I would like to post a summary on my inquiry of DVD burning on linux. Out
of the 14 or so responses that I received, 8 used K3b (the most popular
program, and generally considered easy to use grahpic interface); 2 used
X-CD-roast (Sara Kunz has a very nice website describing how to use it); a
few used command line programs such as cdrecord, dvd+rw-tools, dvdrtools, in
combination with mkisofs (I have great respect for people who can figure out
these command life programs); one (Steven Silber) mentioned NERO for linux
package that came with his SONY DVD-burner. There was example of DVD burned
by one drive that could not be read by drive made by another manufacturor
(Rudi Nunlist).
Some mentioned their OS. It seems there is no problem with Fedora Core (FC3
or 4) or Red Hat Linux Enterprise WS (3 or 4). But for older OS like Red
Hat 9, there might be significant challenges. Andrew Fowler mentioned that
even for FC3, kernel-2.6.9 did not burn DVD properly and he had to upgrade
to 2.6.12. He mentioned that there might be kernel patches for RH9. In
technically competent hands, this hurdle can probably be overcome. Gary
Strahan told me that he has used dvd+rw-tools in OS as old as Red Hat 7.
Excerpts are provided below. I think they will make good reading.
I am not a system administrator type of person, so I view the hurdle with
big dread. The question for me really is whether to upgrade RH9 to FC4. I
did on one of my computers. I noticed that nmrview5 would not work until I
located a copy of libtcl8.3.so and libtk8.3.so from my old RH9 computers and
copied them into FC4's /usr/lib which has tcl(tk) 8.4 as standard. That
computer also has a copy of TOPSPIN which does not work now because it seems
to be confused about its PATH. I suspect that I still have some ways to go
until all this is sorted out.
Here are some excerpts.
Hsin
-----Andrew Fowler #1 ------
I'm running Fedora Core 3, and needed to upgrade to at least the 2.6.12
kernel (2.6.9 didn't support DVD burning correctly). Of course, that
could depend on the Linux distribution. To burn, I generally just use
mkisofs to create an iso image and then use cdrecord to burn to the DVD
(the version in Fedora has been patched to allow DVD burning, under
RedHat 9 you probably need to track down cdrecord-ProDVD.
-----Andrew Fowler #2 ------
When I was running RedHat 9 a couple of years ago, I seem to recall that
you could get DVD (and CD) burning support by compiling and installing a
kernel extension (ide-scsi I think it was called). I'm pretty sure was a
2.4 series kernel. Things changed in the 2.6 kernels.
For what it's worth, I think most of the GUI tools you've gotten
responses about are front ends to mkisofs and cdrecord - I know this is
true of xcdroast and growisofs (probably k3b as well). If they work,
that's great. mkisofs is pretty straightforward, but cdrecord can get
complicated.
-----Gary Strahan ---------
I've run dvd+rw-tools on nearly all Redhat versions (7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.5,
8, 9, ES-2, AS-3, Fedora-3).
What I like about it is its simplicity, plus it allows multi-session
burns. Some of the GUI based programs do not allow you to add data to a
previously burned CD/DVD. (An exception is X-cdroast, but I've had
problems with that on Fedora-3, and DVDs have awkward licensing issues
with X-CDroast.)
-----Sara Kunz-------------
Have a look at the page I wrote for my users.
http://people.brandeis.edu/~kunz/TechTips/xcdroast.html
There is quite a bit of truth and only a few lies.
I have rewritten my sudoers file to not require passwords for writing DVDs
----------Steven Silber--------
I have a RedHat Enterprise system on a Dell platform with an
external (USB) Sony DVD burner. I have burned data from the system
using both the K3B program and the Nero for Linux package from Sony.
Both seem to work equally well, no particular preference. I seem to
recall that X-cdroast will also burn DVDs, but I don't recall whether
or not I tried using it, but the others have rather nicer user
interfaces and so are probably preferable.
---------Rudi Nunlist----------
I don't know if it works with RedHat 9.0. I have burned data and bootable
DVDs using Fedore 4 with k3b. This requires the cdrecord and dvd+rw-tools
packages. I have used an NEC and an LG burner. The NEC drive showed errors
reading or booting from a dvd burned on an LG drive, other LGs drives
worked. I don't know yet why that is. Other than that, it all works great.
--------Bill Gurley ---------
My favorite program these days is a KDE program called k3b:
http://www.k3b.org/
It would require that you have the KDE libraries installed. I'm not
sure how difficult it would be to get it working with Redhat 9. It's
very easy to use. You can just drag and drop files and folders into a
CD pane and then click Burn.
Before I started using k3b, I used gCombust:
http://www.abo.fi/~jmunsin/gcombust/
------alvicler Magahaes------------
try to use k3b,
if you are command like user
burncd is the best.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hsin Wang [mailto:wang_at_mail.csi.cuny.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2005 11:17 AM
> To: ammrl_at_ammrl.org
> Subject: Data backup with DVD burner on linux
>
>
> I would like to know whether any one has done data backup with
> DVD burner on
> linux and what program is used to do it. I am still running Red Hat 9.0
>
> Hsin
>
> --
> Hsin Wang, Ph.D.
> NMR Facility Manager
> College of Staten Island
> 2800 Victory Boulevard
> Staten Island, NY 10314
> Phone: 718-982-3809
> Fax: 718-982-3910
> Email: wang_at_mail.csi.cuny.edu
>
>
Received on Mon Nov 21 2005 - 11:41:43 MST