View Source: CDWritingNotes - Waikato Linux Users Group

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!!! Graphical CD writing software

Note that these are all merely graphical front-ends that call cdrecord to do the actual writing, so you will need to make sure that cdrecord works (see the following sections for help with this).

* [K3B | http://k3b.sourceforge.net] is the [KDE] project's [GUI] burning tool
* <tt>xcdroast</tt> has a fairly awful [GTK] based [GUI].
* <tt>eroaster</tt> looks much better designed for ease-of-use... written in [Python] and [GTK].
* [GNOME] has <tt>nautilus-cd-burner</tt>, a [GNOME] [VFS] thing that means you can drag'n'drop files into the <tt>burn:///</tt> virtual directory, and then click the <i>Write to CD</i> button. Nice and easy. In a nautilus window, click on the <i>Go</i> or <i>Places</i> menu and then <i>CD Creator</i>.

!!! Identify Drive Model

Here are a few ways of finding out your drive information.

*cdrecord -inq

<verbatim>
Device type    : Removable CD-ROM
Version        : 0
Response Format: 1
Vendor_info    : 'BENQ    '
Identifikation : 'DVD DD DW1650   '
Revision       : 'BCDC'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc2 DVD-R/DVD-RW.
</verbatim>

*cdrecord -scanbus dev=ATA

<verbatim>
scsibus1:
        1,0,0   100) 'BENQ    ' 'DVD DD DW1650   ' 'BCDC' Removable CD-ROM
</verbatim>

*dmesg | egrep '(DVD|CD)'

<verbatim>
[   30.164585] hdc: BENQ DVD DD DW1650, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
[   30.566013] hdc: ATAPI 48X DVD-ROM DVD-R CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)
[   30.566021] Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
</verbatim>

!!! cdrecord(1)

At least in [Debian] [Woody], the file <tt>/etc/default/cdrecord</tt> stores settings about your CD writer(s). The last section which maps the device settings to the drive name __''must'' be Tab separated__. Spaces won't work.

Make sure that your user has permission to any required device files and executable programs. In [Debian], the files have the appropriate permissions for people in the <tt>cdrom</tt> group. If you add yourself to the group you will have to log out and back in for that to take effect.

In later [Debian] versions [cdrecord(1)] has been changed to wodim. Wodim is a fork of cdrecord as cdrecord stalled a little and also the license was changed on later versions by the original authour.

!!! How to get your CDR working – [ATAPI] Styles

Recent 2.4 kernels, and all 2.6 kernels, have support for cdwriting via [ATAPI]. Historically, the cdrecord program only worked over [SCSI] and [Linux] users needed [SCSI] emulation. There was argument over whether this was the kernel's fault or cdrecord's fault. See [Linus's take | http://lkml.org/lkml/2003/11/6/151] and [the author's take | http://www.wlug.org.nz/archive/docs/cdrecord-README.ATAPI] on this as well as [an explaination of both points of view on Slashdot | http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=141120&cid=11825433].

!! What to do

Make sure you have the [ATAPI] [CDROM] driver compiled in or as a module in your system. Probably best if you disable <tt>ide-scsi</tt> emulation while you're at it. (That is, make sure no drives are told to use the [SCSI] emulation on boot. Either remove <tt>ide-scsi</tt> support from your [Kernel], or check your BootLoader's configuration (either [LILO] or [GRUB]) to make sure it doesn't pass any <tt>hd''x''=ide-scsi</tt> options to the kernel.)

Upgrade cdrecord to the latest versions (2.0.x and above all appear to support this).

Get the latest version of whatever graphical frontend you prefer, and make sure they grok the ATAPI interface. If they don't, email the author requesting the feature and explain why you're now using a different program instead of theirs :)

!! Finding the CDR

Now find your CDR with <tt>cdrecord dev=ATA: -scanbus</tt>. Note the <tt>dev=ATA:</tt> bit. (Warning: case matters - "ATA" works, "ata" does not.)

