which cannot get enough
memory that is suitable for DMA (Kernel releases up to 2.2.5).
22..11..22.. SSppeecciiaall hhiinnttss wwiitthh kkeerrnneell vveerrssiioonn 22..22..1100 aanndd llaatteerr
It was reported to me that kernels from 2.2.10 onwards provide you
with both the option from the 2.0.x-series and the option from the
earlier 2.2.x-series. The author recommends the strategy of telling
the kernel which device should be managed by which driver, like it is
done in 2.0.37. The following describes that method:
22..11..33.. SSppeecciiaall hhiinnttss ffoorr tthhee 22..00..xx--sseerriieess
Kernels prior to 2.0.31 have several bugs and can't read the last file
on a CD-ROM. Please upgrade to 2.0.37 or higher. For this version, the
feature which used to be named "SCSI emulation" has been more
accurately renamed "SCSI host adaptor emulation.
With kernels 2.0.37 and above, you can select which driver (IDE or
SCSI) to use for which ATAPI device. To be more precise, you can add
the feature "SCSI hostadaptor emulation" to your kernel and activate
the emulation for specific devices on the kernel command line (while
booting). For example, if your CD-writer has the device file name
/dev/hdb, then add the statement hdb=ide-scsi. The following listings
show how to make this setting permanent through the bootmanagers LILO
and chos.
image=/boot/zImage-2.0.37
label=Linux
read-only
append="hdb=ide-scsi"
linux "Linux 2.0.37" {
image=/boot/zImage-2.0.37
cmdline= root=/dev/hda5 readonly hdb=ide-scsi
}
22..22.. HHaarrddwwaarree aanndd ddeevviiccee ffiilleess
After you have installed all necessary drivers, boot the new kernel.
It should have all the features you need for the following sections.
[Users of devfs need not bother with the following steps of manually
setting up device files. If you use devfs, everything will
automagically appear in the right place.]
Go to the /dev directory and check for _l_o_o_p_b_a_c_k _d_e_v_i_c_e_s. It's not
critical if you don't have these devices, but it's convenient if you
do (see 3.5). If you already have them, the ls command should show
loop0-loop7:
shell> cd /dev
shell> ls loop*
loop0 loop1 loop2 loop3 loop4 loop5 loop6 loop7
If you don't have those device files, then create them by using the
/dev/MAKEDEV script:
shell> cd /dev/
shell> modprobe loop # load the module called "loop"
shell> ./MAKEDEV loop
The last command only succeeds if you have the loop module in your
kernel. What you read so far about handling of loop device files can
be applied to all other device files (sg*, pg*, hd*, ...) and is not
explicitely mentioned again in this document.
In case your Linux distribution does not contain the script
/dev/MAKEDEV, then create the devices manually with this loop:
for i in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
do
mknod /dev/loop$i c 7 $i
done
22..22..11.. IIDDEE//AATTAAPPII CCDD--wwrriitteerrss
ATAPI is an extension for IDE devices which is found in all newer IDE
devices. The extension allows the SCSI protocol to be used on the IDE
bus. Together with the kernel module ide-scsi, which turns your IDE-
controller partly into a SCSI-controller, you can treat your IDE/ATAPI
devices as if they were SCSI. So just load this module and proceed as
if you had a SCSI writer.
22..22..22.. SSCCSSII CCDD--wwrriitteerrss
Please make sure that your writer is recognized by the BIOS of your
computer. It makes no sense to proceed if your computer does not
accept the hardware (the fact that it doesn't spit it out should not
be interpreted as a sign of confirmation; a message on the screen is
required).
If you plan to connect your SCSI through the parallel port (not to
confuse with the IDE drives for the parallel port), you need a special
active cable and a special kernel driver. Read
<
http://www.torque.net/parport/parscsi.html> to learn more about this
option.
22..22..22..11.. GGeenneerriicc SSCCSSII ddeevviicceess
The device files /dev/sd* and /dev/sr* for accessing SCSI hard disks
and SCSI CD-ROM drives are limited to block-oriented data transfer.
This makes them so fast and well suited for data storage. Driving the
laser of a CD-writer is a more complicated task and requires more than
block-oriented data transfer. To keep the sd* and sr* devices clean
and fast, a seperate type of SCSI device was introduced, the so called
_g_e_n_e_r_i_c _S_C_S_I _d_e_v_i_c_e_s. As everthing can be done to SCSI hardware
through the generic devices, they are not fixed to a certain purpose
-- therefore the name _g_e_n_e_r_i_c.
As true for other devices, you should find them in the /dev directory
(by convention):
shell> cd /dev
shell> ls sg*
sg0 sg1 sg2 sg3 sg4 sg5 sg6 sg7
If you don't have those device files then create them by using the
/dev/MAKEDEV script:
shell> cd /dev/
shell> ./MAKEDEV sg
If your Linux distribution does not have the script /dev/MAKEDEV, then
create the devices manually with this loop:
for i in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
do
mknod /dev/sg$i c 21 $i
done
22..22..33.. CCDD--wwrriitteerrss ffoorr tthhee ppaarraalllleell ppoorrtt
I have no clue about this, sorry. Please read
<
http://www.torque.net/parport/paride.html> or your local file
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/paride.txt.
