dvdrecord - record audio or data Compact Discs and DVDs from a master

dvdrecord [ "general options ] dev=device [ track options ] track1...trackn

Cdrecord is used to record data or audio Compact Discs on an Orange Book CD-Recorder.

The device refers to scsibus/target/lun of the CD-Recorder. Communication on SunOS is done with the SCSI general driver scg. Other operating systems are using a library simulation of this driver. Possible syntax is: dev= scsibus,target,lun or dev= target,lun. In the latter case, the CD-Recorder has to be connected to the default SCSI bus of the machine. Scsibus, target and lun are integer numbers. Some operating systems or SCSI transport implementations may require to specify a filename in addition. In this case the correct syntax for the device is: dev= devicename:scsibus,target,lun or dev= devicename:target,lun. If the name of the device node that has been specified on such a system refers to exactly one SCSI device, a shorthand in the form dev= devicename:@ or dev= devicename:@,lun may be used instead of dev= devicename:scsibus,target,lun.

To access remote SCSI devices, you need to prepend the SCSI device name by a remote device indicator. The remote device indicator is either REMOTE:user@host: or REMOTE:host:

A valid remote SCSI device name may be: REMOTE:user@host: to allow remote SCSI bus scanning or REMOTE:user@host:1,0,0 to access the SCSI device at host connected to SCSI bus # 1,target 0 lun 0.

To make dvdrecord portable to all UNIX platforms, the syntax dev= devicename:scsibus,target,lun is preferred as is hides OS specific knowledge about device names from the user. A specific OS must not necessarily support a way to specify a real device file name nor a way to specify scsibus,target,lun.

Scsibus 0 is the default SCSI bus on the machine. Watch the boot messages for more information or look into /var/adm/messages for more information about the SCSI configuration of your machine. If you have problems to figure out what values for scsibus,target,lun should be used, try the -scanbus option of dvdrecord described below.

If a file /etc/dvdrecord.conf exists, the parameter to the dev= option may also be a drive name label in said file (see FILES section).

On SVr4 compliant systems, dvdrecord uses the the real time class to get the highest scheduling priority that is possible (higher than all kernel processes). On systems with POSIX real time scheduling dvdrecord uses real time scheduling too, but may not be able to gain a priority that is higher than all kernel processes.

In Track At Once mode, each track corresponds to a single file that contains the prepared data for that track. If the argument is `-', standard input is used for that track. Only one track may be taken from stdin.

General options must be before any track file name or track option.

-version

Print version information and exit.

-v

Increment the level of general verbosity by one. This is used e.g. to display the progress of the writing process.

-V

Increment the verbose level in respect of SCSI command transport by one. This helps to debug problems during the writing process, that occur in the CD-Recorder. If you get incomprehensible error messages you should use this flag to get more detailed output. -VV will show data buffer content in addition. Using -V or -VV slows down the process and may be the reason for a buffer underrun.

debug=#, -d

Set the misc debug value to # (with debug=#) or increment the misc debug level by one (with -d). If you specify -dd, this equals to debug=2. This may help to find problems while opening a driver for libscg as well as with sector sizes and sector types. Using -debug slows down the process and may be the reason for a buffer underrun.

kdebug=#, kd=#

Tell the scg-driver to modify the kernel debug value while SCSI commands are running.

-silent, -s

Do not print out a status report for failed SCSI commands.

-force

Force to continue on some errors. This option currently implements some tricks that will allow you to blank bad CD-RW disks.

-dummy

The CD-Recorder will go through all steps of the recording process, but the laser is turned off during this procedure. It is recommended to run several tests before actually writing to a Compact Disk, if the timing and load response of the system is not known.

-dao

Set "Disk At Once mode. This currently only works with MMC drives that support "Session At Once mode.

-raw

Set "RAW writing mode. Using this option defaults to -raw96r.

-raw96r

Select Set "RAW writing mode with 2352 byte sectors plus 96 bytes of raw P-W subchannel data resulting in a sector size of 2448 bytes. This is the preferred raw writing mode as it gives best control over the CD writing process.

-raw96p

Select Set "RAW writing mode with 2352 byte sectors plus 96 bytes of packed P-W subchannel data resulting in a sector size of 2448 bytes. This is the less preferred raw writing mode as only a few recorders support it and some of these recorders have bugs in the firmware implementation. Don't use this mode if your recorder supports -raw96r or -raw16.