The above command will return something like:

  <verbatim>
  Cdrecord-Clone 2.01a19 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2003 Jörg Schilling
   scsidev: 'ATA:'
   devname: 'ATA'
   scsibus: -1 target: -1 lun: -1
   Warning: Using ATA Packet interface.
   Warning: The related libscg interface code is in pre alpha.
   Warning: There may be fatal problems.
   Using libscg version 'schily-0.7'
   scsibus0:
           0,0,0     0) *
   cdrecord: Warning: controller returns wrong size for CD capabilities page.
           0,1,0     1) '        ' 'ATAPI CDROM 52X ' '120N' Removable CD-ROM
           0,2,0     2) *
           ....
   scsibus1:
           1,0,0   100) 'CDWRITER' 'IDE4012         ' '409E' Removable CD-ROM
           1,1,0   101) *
           1,2,0   102) *
           ...
  </verbatim>

So, this says there is an [ATAPI] [CDROM] on <tt>dev=ATA:0,1,0</tt> and an [ATAPI] CD writer on <tt>dev=ATA:1,0,0</tt>.

Note! cdrecord seems to have 2 independent [ATAPI]/[IDE] drivers: <tt>ATA:</tt> and <tt>ATAPI:</tt>, which map device names differently:

  <verbatim>
  $ cdrecord dev=ATAPI: -scanbus
  Warning: Using ATA Packet interface.
  Warning: The related Linux kernel interface code seems to be unmaintained.
  Warning: There is absolutely NO DMA, operations thus are slow.
          0,1,0     1) 'CyberDrv' 'CB511D Combo    ' '120A' Removable CD-ROM
  ...

  $ cdrecord dev=ATA: -scanbus
  scsidev: 'ATA:'
  devname: 'ATA'
  scsibus: -1 target: -1 lun: -1
  Warning: Using badly designed ATAPI via /dev/hd* interface.
  Linux sg driver version: 3.5.27
          1,1,0   101) 'CyberDrv' 'CB511D Combo    ' '120A' Removable CD-ROM
  ...
  </verbatim>

<tt>ATA:</tt> appears to be the preferred driver, and <tt>ATAPI:</tt> seems to be obsolete. If you do not find your drive with one, though, try the other. The ATA driver supports [DMA].

You can now burn CDs just as you could before, except use the device names as detailed above (ie, <tt>dev=ATA:1,0,0</tt>).

You can also save this in the cdrecord config file (either <tt>/etc/default/cdrecord</tt> on [Debian], or maybe <tt>/etc/cdrecord.conf</tt> on other distros) by adding something like:

  <verbatim>
  CDR_DEVICE=mycdwriter
  ...
  mycdwriter=      ATA:1,0,0      -1     -1      ""
  </verbatim>

(and remember to use tabs for separation, and not spaces.)

!! Another Way

In Debian Sid, the file <tt>/usr/share/doc/cdrecord/README.ATAPI.setup.gz</tt> describes another way to get cdrecord working with [ATAPI] drives.  With 2.6.x, if you add these lines to <tt>/etc/default/cdrecord</tt> (fields are tab separated):

  <verbatim>
  CDR_DEVICE=cdrw
  cdrw=   /dev/hdc        -1      -1      ""
  </verbatim>

cdrecord will then use <tt>/dev/hdc</tt> by default.  Then <tt>mkisofs -r ''directory''  | sudo cdrecord -</tt> will burn a CD of ''directory'''s contents.

!! [Debian] [Woody]

If you're brave and run Linux 2.6 under [Debian] [Woody], all you need to do is include backports for <tt>cdrdao</tt> and <tt>cdrtools</tt>, and you can use [ATAPI] CD writing just fine. You should already have backports for <tt>module-init-tools</tt> and other assorted packages like hdparm(8) that need updating for the new kernel, so add these ones as well:

  <pre>
  deb http://www.backports.org/debian woody cdrdao
  deb http://www.backports.org/debian woody cdrtools
  </pre>

I've successfully burnt an [ISO] image to disk using an LG 52x [ATAPI] CD writer. The output from <tt>cdrecord dev=ATAPI: -scanbus</tt> looked like this:

  <pre>
  0,0,0     0) 'HL-DT-ST' 'CD-RW GCE-8525B ' '1.01' Removable CD-ROM
  </pre>

Not tried an audio CD yet.