22..33.. GGeett tthhee uusseerr ssooffttwwaarree ffoorr bbuurrnniinngg CCDD--RRss
A more detailed survey of tools related to produce CD-ROMs is
available from
<
http://www.fokus.gmd.de/research/cc/glone/employees/joerg.schilling/private/cdb.html>.
22..33..11.. CCoommmmaanndd lliinnee uuttiilliittiieess
One of the following packages are required to generate images of CD-Rs
(only required for data CD-ROMs):
<
ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/mkisofs/> (mkisofs)
<
ftp://ftp.ge.ucl.ac.uk/pub/mkhfs> (mkhybrid)
To write images to the CD-R, you need one of the following software
packages:
<
ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/cdrecord/> (cdrecord)
<
http://www.ping.de/sites/daneb/cdrdao.html> (cdrdao)
Don't trust the man page of (old) mkisofs which states you need
version 1.5 of cdwrite. Just use cdrecord and you are fine. Please
note that newer versions of cdrecord ship with an enhanced version of
mkisofs and some extra tools in the subdirectory misc/ (readcd,
isosize) not found elsewhere.
22..33..22.. GGrraapphhiiccaall uusseerr iinntteerrffaacceess ((ooppttiioonnaall))
Front-ends are really front-ends under Linux. That means, you still
have to install the command-line utilities, but you access them in a
better looking manner.
_X_-_C_D_-_R_o_a_s_t is a program package dedicated to easy CD creation under
Linux. It combines command line tools like cdrecord and mkisofs into a
nice graphical user interface.
<
http://www.fh-muenchen.de/home/ze/rz/services/pro-
jects/xcdroast/e_overview.html>
_B_u_r_n_I_T is a JAVA front-end to cdrecord, mksiofs and cdda2wav-0.95
making it a complete package for burning CDs on the Unix platform. It
is available from
<
http://sunsite.auc.dk/BurnIT/>
_X_D_a_o_d_i_o
This is a graphical frontend for cdrdao. Its main purpose is to make
1:1-copies of audio CDs.
<
http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~MarkusTschan/>
33.. BBuurrnniinngg CCDD--RRss
_"_I_f _t_o _s_m_o_k_e _y_o_u _t_u_r_n _I _s_h_a_l_l _n_o_t _c_e_a_s_e _t_o _f_i_d_d_l_e _w_h_i_l_e _y_o_u
_b_u_r_n_._" (Roman emperor Nero about burning his own classic-
CDs, AD64. He misunderstood it completely and burned Rome
down.)
Writing CD-ROMs consists of two steps under Linux:
+o packaging the desired data (files, music or both) into files with
special formats
+o writing the data from the files to the CD-R with the utility
cdrecord
This chapter describes the steps for data and audio CDs in greater
detail.
33..11.. WWrriittiinngg CCDD--RROOMMss ((ppuurree ddaattaa))
Note that collecting the data to put onto a CD usually takes longer
than one expects. Consider that missing files cannot be added once the
CD is written and fixated. Also keep in mind that a certain amount of
the free space of a CD is used for storing the information of the
ISO-9660-filesystem (usually a few MB). 620 MB data will always fit
on a 650 MB CD-R.
33..11..11.. CCrreeaattiinngg aann iimmaaggee ooff tthhee llaatteerr CCDD--RROOMM
Before any storage medium (e.g. floppy disk, hard disk or CD) can be
used, it must get a filesystem (DOS speak: get formatted). The
filesystem is responsible for organizing and incorporating the files
that should be stored on the medium.
The usual utilities for creating filesystems on hard disk partitions
write an empty filesystem onto them, which is then mounted and filled
with files by the user as they need it. A writable CD is only writable
once so if we wrote an empty filesystem to it, it would get formatted
and remain completely empty forever. This is also true for rewritable
media as you cannot change arbitrary sectors; you must erase their
whole content.
So what we need is a tool that creates the filesystem while copying
the files to the CD. This tool is called mkisofs. A sample usage
looks as follows:
mkisofs -r -o cd_image private_collection/
`---------' `-----------------'
| |
write output to take directory as input
The option '-r' sets the permissions of all files to be public
readable on the CD and enables RockRidge-extensions. You probably want
to use this option unless you really know what you're doing (hint:
without '-r' the mount point gets the permissions of
private_collection!).
mkisofs will try to map all filenames to the 8.3 format used by DOS to
ensure the highest possible compatibility. In case of naming conflicts
(different files have the same 8.3 name), numbers are used in the
filenames and information about the chosen filename is printed via
STDERR (usually the screen). Don't panic: Under Linux you will never
see these 8.3 filenames because Linux makes use of the Rock Ridge
extensions which contain the original file information (permissions,
filename, etc.).
Now you may wonder why the output of mkisofs is not directly sent to
the writer device. There are three reasons:
+o mkisofs knows nothing about driving CD-writers.