-raw16

Select Set "RAW writing mode with 2352 byte sectors plus 6 bytes of P-Q subchannel data resulting in a sector size of 2368 bytes. If a recorder does not support -raw96r, this is the preferred raw writing mode. It does not allow to write CD-Text or CD+Grahpics but it is the only raw writing mode in cheap CD writers. As these cheap writers in most cases do not support -dao mode. Don't use this mode if your recorder supports -raw96r.

-multi

Allow multi session CD's to be made. This flag needs to be present on all sessions of a multi session disk, except you want to create a session that will be the last session on the media. The fixation will be done in a way that allows the CD-Recorder to append additional sessions later. This is done by generation a TOC with a link to the next program area. The so generated media is not 100% compatible to manufactured CD's (except for CDplus). Use only for recording of multi session CD's. If this option is present, the default track type is CD-ROM XA mode 2. The Sony drives have no hardware support for CD-ROM XA mode 2. You have to specify the -data option in order to create multi session disks on these drives. As long as dvdrecord does not have a coder for converting data sectors to audio sectors, you need to force CD-ROM sectors by including the -data option if you like to record a multisession disk in DAO/SAO mode. Not all drives allow multisession CD's in DAO/SAO mode.

-msinfo

Retrieve multi session info in a form suitable for mkisofs-1.10 or later. This option makes only sense with a CD that contains at least one closed session and is appendable (not finally closed yet). Some drives create error messages if you try to get the multi session info for a disk that is not suitable for this operation.

-toc

Retrieve and print out the table of content or PMA of a CD. With this option, dvdrecord will work with CD-R drives and with CD-ROM drives.

-atip

Retrieve and print out the ATIP (absolute Time in Pregroove) info of a CD recordable or CD rewritable media. With this option, dvdrecord will try to retrieve the ATIP info. If the actual drive does not support to read the ATIP info, it may be that only a reduced set of information records or even nothing is displayed. Only a limited number of MMC compliant drives support to read the ATIP info. If dvdrecord is able to retrieve the lead-in start time for the first session, it will try to decode and print the manufacturer info from the media.

-fix

The disk will only be fixated (i.e. a TOC for a CD-Reader will be written). This may be used, if for some reason the disk has been written but not fixated. This option currently does not work with old TEAC drives (CD-R50S and CD-R55S).

-nofix

Do not fixate the disk after writing the tracks. This may be used to create an audio disk in steps. An un-fixated disk can usually not be used on a non CD-writer type drive but there are audio CD players that will be able to play such a disk.

-waiti

Wait for input to become available on standard input before trying to open the SCSI driver. This allows dvdrecord to read it's input from a pipe even when writing additional sessions to a multi session disk. When writing another session to a multi session disk, mkisofs needs to read the old session from the device before writing output. This cannot be done if dvdrecord opens the SCSI driver at the same time.

-load

Load the media and exit. This only works with a tray loading mechanism but seems to be useful when using the Kodak disk transporter.

-eject

Eject disk after doing the work. Some Devices (e.g. Philips) need to eject the medium before creating a new disk. Doing a -dummy test and immediately creating a real disk would not work on these devices.

speed=#

Set the speed factor of the writing process to #. # is an integer, representing a multiple of the audio speed. This is about 150 KB/s for CD-ROM and about 172 KB/s for CD-Audio. If no speed option is present, dvdrecord will try to get the speed value from the CDR_SPEED environment. If your drive has problems with "speed=2 or speed=4, you should try speed=0.

blank=type

Blank a CD-RW and exit or blank a CD-RW before writing. The blanking type may be one of:

help

Display a list of possible blanking types.

all

Blank the entire disk. This may take a long time.

fast

Minimally blank the disk. This results in erasing the PMA, the TOC and the pregap.

track

Blank a track.

unreserve

Unreserve a reserved track.

trtail

Blank the tail of a track.

unclose

Unclose last session.

session

Blank the last session. If used together with the -force flag, this option may be used to blank CD-RW disks that otherwise cannot be blanked. Note that you may need to specify blank=all because some drives will not continue with certain types of bad CD-RW disks. Note also that cdecord does it's best if the -force flag is used but it finally depends on the drive's firmware whether the blanking operation will succeed or not.

