Burning DVDs on Debian for Newbies
Posted by k2 on Wed 21 Dec 2005 at 14:43
DVD writers have become so common these days that there is hardly any difference between the price of a CD-writer drive and a DVD-writer drive. So I'm assuming that almost everyone would be buying a DVD writer drive these days. Below are a few tips for newbies on how to burn DVDs on a Debian box using the command line. Other GUI tools like k3b, nautilus burner, etc exists but its always fun to know how to do that stuff from command line.
Requirements: dvd+rw-tools package which provides growisofs to burn DVDs, and dvd+rw-format for formatting them in addition to other utilities.
There are mainly three situations to burn a DVD:
- Write an pre-mastered disc image(iso or img) to a dvd:
~$ growisofs -Z /dev/dvd=imageName.iso
- Write files to a dvd(an ISO 9660 filesystem with Joliet and Rock-Ridge extensions):
~$ growisofs -Z /dev/dvd -R -J directory/files to be written
- Merge(add) another session to a DVD-RW:
~$ growisofs -M /dev/dvd -R -J directory/files to be written
- Write files to a dvd(an ISO 9660 filesystem with Joliet and Rock-Ridge extensions):
You can also add the option -dvd-compat when writing a DVD for DVD-ROM/Video players to get maximum compatibility. Other helpful options are -V 'volid' which gives the volume ID for the disk and -speed=N if you want to use a particular speed. Remember to change /dev/dvd above to your DVD writer device name according to your system.
Further more detailed information read the man pages for growisofs and mkisofs or you can indulge in huge amounts of information about dvd+rw-tools at its home page.
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Nerolinux ... http://www.gnomefiles.org/app.php?soft_id=858
or
Gnomebaker ... http://www.gnomefiles.org/app.php?soft_id=291
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OTOH Nautilus in Gnome and K3b in KDE are completely free and you can write CDs/DVDs easily using a GUI if you don't like the commandline for growisofs. K3b in particular will appeal to those who have just changed over from Windows to Linux.
--
k2
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The dvd+rw pages also look interesting and have some heavier information on the interesting + vs - bits.
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growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd -dvd-video .
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growsiofs -Z /dev/dvd=iso.iso
growisofs -Z /dev/dvd -J -r [...] files
... and growisofs told me:
/dev/dvd: "Current Write Speed" is 12.3x1385KBps.
:-? the LUN appears to be stuck writing LBA=310h, retry in 47ms
:-? the LUN appears to be stuck writing LBA=310h, retry in 47ms
:-? the LUN appears to be stuck writing LBA=310h, retry in 47ms
:-? the LUN appears to be stuck writing LBA=310h, retry in 47ms
:-? the LUN appears to be stuck writing LBA=310h, retry in 47ms
:-? the LUN appears to be stuck writing LBA=30310h, retry in 47ms
:-? the LUN appears to be stuck writing LBA=118310h, retry in 47ms
:-? the LUN appears to be stuck writing LBA=118310h, retry in 47ms
:-? the LUN appears to be stuck writing LBA=118310h, retry in 47ms
:-? the LUN appears to be stuck writing LBA=1197f0h, retry in 0ms
:-[ WRITE@LBA=801197f0h failed with SK=2h/ASC=04h/ACQ=08h]: Resource temporarily unavailable
builtin_dd: 1153008*2KB out @ average 4.9x1385KBps
:-( write failed: Resource temporarily unavailable
/dev/dvd: flushing cache
/dev/dvd: closing track
/dev/dvd: closing session
:-[ CLOSE SESSION failed with SK=2h/ASC=04h/ACQ=07h]: Resource temporarily unavailable
/dev/dvd: reloading tray
I used an Compaq Evo310m/845G Intel based Debian Sarge, stable, 2.6.8 kernel, after I replaced the original CD-ROM unit w/ an ASUS DRW-1608-P2S CD/DVD writer. The manufacturer claims that this drive supports all media on the market, and reviewers tend to agree w/, except that comment about speed, and some quality issues. I managed to write CDs, blank CDs and DVD+RWs, but I'm stuck w/ DVD+R. Growisofs writes about half o 4.3GiB and... reloads the tray. :(
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And the second error for close session indicates - 2 04 07 LOGICAL UNIT NOT READY, OPERATION IN PROGRESS.
So growisofs is saying that the drive is busy. Don't know why it says that but try writing the DVD with just the background processes and growisofs. Also limit the speed to say 2x and see what happens. If the error still remains, change the media brand and try again.
A wierd error was showing when I was using BenQ discs one time (they are/were usually good quality) that the writing process stalled at around 93%. When this happened 3 times in a row, a closer inspection by the eye at the rim of the DVD indicated some physical deformaton of the dye. So I had to call up BenQ to report the problem and they sent me replacement pack.
--
k2
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