+o You may want to test the image before burning it.
+o On slow machines it would not be reliable (see section 4.).
There is a method to write a CD-R in one go which will be described
below.
One also could think of creating an extra partition and writing the
image to that partition instead to a file. I vote against such a
strategy because if you write to the wrong partition (due to a typo),
you can lose your complete Linux system (read: that happened to
me...). Furthermore, it is a waste of disk space because the CD-image
is temporary data that can be deleted after writing the CD. However,
using raw partitions saves you the time for deleting files of 650 MB
size.
33..11..22.. TTeesstt tthhee CCDD--iimmaaggee
Linux has the ability to mount files as if they were disk partitions.
This feature is useful to check that the directory layout and file
access permissions of the CD image matches your wishes. Although media
is very cheap today, the writing process is still time consuming, and
you may at least want to save your time by doing a quick test.
To mount the file cd_image created above on the directory /cdrom, give
the command
mount -t iso9660 -o ro,loop=/dev/loop0 cd_image /cdrom
Now you can inspect the files under /cdrom -- they appear exactly as
they were on a real CD. To umount the CD-image, just say umount
/cdrom. (Warning: On Linux kernels prior to 2.0.31 the last file on
/cdrom may not be fully readable. Please use a more recent kernel like
2.0.36. The option -pad for cdrecord applies to audio CDs only and the
option -pad for mkisofs requires a patch, which is as much work to
apply than to upgrade to a bug-free Linux kernel.)
Note:
Some ancient versions of mount are not able to deal with
loopback devices. If you have such an old version of mount,
then upgrade your Linux-system. Several people have already
suggested putting information about how to get the newest
mount utilities into this HOWTO. I always refuse this. If
your Linux distribution ships with an ancient mount, report
it as a bug. If your Linux distribution is not easily
upgradable, report it as a bug.
If I include all the information that is necessary to work
around bugs in badly designed Linux distributions, this
HOWTO would be a lot bigger and harder to read.
33..11..33.. WWrriittee tthhee CCDD--iimmaaggee ttoo aa CCDD
Not much more left to do. If you haven't already tried, it's a good
time for the command
cdrecord -scanbus
This will tell you to which SCSI device your CD-writer is attached to.
All other methods of guessing the information printed so nicely by
cdrecord have been removed from the HOWTO (especially the somewhat
dangerous naming scheme for generic SCSI devices).
Before showing you the last command, let me warn you that CD-writers
want to be fed with a constant stream of data because they only have
small data buffers. So the process of writing the CD image to the CD
must not be interupted or a corrupt CD will result. It's easy to
interrupt the data stream by deleting a very large file. Example: if
you delete a previous image of 650 Mbyte size, the kernel must update
information about 650,000 blocks on the harddisk (assuming you have a
blocksize of 1 Kbyte for your filesystem). That takes some time and is
very likely to slow down disk activity long enough for the data stream
to pause for a few seconds. However, reading mail, browsing the web,
or even compiling a kernel generally will not affect the writing
process (on modern machines).
Please note that no writer can re-position its laser and continue at
the original spot on the CD when it gets disturbed. Therefore any
strong vibrations or other mechanical shocks will probably destroy the
CD you are writing.
When you are mentally prepared, dress up in a black robe, multiply the
SCSI-id of the CD-writer with its SCSI-revision and light as many
candles, speak two verses of the ASR-FAQ (newsgroup
alt.sysadmin.recovery) and finally type:
shell> SCSI_BUS=0 # taken from listing 1 "scsibus0:"
shell> SCSI_ID=6 # taken from listing 1 "TOSHIBA XM-3401"
shell> SCSI_LUN=0
shell> cdrecord -v speed=2 dev=$SCSI_BUS,$SCSI_ID,$SCSI_LUN \
-data cd_image
# same as above, but shorter:
shell> cdrecord -v speed=2 dev=0,6,0 -data cd_image
For better readability, the coordinates of the writer are stored in
three environment variables with natural names: SCSI_BUS, SCSI_ID,
SCSI_LUN. The option -data is not mandatory but is given to make the
commandline comparable to the one used for writing audio CDs.
If you use cdrecord to overwrite a CD-RW, you must add the option
"blank=..." to erase the old content. Please read the man page to
learn more about the various methods to blank the CD-RW.
In times where everybody except me owns a 400 Mhz machine, people feed
the output of mkisofs directly into cdrecord:
shell> IMG_SIZE=`mkisofs -R -q -print-size private_collection/ 2>&1 \
| sed -e "s/.* = //"`
shell> echo $IMG_SIZE
shell> [ "0$IMG_SIZE" -ne 0 ] && mkisofs -r private_collection/ \
|cdrecord speed=2 dev=0,6,0
tsize=${IMG_SIZE}s -data -
# don't forget the s --^ ^-- read data from STDIN
The first command is an empty run to determine the size of the image
(you need the mkisofs from the cdrecord distribution for this to
work). Maybe your writer does not need to know the size of the image
to be written, so you can leave this out. The printed size must be
passed as a tsize-parameter to cdrecord (it is stored in the
enviroment variable IMG_SIZE). The second command is a sequence of
mkisofs and cdrecord, coupled via a pipe.