fs=#

Set the fifo (ring buffer) size to #. You may use the same method as in dd(1), sdd(1) or star(1). The number representing the size is taken in bytes unless otherwise specified. If a number is followed directly by the letter `b', `k', `m', `s' of `f', the size is multiplied by 512, 1024, 1024*1024, 2048 or 2352. If the size consists of numbers separated by `x' or `*', multiplication of the two numbers is performed. Thus "fs=10x63k will specify a fifo size of 630 kBytes. The size specified by the fs= argument includes the shared memory that is needed for administration. This is at least one page of memory. If no fs= option is present, dvdrecord will try to get the fifo size value from the CDR_FIFOSIZE environment. The default fifo size is currently 4 MB. The fifo is used to increase buffering for the real time writing process. It allows to run a pipe from mkisofs directly into dvdrecord. If the fifo is active and a pipe from mkisofs into dvdrecord is used to create a CD, dvdrecord will abort prior to do any modifications on the disk if mkisofs dies before it starts writing. The recommended fifo size is between 4 and 32 MBytes. As a rule of thumb, the fifo size should be at least equal to the size of the internal buffer of the CD-Recorder and no more than half of the physical amount of RAM available in the machine. If the fifo size is big enough, the fifo statistics will print a fifo empty count of zero and the fifo min fill is not below 20%. It is not wise to use too much space for the fifo. If you need more than 8 MB to write a CD on an idle machine, your machine is either underpowered, has hardware problems or is mis-configured. The sun4c architecture (e.g. a Sparcstation-2) has only MMU page table entries for 16 MBytes per process. Using more than 14 MBytes for the fifo may cause the operating system in this case to spend much time to constantly reload the MMU tables. Newer machines from Sun do not have this MMU hardware problem. I have no information on PC-hardware reflecting this problem. If you have buffer underruns or similar problems and observe a zero fifo empty count, you have hardware problems. The fifo size in this case is sufficient.

dev=target

Sets the SCSI target for the CD-Recorder, see notes above. A typical device specification is dev=6,0 . If a filename must be provided together with the numerical target specification, the filename is implementation specific. The correct filename in this case can be found in the system specific manuals of the target operating system. On a FreeBSD system without CAM support, you need to use the control device (e.g. /dev/rcd0.ctl). A correct device specification in this case may be dev=/dev/rcd0.ctl:@ . On Linux, drives connected to a parallel port adapter are mapped to a virtual SCSI bus. Different adapters are mapped to different targets on this virtual SCSI bus. If no dev option is present, dvdrecord will try to get the device from the CDR_DEVICE environment. If the argument to the dev= option does not contain the characters ',', '/', '@' or ':', it is interpreted as an label name that may be found in the file /etc/dvdrecord.conf (see FILES section).

timeout=#

Set the default SCSI command timeout value to #"seconds. The default SCSI command timeout is the minimum timeout used for sending SCSI commands. If a SCSI command fails due to a timeout, you may try to raise the default SCSI command timeout above the timeout value of the failed command. If the command runs correctly with a raised command timeout, please report the better timeout value and the corresponding command to the author of the program. If no timeout option is present, a default timeout of 40 seconds is used.

driver=name

Allows to use a user supplied driver name for the device. To get a list of possible drivers use driver=help. The reason for the existence of this option is to allow users to use dvdrecord with drives that are similar to supported drives but not known directly by dvdrecord. Use this option with extreme care. If a wrong driver is used for a device, the possibility of creating corrupted disks is high. The minimum problem related to a wrong driver is that the -speed or -dummy will not work. There are two special driver entries in the list: cdr_simul and dvd_simul. These driver entries are designed to make timing tests at any speed or timing tests for drives that do not support the -dummy option. The simulation drivers implement a drive with a buffer size of 1MB that can be changed via the CDR_SIMUL_BUFSIZE environment variable. The simulation driver correctly simulates even a buffer underrun condition. If the -dummy option is present, the simulation is not aborted in case of a buffer underrun.

driveropts=option list

Set driver specific options. The options are specified a comma separated list. To get a list of valid options use driveropts=help together with the -checkdrive option. Currently only the burnfree option is implemented to support Buffer Underrun Free writing with drives that support Buffer Underrun Free technology. This may be called: Sanyo BURN-Proof, Ricoh Just-Link or similar.

-checkdrive

Checks if a driver for the current drive is present and exit. If the drive is a known drive, dvdrecord uses exit code 0.

-prcap

Print the drive capabilities for SCSI-3/mmc compliant drives as obtained from mode page 0x2A. Values marked with kB use 1000 bytes as kilo-byte, values marked with KB use 1024 bytes as Kilo-byte.

-inq

Do an inquiry for the drive, print the inquiry info and exit.

-scanbus

Scan all SCSI devices on all SCSI busses and print the inquiry strings. This option may be used to find SCSI address of the CD-Recorder on a system. The numbers printed out as labels are computed by: "bus * 100 + target

-reset

Try to reset the SCSI bus where the CD recorder is located. This works not on all operating systems.

