Using DVD optical writer under Linux

Authoring Software

The Linux authoring software, dvd+rw-tools, is used to create data on the DVD+R and DVD+RW medias. For older Linux distributions such as Red Hat 9, the software must be installed manually if the operating system has been reinstalled.

To install the software, insert the ASL Driver CD and run the following commands: 

	# mount  /mnt/cdrom
	# rpm  -ivh  /mnt/cdrom /ASL-packages/dvd+rw-tools-5.2.4.1.4-1.src.rpm
	# umount  /mnt/cdrom

Note: SuSE Linux requires dvd+rw-tool version 5.21 or higher.

Device Name

For the remainder of the document, a generic device name is used. For SuSE Linux, replace with dvdrecorder.

For Red Hat Linux or CentOS, replace with scd0. If the system has multiple optical devices, it might be necessary to replace scd0 with the appropriate entry. This depends on the order in which the optical devices are recognized by the operating system. The 1st optical drive inherits the device name scd0. The 2nd optical drive inherits the device name scd1. The 3rd optical drive inherits the name scd2 and so on.

Formatting a DVD+RW media

Before using DVD+RW media, it must be formatted first. To format a blank DVD+RW media, run the following command: 

	dvd+rw-format  /dev/<device>

Writing data on the DVD+R/RW media

To create data, run the following command: 

	growisofs -R -J -Z /dev/<device> <directory or file> ...

For example: 

	growisofs -R -J -Z /dev/<device> /home /usr

When using DVD+RW media, data can be appended using the following command: 

	growisofs -R -J -M /dev/<device> <directory or file> ...

For example: 

	growisofs -R -J -M /dev/<device> /lib

Note: DVD+R media can only be written one time.

Accessing data on the DVD+R/RW media

To access data, mount the DVD+R/RW media using the ISO9660 file system as following: 

	mount /dev/<device> <mount point>

For older Linux distributions, it might be necessary to specify the ISO9660 file system explicitly. 

	mount -t iso9660 /dev/<device> <mount point>

Creating data on the CDR/CDRW media

To create data on the CDR or CDRW media, use k3b or xcdroast under KDE. These are the graphical authoring tools that are easy and friendly to use.

For users who preferred the console application, use cdrecorder. 

	cdrecord dev=x,x,x -v <ISO image file>

The ISO image file is created with mkisofs. For example: 

	mkisofs -R -o image.iso /home/mydata /home/mydata2
	cdrecord dev=x,x,x -v image.iso

The parameters for dev can be obtained by running the following command: 

	cdrecord -scanbus

Here is a sample output: 

Cdrecord 1.10 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2001 Jörg Schilling Linux sg driver version: 3.1.22

Using libscg version 'schily-0.5'

scsibus0:

        0,0,0     0) 'HP      ' 'DVD Writer 100j ' '1.37' Removable CD-ROM

        0,1,0     1) *

        0,2,0     2) *

        0,3,0     3) *

        0,4,0     4) *

        0,5,0     5) *

        0,6,0     6) *

        0,7,0     7) *

For this example, the value of dev is 0,0,0.