33..22.. WWrriittiinngg aauuddiioo CCDDss
Writing audio CDs is very similar to the steps described above for
data CDs. There are two main differences. One, the audio CD consists
of audio tracks, which are organized as separate images. So if you
want to have ten tracks on your CD, you have to make ten images. The
other differnce is that the format of the images is not ISO-9660 (or
whatever filesystem you prefer), but it is "16 bit stereo samples in
PCM coding at 44100 samples/second (44.1 kHz)".
One utility to convert your sound files into the required format is
sox. Its usage is straightforward:
shell> sox killing-my-software.wav killing-my-software.cdr
This command would convert the song killing-my-software from the WAV-
format into the CDR audio-format. See the man page for sox for more
details about formats and filename-extensions sox recognizes. Because
the output of the conversion takes up much disk space, it was made a
built-in feature of cdrecord for the formats WAV and AU. So as long as
your soundfiles have the extensions .wav or .au (and the samplerate
"stereo, 16 bit, 44.1 kHz"), you can use them as images without manual
conversion.
Cdrecord writes CD images as audio tracks if the option -audio is
specified. The other options are identical to those used for writing
data-CDs (unless you have very special requirements). These three
examples all do the same thing, but read the tracks from different
sound file formats:
shell> cdrecord -v speed=2 dev=0,6,0 -audio track1.cdr track2.cdr...
shell> cdrecord -v speed=2 dev=0,6,0 -audio track1.wav track2.wav...
shell> cdrecord -v speed=2 dev=0,6,0 -audio track1.au track2.au...
One notable exception are MPEG Layer 3 files, which can be converted
to the CD format with the command "mpg123 -s track1.mp3 > track1.cdr".
(Warning: this creates a file with a byte order which needs to be
reversed by using the option -swab in cdrecord.) Converting the other
direction can be done with "8hz-mp3" for WAV-files (extract the track
with cdda2wav from the audio CD and encode it into MP3 with 8hz-mp3).
To create a CD-R from a whole bunch of MP3-files, you can use the
following command sequence:
for I in *.mp3
do
mpg123 -s $I | cdrecord -audio -pad -swab -nofix -
done
cdrecord -fix
Depending on the speed of your machine, you may want to slow down
writing to "speed=1" (cdrecord-Option). If you use "speed=4", your
machine must be able to play the MP3-file at quadruple speed. mpg123
consumes much CPU-time! If you are in doubt, try an empty run with
-dummy (keeps the laser switched off). By doing this, you will produce
an audio CD which has a 2 seconds of pause between audio tracks.
33..22..11.. DDAAOO
If you want to get rid of the pauses between the audio tracks, you
have to use disk-at-once (DAO) recording versus the (individual)
track-at-once (TAO) recording described above. Support for DAO is
currently most advanced in cdrdao. Please see its homepage for
details.
Using the parameter read-cd, you are even able to produce 1:1 copies
of audio CDs.
33..33.. MMiixxeedd mmooddee CCDD--RROOMMss
There is not much to say about this topic. Just indicate the type of
the (subse quent) images with the options -data and -audio. Example:
cdrecord -v dev=0,6,0 -data cd_image -audio track*.cdr
44.. DDeeaarr WWiinnffrriieedd,,......
This is the section usually known as "frequently asked questions with
answers". If you have a problem with your partner, kids or dog, just
send it in, as long as it is related to writing CD-Rs or is otherwise
entertaining.
44..11.. HHooww sseennssiittiivvee iiss tthhee bbuurrnniinngg pprroocceessss??
Test it. Use the option -dummy to do an empty run of cdrecord. Do
everything you would do otherwise and watch if the burning process
survives.
If you feed cdrecord directly from mkisofs, then disk intensive
processes such as updating the _l_o_c_a_t_e database lower the maximum flow
rate and may corrupt the CD. You better check such processes are not
started via cron, at or anacron while you burn CD-Rs.
44..22.. HHaass ffiillee ffrraaggmmeennttaattiioonn aa bbaadd iimmppaacctt oonn tthhee tthhrroouugghhppuutt??
Fragmentation of files is usually so low that its impact isn't
noticed. However, you can easily construct pathological cases of
fragmentation, which lower the throughput of your hard disks under 100
kbyte/second. So don't do that. :-) Yes, files on a hard disk get
fragmented over the years. The faster, the fuller the filesystem is.
Always leave 10% or 20% free space, and you should run fine with
respect to writing CD-Rs.
If you're uncertain then look at the messages printed while booting.
The percentage of fragmentation is reported while checking the
filesystems. You can check for this value with the very dangerous
command
shell> e2fsck -n /dev/sda5 # '-n' is important!
[stuff deleted -- ignore any errors]
/dev/sda5: 73/12288 files (12.3% non-contiguous)
In this example the fragmentation seems to be very high -- but there
are only 73 very small files on the filesystem. So the value is _n_o_t
alarming.