-overburn

Allow dvdrecord to write more than the official size of a medium. This feature is usually called overburning and depends on the fact that most blank media may hold more space than the official size. As the official size of the lead-out area on the disk is 90 seconds (6750 sectors) and a disk usually works if there are at least 150 sectors of lead out, all media may be overburned by at least 88 seconds (6600 sectors). Most CD recorders only do overburning in DAO mode. Known exceptions are TEAC CD-R50S, TEAC CD-R55S and the Panasonic CW-7502. There is no guarantee that your drive supports overburning at all. Make a test to check if your drive implements the feature.

-ignsize

Ignore the known size of the medium. This options should be used with extreme care, it exists only for debugging purposes don't use it for other reasons. It is not needed to write disks with more than the nominal capacity. This option implies -overburn.

-useinfo

Use *.inf files to overwrite audio options. If this option is used, the pregap size information is read from the *.inf file that is associated with the file that contains the audio data for a track.

defpregap=#

Set the default pre-gap size for all tracks except track number 1. This option currently only makes sense with the TEAC drive when creating track-at-once disks without the 2 second silence before each track.

This option may go away in future.

-packet

Set "Packet writing mode. This is an experimental interface.

pktsize=#

Set the paket size to #, forces fixed packet mode. This is an experimental interface.

-noclose

Do not close the current track, useful only when in packet writing mode. This is an experimental interface.

mcn=med_cat_nr

Set the "Media Catalog Number of the CD to med_cat_nr.

-text

Write CD-Text created by cdrecord and based on information taken from a file that contains ascii information for the text strings. Currently only the format in the *.inf files created by cdda2wav is supported. You need to use the -useinfo option in addition in order to tell cdrecord to read these files. If you like to write your own CD-Text information, edit the *.inf files with a text editor and change the field that are relevant for CD-Text.

textfile=filename

Write CD-Text based on information found in the binary file filename. This file must contain information in a data format defined in the SCSI-3 MMC-2 standard and in the Red Book. The four byte size header that is defined in the SCSI standard is optional and allows to make the recognition of correct data less ambiguous. This is the best option to be used to copy CD-Text data from existing CDs that already carry CD-Text information. To get data in a format suitable for this option use cdrecord -vv -toc to extract the information from disk.

-delay=delay

Set the delay at startup (for parameter verification) to delay. Default: 9

-gui

Make the output (GUI) frontend readable instead of human readable.

Track options may be mixed with track file names.

isrc=ISRC_number

Set the "International Standard Recording Number for the next track to ISRC_number.

index=list

Sets an index list for the next track. In index list is a comma separated list of numbers that are counting from index 1. The first entry in this list must contain a 0, the following numbers must be an ascending list of numbers (counting in 1/75 seconds) that represent the start of the indices. An index list in the form: 0,7500,15000 sets index 1 to the start of the track, index 2 100 seconds from the start of the track and index 3 200 seconds from the start of the track.

-audio

If this flag is present, all subsequent tracks are written in "CD-DA (similar to Red Book) audio format. The file with data for this tracks should contain stereo, 16-bit digital audio with 44100 samples/s. The byte order should be the following: MSB left, LSB left, MSB right, LSB right, MSB left and so on. The track should be a multiple of 2352 bytes. It is not possible to put the master image of an audio track on a raw disk because data will be read in multiple of 2352 bytes during the recording process. If a filename ends in .au or .wav the file is considered to be a structured audio data file. Cdrecord assumes that the file in this case is a Sun audio file or a Microsoft .WAV file and extracts the audio data from the files by skipping over the non-audio header information. In all other cases, dvdrecord will only work correctly if the audio data stream does not have any header. Because many structured audio files do not have an integral number of blocks (1/75th second) in length, it is often necessary to specify the -pad option as well. dvdrecord recognizes that audio data in a .WAV file is stored in Intel (little-endian) byte order, and will automatically byte-swap the data if the CD recorder requires big-endian data. Cdrecord will reject any audio file that does not match the Red Book requirements of 16-bit stereo samples in PCM coding at 44100 samples/second. Using other structured audio data formats as input to dvdrecord will usually work if the structure of the data is the structure described above (raw pcm data in big-endian byte order). However, if the data format includes a header, you will hear a click at the start of a track.

If neither -data nor -audio have been specified, dvdrecord defaults to -audio for all filenames that end in .au or .wav and to -data for all other files.