!!! How to get your CDR working – [IDE] [SCSI] emulation

__Note:__ Recent versions of cdrecord(1) combined with a recent LinuxKernel can use native [IDE] drivers for [IDE] CD writers, so this whole mumbo jumbo is not necessary. See the notes back up the page. This is left here for anyone using an older distro or kernel.

See our [SCSI-IDENotes] page for notes on setting up <tt>ide-scsi</tt> emulation.

!! Why you should use ATAPI if you can

The main reason might be that you don't have to muck around with <tt>ide-scsi</tt> emulation and so on.  However, the bigger reason is that it appears that <tt>ide-scsi</tt> has a major bug which may never be fixed, so if you want CD writing to ''work'' under 2.6 you'll want to use the [ATAPI] interface. Another reason is that it's such a [PITA] to change between using <tt>ide-scsi</tt> and <tt>ide-cd</tt> if you want to go from, say, writing a CD to playing a DVD, and you have one of those nifty combo CDR/DVD drives.

!! Finding the CDR

Now find your CDR with <tt>cdrecord -scanbus</tt>, which returns something like

  <verbatim>
  Cdrecord 2.01a16 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) (C) 1995-2003 Jörg Schilling
  Linux sg driver version: 3.5.28
  Using libscg version 'schily-0.7'
  scsibus0:
          0,0,0     0) 'HP      ' 'CD-Writer+ 9100 ' '1.0c' Removable CDR
          0,1,0     1) *
          0,2,0     2) *
          ....
  </verbatim>

This means your CDR is at 0,0,0 just like on most single-drive machines with [IDE] CD writers.


!!! Writing bootable CDs

The CD standard supports "floppy emulation", great for getting those old discs backed up and loading at 10× the speed. If you have a floppy image you've downloaded, call it <tt>boot.img</tt> (or change the command line).  If you have a 1.44Mb floppy, run <tt>dd if=/dev/fd0 of=boot.img bs=10k count=144</tt>. Put <tt>boot.img</tt> in an otherwise empty directory, and from that directory run <tt>mkisofs -b boot.img -c boot.catalog . | cdrecord -v .</tt>

mkisofs will generate the boot.catalog file for you.  Add <tt>-dummy</tt> to cdrecord if you want a test run first.  If cdrecord doesn't know about your cdr then you'll need to add <tt>dev=x,y,z</tt> and possibly <tt>speed=n</tt>.  If you just want to create the [ISO] image then you can use <tt>-o boot.iso</tt> with mkisofs instead of piping it to cdrecord.  The "<tt>.</tt>" at the end of mkisofs is still required though.

<tt>/usr/share/doc/mkisofs/README.eltorrito</tt> explains how to create bootable CDs.

!! Writing out downloaded (ISO) CDs

The command you want to use is something like <tt>cdrecord dev=/dev/cdwriter abc.iso</tt> where you substitute the device name of your CD writer and file you downloaded.

If you do not run as root you get the following message:

  <verbatim>
  cdrecord: Operation not permitted. WARNING: Cannot set RR-scheduler
  cdrecord: Permission denied. WARNING: Cannot set priority using setpriority().
  cdrecord: WARNING: This causes a high risk for buffer underruns.
  </verbatim>

Basically you can still burn the CD but would recommend you don't do other things at the same time that hog [CPU] or else you may burn a coaster.

----
Part of CategoryDiskNotes and CategoryStorage
One page links to CDWritingNotes:
CompactDisc
Last edited on Friday, February 16, 2007 11:52:22 am by IanMcDonald
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