There is an experimental utility called e2defrag to defragment
extended-2 filesystems. The current version does not work reliable
enough to use it even for private environments. If you really want to
defragment your filesystem, make a backup copy (better: two copies),
practise restoring the data, then create a new filesystem (that will
destroy the old) and restore the data. This sketch is currently the
safest technique.
44..33.. IIss iitt ppoossssiibbllee ttoo ssttoorree tthhee CCDD--iimmaaggee oonn aann UUMMSSDDOOSS--ffiilleessyysstteemm??
Yes. The only filesystem that isn't reliable and fast enough for
writing CD-ROMs from is the _n_e_t_w_o_r_k _f_i_l_e_s_y_s_t_e_m (_N_F_S). I used UMSDOS
myself to share the disk-space between Linux and DOS/Win on a PC
(486/66) dedicated for writing CD-ROMs.
44..44.. IIssnn''tt tthheerree ssoommee wwaayy ttoo ggeett aarroouunndd tthhee IISSOO--99666600 lliimmiittaattiioonnss??
Yes. You can put any filesystem you like on the CD. But other
operating systems than Linux won't be able to deal with this CD. Here
goes the recipe:
+o Create an empty file of 650MB size.
dd if=/dev/zero of="empty_file" bs=1024k count=650
+o Create an extended-2 filesystem on this file
shell> /sbin/mke2fs -b 2048 empty_file
empty_file is not a block special device.
Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
+o Mount this empty file through the loopback devices (you need a
reasonable new mount for this; read above).
mount -t ext2 -o loop=/dev/loop1 empty_file /mnt
+o Copy files to /mnt and umount it afterwards.
+o Use cdrecord on empty_file (which is no longer empty) as if it were
an ISO-9660-image.
If you want to make an entry in /etc/fstab for such a CD, then disable
the checking of the device file on system startup. For example:
/dev/cdrom /cdrom ext2 defaults,ro 0 0
The first 0 means "don't include in dumps", the second (=important)
one means "don't check for errors on startup" (fsck will fail to check
the CD for errors).
44..55.. HHooww ttoo rreeaadd tthhee ttrraacckkss ffrroomm aauuddiioo CCDDss??
There are several software packages available. The newest one is
"cdpranoia" and can be downloaded from
<
http://www.xiph.org/paranoia/>
Or you want to try the combination of "cdda2wav" and "sox", available
from sunsite and its mirrors:
<
ftp://sun-
site.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/cdrom/cdda2wav0.71.src.tar.gz>
<
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/convert/sox-11gamma-
cb3.tar.gz>
cdda2wav enables you to get a specific interval (or a whole track)
from your audio CD and converts it into a .wav-file. sox converts the
WAV files back into the (audio CD) cdda-format so it can be written to
the CD-R using cdrecord. You don't necessarily need sox if you use a
recent version of cdrecord, because it has built-in support for .au
and .wav files.
44..66.. HHooww ttoo pprroobbee ffoorr SSCCSSII ddeevviicceess aafftteerr bboooott??
The file drivers/scsi/scsi.c contains the information
/*
* Usage: echo "scsi add-single-device 0 1 2 3" >/proc/scsi/scsi
* with "0 1 2 3" replaced by your "Host Channel Id Lun".
* Consider this feature BETA.
* CAUTION: This is not for hotplugging your peripherals. As
* SCSI was not designed for this you could damage your
* hardware !
* However perhaps it is legal to switch on an
* already connected device. It is perhaps not
* guaranteed this device doesn't corrupt an ongoing data transfer.
*/
Please note that this should only be used if your add SCSI devices to
the end of the chain. Inserting new SCSI devices into an existing
chain disturbs the naming of devices (directory /dev) and may destroy
the complete content of your hard disk.
44..77.. IIss iitt ppoossssiibbllee ttoo mmaakkee aa 11::11 ccooppyy ooff aa ddaattaa CCDD??
Yes. But you should be aware of the fact that any errors while reading
the original (due to dust or scratches) will result in a defective
copy. Please note that both methods will fail on audio CDs! You have
to use cdrdao or cdda2wav on audio CDs.
First case: you have a CD-writer and a separate CD-ROM drive. By
issuing the command
cdrecord -v dev=0,6,0 speed=2 -isosize /dev/scd0
you read the data stream from the CD-ROM drive attached as /dev/scd0
and write it directly to the CD-writer.
Second case: you don't have a separate CD-ROM drive. In this case you
have to use the CD-writer to read out the CD-ROM first:
dd if=/dev/scd0 of=cdimage
This command reads the content of the CD-ROM from the device /dev/scd0
and writes it into the file "cdimage". The contents of this file are
equivalent to what mkisofs produces, so you can proceede as described
earlier in this document (which is to take the file cdimage as input
for cdrecord). If you want to see a progress-meter and other fancy
stuff, then you can also use Jrg Schillings sdd.
In case you run into errors, then install a recent version of
cdrecord, which ships a tool called "readcd" (found under misc/). It
gives you the same result as dd, but reads sectors on the CD-ROM
several times in case of errors.