-swab

If this flag is present, audio data is assumed to be in byte-swapped (little-endian) order. Some types of CD-Writers e.g. Yamaha, Sony and the new SCSI-3/mmc drives require audio data to be presented in little-endian order, while other writers require audio data to be presented in the big-endian (network) byte order normally used by the SCSI protocol. Cdrecord knows if a CD-Recorder needs audio data in big- or little-endian order, and corrects the byte order of the data stream to match the needs of the recorder. You only need the -swab flag if your data stream is in Intel (little-endian) byte order. Note that the verbose output of dvdrecord will show you if swapping is necessary to make the byte order of the input data fit the required byte order of the recorder. Cdrecord will not show you if the -swab flag was actually present for a track.

-data

If this flag is present, all subsequent tracks are written in "CD-ROM mode 1 (Yellow Book) format. The data is a multiple of 2048 bytes. The file with track data should contain an ISO-9660 or "RockRidge filesystem image (see mkisofs for more details). If the track data is an ufs filesystem image, fragment size should be set to 2 KB or more to allow CR-drives with 2 KB sector size to to be used for reading.

-data is the default, if no other flag is present.

If neither -data nor -audio have been specified, dvdrecord defaults to -audio for all filenames that end in .au or .wav and to -data for all other files.

-mode2

If this flag is present, all subsequent tracks are written in "CD-ROM mode 2 format. The data is a multiple of 2048 bytes.

-xa1

If this flag is present, all subsequent tracks are written in "CD-ROM XA mode 1 format. The data is a multiple of 2048 bytes.

-xa2

If this flag is present, all subsequent tracks are written in "CD-ROM XA mode 2 format. The data is a multiple of 2048 bytes.

-cdi

If this flag is present, all subsequent tracks are written in "CDI format. The data is a multiple of 2048 bytes.

-isosize

Use the "ISO-9660 file system size as the size of the next track. This option is needed if you want dvdrecord to directly read the image of a track from a raw disk partition or from a TAO master CD. In the first case the option -isosize is needed to limit the size of the CD to the size of the ISO filesystem. In the second case the option -isosize is needed to prevent dvdrecord from reading the two run out blocks that are appended by each CD-recorder in track at once mode. These two run out blocks cannot be read and would cause a buffer under run that would cause a defective copy. Do not use this option on files created by mkisofs and in case dvdrecord reads the track data from stdin. In the first case, you would prevent dvdrecord from writing the amount of padding that has been appended by mkisofs and in the latter case, it will not work because stdin is not seekable. If -isosize is used for a track, dvdrecord will automatically add padding for this track as if the -pad option has been used but the amount of padding may be less than the padding written by mkisofs. Note that if you use -isosize on a track that contains Sparc boot information, the boot information will be lost. Note also that this option cannot be used to determine the size of a file system if the multi session option is present.

-pad

If the track is a data track, 15 sectors of zeroed data will be added to the end of this and each subsequent data track. In this case, the -pad option is superseded by the padsize= option. It will remain however as a shorthand for padsize=15s. If the -pad option refers to an audio track, dvdrecord will pad the audio data to be a multiple of 2352 bytes. The audio data padding is done with binary zeroes which is equal to absolute silence. -pad remains valid until disabled by -nopad.

padsize=#

Set the amount of data to be appended as padding to the next track to #. Opposed to the behavior of the -pad option, the value for padsize= is reset to zero for each new track. See fs= option for possible arguments. Use this option if your CD-drive is not able to read the last sectors of a track or if you want to be able to read the CD on a Linux system with the ISO-9660 filesystem read ahead bug. If an empty file is used for track data, this option may be used to create a disk that is entirely made of padding.

-nopad

Do not pad the following tracks - the default.

-shorttrack

Allow all subsequent tracks to violate the Read Book track length standard which requires a minimum track length of 4 seconds. This option is only useful when used in DAO mode. Not all drives support this feature. The drive must be accept the resulting CUE sheet.

-noshorttrack

Re-enforce the Red Book track length standard. Tracks must be at least 4 seconds.

pregap=#

Set the pre-gap size for the next track. This option currently only makes sense with the TEAC drive when creating track-at-once disks without the 2 second silence before each track.

This option may go away in future.

-preemp

If this flag is present, all TOC entries for subsequent audio tracks will indicate that the audio data has been sampled with 50/15 µsec preemphasis. The data, however is not modified during the process of transferring from file to disk. This option has no effect on data tracks.

-nopreemp

If this flag is present, all TOC entries for subsequent audio tracks will indicate that the audio data has been mastered with linear data - this is the default.

-copy

If this flag is present, all TOC entries for subsequent audio tracks of the resulting CD will indicate that the audio data has permission to be copied without limit. This option has no effect on data tracks.

-nocopy

If this flag is present, all TOC entries for subsequent audio tracks of the resulting CD will indicate that the audio data has permission to be copied only once for personal use - this is the default.

-scms

If this flag is present, all TOC entries for subsequent audio tracks of the resulting CD will indicate that the audio data has no permission to be copied anymore.

tsize=#

If the master image for the next track has been stored on a raw disk, use this option to specify the valid amount of data on this disk. If the image of the next track is stored in a regular file, the size of that file is taken to determine the length of this track. If the track contains an ISO 9660 filesystem image use the -isosize option to determine the length of that filesystem image.

In Disk at Once mode and with some drives that use the TEAC programming interface, even in Track at Once mode, dvdrecord needs to know the size of each track before starting to write the disk. Cdrecord now checks this and aborts before starting to write. If this happens you will need to run "mkisofs -print-size before and use the output as an argument to the tsize= option of dvdrecord.

See fs= option for possible arguments.

For all examples below, it will be assumed that the CD-Recorder is connected to the primary SCSI bus of the machine. The SCSI target id is set to 2.

To record a pure CD-ROM at double speed, using data from the file cdimage.raw:

dvdrecord -v speed=2 dev=2,0 cdimage.raw

To create an image for a ISO 9660 filesystem with Rock Ridge extensions:

mkisofs -R -o cdimage.raw /home/joerg/master/tree

To check the resulting file before writing to CD on Solaris:

mount -r -F fbk -o type=hsfs /dev/fbk0:cdimage.raw /mnt

On Linux:

mount cdimage.raw -r -t iso9660 -o loop /mnt

Go on with:

ls -lR /mnt

umount /mnt

If the overall speed of the system is sufficient and the structure of the filesystem is not too complex, dvdrecord will run without creating an image of the ISO 9660 filesystem. Simply run the pipeline:

mkisofs -R /master/tree | dvdrecord -v fs=6m speed=2 dev=2,0 -

The recommended minimum fifo size for running this pipeline is 4 MBytes. As the default fifo size is 4 MB, the fs= option needs only be present if you want to use a different fifo size. If your system is loaded, you should run mkisofs in the real time class too. To raise the priority of mkisofs replace the command

mkisofs -R /master/tree

by

priocntl -e -c RT -p 59 mkisofs -R /master/tree on Solaris and by nice --18 mkisofs -R /master/tree on systems that don't have "UNIX International compliant realtime scheduling.

Cdrecord runs at priority 59 on Solaris, you should run mkisofs at no more than priority 58. On other systems, you should run mkisofs at no less than nice --18.

Creating a CD-ROM without file system image on disk has been tested on a Sparcstation-2 with a Yamaha CDR-400. It did work up to quad speed when the machine was not loaded. A faster machine may be able to handle quad speed also in the loaded case.

To record a pure CD-DA (audio) at single speed, with each track contained in a file named track01.cdaudio, track02.cdaudio, etc:

dvdrecord -v speed=1 dev=2,0 -audio track*.cdaudio

To check if it will be ok to use double speed for the example above. Use the dummy write option:

dvdrecord -v -dummy speed=2 dev=2,0 -audio track*.cdaudio

To record a mixed-mode CD with an ISO 9660 filesystem from cdimage.raw on the first track, the other tracks being audio tracks from the files track01.cdaudio, track02.cdaudio, etc:

dvdrecord -v -dummy dev=2,0 cdimage.raw -audio track*.cdaudio

To handle drives that need to know the size of a track before starting to write, first run

mkisofs -R -q -print-size /master/tree

and then run

mkisofs -R /master/tree | dvdrecord speed=2 dev=2,0 tsize=XXXs -

where XXX is replaced by the output of the previous run of mkisofs.

To copy an audio CD in the most accurate way, first run

cdda2wav -v255 -D2,0 -B -Owav

and then run

dvdrecord -v dev=2,0 -dao -useinfo *.wav

CDR_DEVICE

This may either hold a device identifier that is suitable to the open call of the SCSI transport library or a label in the file /etc/dvdrecord.conf.

CDR_SPEED

Sets the default speed value for writing (see also -speed option).

CDR_FIFOSIZE

Sets the default size of the FIFO (see also fs=# option).