44..88.. CCaann LLiinnuuxx rreeaadd JJoolliieett CCDD--RROOMMss??
Yes. Newer Kernels (2.0.36 and the upcoming 2.2) have built-in support
for the joliet format. Remember you have to use both options in your
/etc/fstab: the keywords iso9660 and joliet (later is really an
extension). For more details, see <
http://www-
plateau.cs.berkeley.edu/people/chaffee/joliet.html>.
44..99.. HHooww ddoo II rreeaadd//mmoouunntt CCDD--RROOMMss wwiitthh tthhee CCDD--wwrriitteerr??
Just as you do with regular CD-ROM drives. No tricks at all. Note that
you have to use the scd devices (SCSI CD-ROM) to mount CD-ROMs for
reading, even if you have an ATAPI CD-ROM (remember you configured
your ATAPI devices to act like SCSI). Example entry for /etc/fstab:
/dev/scd0 /cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0
44..1100.. HHooww ttoo ppuutt eevveenn mmoorree ddaattaa oonn tthhee CCDD--RR??
Use bzip2 instead of any other compressor like gzip or pkzip. It will
save you up to 30% of disk-space for larger (>100kb) files. You can
download it from
<
http://www.muraroa.demon.co.uk/>
Instead of writing a true audio CD, you can optionally convert your
WAV audio files into MP3 audio files and store them on a ISO-9660
filesystem as regular files. Usually MPEG III give you a compression
of 1:10. Of course, most CD-players are not able to read files... this
is the drawback. On the other hand, why not running the music for your
next party from hard disk? 18 Gbyte are enough for 3000-4000 titles.
:-)
A software MPEG III-encoder is available from
<
http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/other/8hz-
mp3-cheng.tar.gz>
A MPEG III-player is available from
<
http://homepages.uni-tuebingen.de/stu-
dent/michael.hipp/mpg123/>
For recorded speech, you may want to try to reduce its size using
shorten or "GSM lossy speech compression":
<
ftp://svr-ftp.eng.cam.ac.uk/pub/comp.speech/>
<
http://kbs.cs.tu-berlin.de/~jutta/toast.html>
44..1111.. HHooww ttoo mmaakkee bboooottaabbllee CCDD--RROOMMss??
You must have an 1.44 MB bootable floppy-disk. Create an exact image
of this floppy-disk by issuing the command
dd if=/dev/fd0 of=boot.img bs=18k
Place this floppy image into the directory holding the collection of
your files (or into a subdirectory of it, just as you like). Tell
mkisofs about this file with the option '-b' and also use '-c'. For
details read the file README.eltorito in the mkisofs-distribution.
An interesting application for a custom bootable CD is as a virus safe
DOS- or Windows-system. It saves you the money for the hard disks (if
you have a network and use samba to put the user-data on a
fileserver). However, this is purely theoretical as nobody reported an
actual recipe to me.
Some details about the bootable RedHat CD-ROM is available from
<
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~smithrod/rhjol-technical.html>.
44..1122.. HHooww ttoo mmaakkee CCDD--RROOMMss wwrriittaabbllee ssoommeehhooww??
There is an _o_v_e_r_l_a_y _f_i_l_e_s_y_s_t_e_m available for Linux, which is mounted
over the CD-ROM and intercepts all writing operations. New and
modified files are stored elsewhere, but for the user it looks like
the CD-ROM is modified. For more information, see
<
http://home.att.net/~artnaseef/ovlfs/ovlfs.html>.
If that is not enough for your needs: wait for the UDF-filesystem to
be supported by Linux or help developing it (see
<
http://trylinux.com/projects/udf/>.
44..1133.. IIss iitt ppoossssiibbllee ttoo uussee sseevveerraall wwrriitteerrss aatt oonnccee??
Yes. However, it has been only tested with two writers yet. You need
either a recent version of the Linux kernel (2.2.10 as of writing) or
a a kernel patch for more buffers in the SCSI generic driver (
<
ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/cdrecord/alpha>; works up to 2.2.5).
44..1144.. WWhhiicchh mmeeddiiaa iiss tthhee bbeesstt??
The german computer magazine "c't" had a list of tips regarding the
blank CD-Rs in their november 1996 issue:
+o "No name" discs are generally not of highest quality and should
better not be used.
+o If a recordable CD is defective, this is likely to apply to the
whole batch (if you bought more than one at a time); maybe you are
lucky and can at least use the first 500MB of such CD-Rs ...
+o Don't touch the CD-Rs at their shimmering side before writing.
44..1155.. WWhhaatt aabboouutt SSoollaarriiss,, **BBSSDD,, AAIIXX,, HHPP--UUXX,, eettcc..??
Only chapter 2 is Linux-specific. You can apply chapter 3 and 4 even
if you run another family of operating systems than Linux. Please see
the files README.NetBSD, README.aix, README.hpux, README.next,
README.solaris, README.sunos, README.vms or README.xxxBSD from the
cdrecord-distribution.