/etc/dvdrecord.conf

Default values can be set for the following options in /etc/dvdrecord.conf. For example: CDR_FIFOSIZE=8m or CDR_SPEED=2

CDR_DEVICE

This may either hold a device identifier that is suitable to the open call of the SCSI transport library or a label in the file /etc/dvdrecord.conf that allows to identify a specific drive on the system.

CDR_SPEED

Sets the default speed value for writing (see also -speed option).

CDR_FIFOSIZE

Sets the default size of the FIFO (see also fs=# option).

Any other label

is an identifier for a specific drive on the system. Such an identifier may not contain the characters ',', '/', '@' or ':'. Each line that follows a label contains a TAB separated list of items. Currently, three items are recognized: the SCSI ID of the drive, the default speed that should be used for this drive and the default FIFO size that should be used for this drive. The values for speed and fifosize may be set to -1 to tell dvdrecord to use the global defaults. A typical line may look this way: teac1= 0,5,0 4 8m yamaha= 1,6,0 -1 -1 This tells dvdrecord that a drive named teac1 is at scsibus 0, target 5, lun 0 and should be used with speed 4 and a FIFO size of 8 MB. A second drive may be found at scsibus 1, target 6, lun 0 and uses the default speed and the default FIFO size.

cdda2wav(1), readcd(1), scg(7), fbk(7), mkisofs(8).

On Solaris you need to stop the volume management if you like to use the USCSI fallback SCSI transport code. Even things like "dvdrecord -scanbus will not work if the volume management is running.

Disks made in "Track At Once mode are not suitable as a master for direct mass production by CD manufacturers. You will need the "disk at once option to record such disks. Nevertheless the disks made in "Track At Once will normally be read in all CD players. Some old audio CD players however may produce a two second click between two audio tracks.

The minimal size of a track is 4 seconds or 300 sectors. If you write smaller tracks, the CD-Recorder will add dummy blocks. This is not an error, even though the SCSI-error message looks this way.

Dvdrecord has been tested on a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-103, Firmware 1.55. It is based on Cdrecord which has been tested on an upgraded Philips CDD-521 recorder at single and double speed on a SparcStation 20/502 with no problems, slower computer systems should work also. The newer Philips/HP/Plasmon/Grundig drives as well as Yamaha CDR-100 and CDR-102 work also. The Plasmon RF-4100 work, but has not tested in multi session. A Philips CDD-521 that has not been upgraded will not work. The Sony CDU-924 has been tested, but does not support XA-mode2 in hardware. The sony therefore cannot create conforming multi session disks. The Ricoh RO-1420C works, but some people seem to have problems to use them with speed=2, try speed=0 in this case.

The Yamaha CDR-400 and all new SCSI-3/mmc conforming drives are supported in single and multi-session.

You should run several tests in all supported speeds of your drive with the -dummy option turned on if you are using dvdrecord on an unknown system. Writing a CD is a realtime process. NFS will not always deliver constantly the needed data rates. If you want to use dvdrecord with CD-images that are located on a NFS mounted filesystem, be sure that the fifo size is big enough. I used Dvdrecord with with medium load on a SS20/502 and even at quad speed on a Sparcstation-2 which was heavily loaded, but it is recommended to leave the system as lightly loaded as possible while writing a CD. If you want to make sure that buffer underrungs are not caused by your source disk, you may use the command

" dvdrecord -dummy dev=2,0 padsize=600m /dev/null

to create a disk that is entirely made of dummy data. Dvdrecord needs to run as root to get access to the /dev/scg? device nodes and to be able to lock itself into memory.

If you don't want to allow users to become root on your system, dvdrecord may safely be installed suid root. This allows all users or a group of users with no root privileges to use dvdrecord. Dvdrecord in this case checks, if the real user would have been able to read the specified files. To give all user access to use dvdrecord, enter:

chown root /usr/local/bin/dvdrecord

chmod 4711 /usr/local/bin/dvdrecord

To give a restricted group of users access to dvdrecord enter:

chown root /usr/local/bin/dvdrecord

chgrp cdburners /usr/local/bin/dvdrecord

chmod 4710 /usr/local/bin/dvdrecord

and add a group cdburners on your system.

Never give write permissions for non root users to the /dev/scg? devices unless you would allow anybody to read/write/format all your disks.

You should not connect old drives that do not support disconnect/reconnect to either the SCSI bus that is connected to the CD-Recorder or the source disk.

A Compact Disc can have no more than 99 tracks.

When creating a disc with both audio and data tracks, the data should be on track 1 otherwise you should create a CDplus disk which is a multi session disk with the first session containing the audio tracks and the following session containing the data track.