44..1166.. WWhheerree ttoo ssttoorree tthhee llooccaall ccoonnffiigguurraattiioonn ppeerrmmaanneennttllyy??
You have two options. Either you use the built-in configuration file
for cdrecord, or you use a shell wrapper like the one shown below.
This shell script reads a configuration file, which lists the options
and parameters for cdrecord line by line. The names are exactly the
same as on the commandline, but without the leading dash. Comments are
allowed. Example:
# be verbose
v
# set the speed of the writer
speed=2
# the device-coordinates in the form BUS,ID,LUN
dev=0,6,0
The configuration files for the wrapper belong into /etc/cdrecord and
must be referenced on the commandline. Example: if you want to refer
to the configuration /etc/cdrecord/mywriter.cfg, then you can issue
the command "cdrecord.sh mywriter.cfg -audio track1...". Everthing
after mywrite.cfg is passed to cdrecord.
#! /bin/bash
CFGDIR="/etc/cdrecord"
CFG="$1"
shift
ARGS_LEFT="$@"
if [ ! -f "$CFGDIR/$CFG" ]
then
echo "Configuration file $CFGDIR/$CFG not found. Exiting."
exit 1
fi
while read LINE
do
case $LINE in
\#*|"") continue;;
esac
old_IFS="$IFS"
IFS="$IFS="
set -- $LINE
IFS="$old_IFS"
O_NAME="$1"
O_VALUE=""
while shift
do
case $1 in
"") continue;;
esac
O_VALUE="$1"
done
if [ -z "$O_VALUE" ]
then
O_CDRECORD="$O_CDRECORD -$O_NAME "
continue
fi
O_CDRECORD="$O_CDRECORD $O_NAME=$O_VALUE "
done < "$CFGDIR/$CFG"
set -x #DEBUG
exec cdrecord $O_CDRECORD $ARGS_LEFT
echo "Execution of cdrecord failed."
44..1177.. HHooww ccaann tthhee CCDD--iinnffoo bbee rreettrriieevveedd??
Somewhere behind the first 32 k on the CD, a block with information
about the CD is located. You can extract the information with the
following shell script:
#! /bin/bash
RD=/dev/cdrom
for i in 32768,7 32776,32 32808,32 32958,128 33086,128 33214,128 \
33342,128 33470,32 33581,16 33598,16 33615,16 33632,16
do
old_IFS="$IFS"
IFS=","
set -- $i
IFS="$old_IFS"
OFFSET=$1
LENGTH=$2
echo "*`dd if=$RD bs=1 skip=$OFFSET count=$LENGTH 2> /dev/null`#"
done
44..1188.. WWhhaatt aabboouutt rree--wwrriittiinngg
When overwriting CD-RW media, specify the parameter blank=fast to
cdrecord. That's all. See the man page of cdrecord for details about
this parameter.
44..1199.. HHooww ttoo ccrreeaattee aa mmuullttii--sseessssiioonn CCDD??
First of all, the image for a multi-session CD must be formatted using
the ISO-9660 filesystem using RockRidge-extensions. And you must use
the option -multi for cdrecord as long as you want to add further
sessions. So at least for the first session, you must use -multi.
The images for the second and subsequent sessions are a little bit
more complicated to generate. Mkisofs must know where the free space
on the CD-R begins. That information can be gathered by using the
option -msinfo on cdrecord (see example below).
shell> NEXT_TRACK=`cdrecord -msinfo dev=0,6,0`
shell> echo $NEXT_TRACK
shell> mkisofs -R -o cd_image2 -C $NEXT_TRACK -M /dev/scd5
private_collection/ \
For more information, please read the file README.multi, which is
distributed with cdrecord.
55.. TTrroouubblleesshhoooottiinngg
Always remember, that you can still use corrupt CD-ROMs as coasters.
:-)
55..11.. IItt ddooeessnn''tt wwoorrkk:: uunnddeerr LLiinnuuxx
Please check first, that the writer works under the software it is
shipped with (=under another operating system). Concretely:
+o Does the controller recognize the writer as a SCSI device?
+o Does the driver software recognize the writer?
+o Is it possible to make a CD using the accompanied software?
If "it doesn't even work" with the accompanied software you have a
hardware conflict or defective hardware. If it works and you use
loadlin to boot Linux, then that is your problem. Loadlin makes a
warm-boot with most of the hardware already initialized and that can
confuse the Linux kernel.
55..22.. EErrrroorr--mmeessssaaggee:: NNoo rreeaadd aacccceessss ffoorr ''ddeevv==00,,66,,00''..
Under Linux, some versions of the C-library are incompatible (buggy),
so that an application linked against one version will not work with
another. An example for an error triggered by pre-compiled binaries is
the following:
[root@Blue /dev]# cdrecord -eject dev=0,6,0
cdrecord: No such file or directory. No read access for 'dev=0,6,0'.
55..33.. IItt ddooeessnn''tt wwoorrkk:: uunnddeerr DDOOSS aanndd ffrriieennddss
Try to use Linux. Installation and configuration of SCSI drivers for
DOS is the hell. Linux is too complicated? Ha!