Many operating systems are not able to read more than a single data track, or need special software to do so.

More information on the SCSI command set of a HP CD-Recorder can be found at:

http://www.hp.com/isgsupport/cdr/index.html

If you have more information or SCSI command manuals for currently unsupported CD-Recorders please contact the author.

The Philips CDD 521 CD-Recorder (even in the upgraded version) has several firmware bugs. Some of them will force you to power cycle the device or to reboot the machine.

You have 9 seconds to type ^C to abort dvdrecord after you see the message:

Starting to write CD at speed %d in %s mode for %s session.

A typical error message for a SCSI command looks like:

dvdrecord: I/O error. test unit ready: scsi sendcmd: no error
CDB:  00 20 00 00 00 00
status: 0x2 (CHECK CONDITION)
Sense Bytes: 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0A 00 00 00 00 25 00 00 00 00 00
Sense Key: 0x5 Illegal Request, Segment 0
Sense Code: 0x25 Qual 0x00 (logical unit not supported) Fru 0x0
Sense flags: Blk 0 (not valid)
cmd finished after 0.002s timeout 40s

The second line prints the SCSI command descriptor block for the failed command.

The third line gives information on the SCSI status code returned by the command, if the transport of the command succeeds. This is error information from the SCSI device.

The fourth line is a hex dump of the auto request sense information for the command.

The fifth line is the error text for the sense key if available, followed by the segment number that is only valid if the command was a copy command. If the error message is not directly related to the current command, the text deferred error is appended.

The sixth line is the error text for the sense code and the sense qualifier if available. If the type of the device is known, the sense data is decoded from tables in scsierrs.c". The text is followed by the error value for a field replaceable unit.

The seventh line prints the block number that is related to the failed command and text for several error flags. The block number may not be valid.

The eight line reports the timeout set up for this command and the time that the command realy needed to be finished.

The following message is not an error:

Track 01: Total bytes read/written: 2048/2048 (1 sectors).
dvdrecord: I/O error. flush cache: scsi sendcmd: no error
CDB:  35 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
status: 0x2 (CHECK CONDITION)
Sense Bytes: F0 00 05 80 00 00 27 0A 00 00 00 00 B5 00 00 00 00 00
Sense Key: 0x5 Illegal Request, Segment 0
Sense Code: 0xB5 Qual 0x00 (dummy data blocks added) Fru 0x0
Sense flags: Blk -2147483609 (valid)
cmd finished after 0.002s timeout 40s

Dvdrecord has even more options than ls.

Dvdrecord currently only warns if the input data will not fit on the disk. If you don't abort the command you will get unpredictable results.

There should be an option to write index numbers for audio tracks.

There should be a recover option to make disks usable, that have been written during a power failure.

Bill Swartz (Bill_Swartz@twolf.com)

For helping me with the TEAC driver support

Aaron Newsome (aaron.d.newsome@wdc.com)

For letting me develop Sony support on his drive

Eric Youngdale (eric@andante.jic.com)

For supplying mkisofs

Gadi Oxman (gadio@netvision.net.il)

For tips on the ATAPI standard

Finn Arne Gangstad (finnag@guardian.no)

For the first FIFO implementation.

Dave Platt (dplatt@feghoot.ml.org)

For creating the experimental packet writing support, the first implementation of CD-RW blanking support, the first .wav file decoder and many nice discussions on dvdrecord.

Chris P. Ross (cross@eng.us.uu.net)

For the first implementation os a BSDI SCSI rtansport.

Grant R. Guenther (grant@torque.net)

For creating the first parallel port transport implementation for Linux.

Kenneth D. Merry (ken@kdm.org)

for providing the CAM port for FreeBSD together with Michael Smith (msmith@freebsd.org)

If you want to actively take part on the development of cdrecord (on which dvdrecord is based), you may join the cdwriting mailing list by sending mail to:

	other-cdwrite-request@lists.debian.org

	other-cdwrite@lists.debian.org

dvdrecord is currently maintained by bero@gnu.org. It is based on cdrecord:

Jorg Schilling
Seestr. 110
D-13353 Berlin
Germany

Additional information on cdrecord can be found on:

http://www.fokus.gmd.de/usr/schilling/cdrecord.html

If you have support questions, send them to:

cdrecord-support@berlios.de

or other-cdwrite@lists.debian.org

Of you definitly found a bug, send a mail to:

cdrecord-developers@berlios.de

or schilling@fokus.gmd.de

To subscribe, use:

http://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/cdrecord-developers

or http://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/cdrecord-support