55..44.. SSCCSSII eerrrroorrss dduurriinngg tthhee bbuurrnniinngg pphhaassee
Most likely those errors are caused by
+o missing dis-/reconnect feature on the SCSI bus
+o insufficiently cooled hardware
+o defective hardware (should be detected by 5.1.)
Under various circumstances SCSI devices dis- and reconnect themselves
(electronically) from the SCSI bus. If this feature is not available
(check controller and kernel parameters) some writers run into trouble
during burning or fixating the CD-R.
Especially the NCR 53c7,8xx SCSI driver has the feature disabled by
default, so you might want to check it first:
NCR53c7,8xx SCSI support [N/y/m/?] y
always negotiate synchronous transfers [N/y/?] (NEW) n
allow FAST-SCSI [10MHz] [N/y/?] (NEW) y
allow DISCONNECT [N/y/?] (NEW) y
66.. CCrreeddiittss
Many thanks go to the readers of this HOWTO, who contributed actively
to its contents. As I don't had access to a CD-writer myself for
several years, reports about real live setups and experience have
always been of great value to me.
DDoouugg AAllccoorrnn <<ddoouugg@@llaatthhii..nneett>>
helped to improve the handling of newer kernels
KKaallllee AAnnddeerrssssoonn <<kkaallllee@@sssslluugg..ddkk>>
How to write audio CDs directly from MP3.
AAllaann BBrroowwnn <<aallaann@@mmaannaawwaattuu..nneett..nnzz>>
RRiicckk CCoocchhrraann <<rriicckk@@mmsscc..ccoorrnneellll..eedduu>>
hint about dis-/reconnect disabled by default in the ncr driver
RRoobbeerrtt DDoooolliittttllee <<bboobb..ddoooolliittttllee@@ssuunn..ccoomm>>
good arguments for dropping cdwrite from the HOWTO
MMaarrkkuuss DDiicckkeebboohhmm <<mm..ddiicckkeebboohhmm@@uunnii--kkooeellnn..ddee>>
TThhoommaass DDuuffffyy <<ttdduuffffyy@@ssggii..ccoomm>>
major cleanup of syntax and spelling
JJooss vvaann GGeeffffeenn <<jjooss@@ttnnjj..pphhyyss..ttuuee..nnll>>
noted the problem in 4.9.
BBeerrnnhhaarrdd GGuubbaannkkaa <<bbeegg@@iipppp--ggaarrcchhiinngg..mmppgg..ddee>>
noticed the need of a recent version of mount to utilize the
loopback device
SStteepphheenn HHaarrrriiss <<sswweehh@@mmppnn..ccoomm>>
contributed hint about writing audio CDs
JJaannnnee HHiimmaannkkaa <<sshheemm@@ooyytt..oouulluu..ffii>>
pointer to kernel patch to read Joliet CD-ROMs
SStteepphhaann NNooyy <<ssttnnooyy@@mmii..uunnii--kkooeellnn..ddee>>
information and experience about writing audio CDs
DDoonn HH.. OOlliivvee <<ddoonn@@aannddrroommeeddaa..ccaammppbbeellllssvviill..eedduu>>
URL of the mkhybrid tool
JJeessppeerr PPeeddeerrsseenn <<jjeewwss@@iimmaaddaa..oouu..ddkk>>
PPiieerrrree PPffiisstteerr <<pppp@@uupplliifftt..ffrr>>
helped to develop the recipe on 1:1 copies.
DDaanniieell AA.. QQuuiisstt <<ddqquuiisstt@@ccss..nnmmtt..eedduu>>
information about IDE CD-R and newer kernel versions
MMaarrttttii..RRaahhkkiillaa@@hhuutt..ffii
Reported problem with pre-initialized writers when booting via
loadlin.
DDaallee SScchheeeettzz <<ddwwaarrff@@ppoollaarriiss..nneett>>
JJooeerrgg SScchhiilllliinngg <<sscchhiilllliinngg@@ffookkuuss..ggmmdd..ddee>>
information about cdrecord
MMaarrttiinn SScchhuullzzee <<jjooeeyy@@IInnffooddrroomm..NNoorrtthh..DDEE>>
gave information about the cdwrite-mailinglist
GGeerraalldd CC SSnnyyddeerr <<ggccssnnyydd@@lloooopp..ccoomm>>
tested writing of an ext2 CD-ROM (see 4.4)
AArrtt SSttoonnee <<ssttoonnee@@mmaatthh..uubbcc..ccaa>>
had the idea to put non-ISO-9660 filesystems on a CD
TThhee SShheeeeppyy OOnnee <<kkeerroo@@eessccaappee..ccoomm>>
suggested using defective CD-ROMs as coasters for drinks
EErrwwiinn ZZooeerr <<eezzooeerr@@wwxxss..nnll>>
Futhermore, I would like to thank the following people for reporting
spelling mistakes: Bartosz Maruszewski
<
[email protected]>, Ian Stirling <
[email protected]>, Brian
H. Toby.
End of the Linux CD-Writing HOWTO. (You can stop reading here.)
