Burning ISOs

[Mike A. Harris]

Leon Stringer wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm trying to install FC5t3 on another computer, but I can't burn the
> ISOs.
> 
> I've tried burning from GNOME and using cdrecord, e.g.
> 
> cdrecord dev=/dev/hda -eject -v -dao FC-5-Test3-i386-disc1.iso
> 
> (I ran this as root as it complained about setpriority when I didn't).
> 
> But on the resulting CDs some files can be copied but other's result in
> I/O errors. Last time I posted about verifying CDs I was told that this
> process was unreliable.
> 
> So we have unreliable CD burning and no reliable way to verify them.

Yes, rather irritating. ;)

> And I have a half-installed computer.
> 
> Does anyone have any tips for successful burning of ISOs? (I'm burning
> from an up-to-date FC5 test installation).

I'll get burned at the stake for this answer, but in lieu of additional
conditions being specified which limit the number of available responses
to a specific range....

Use Nero Burning ROM in Windows XP.  It more or less "just works" every
time.

> Will CD burning ever "Just Work"?

In Linux, I'm starting to think the answer is "no".  I got my first
CD burner about 7-8 years ago, and used it in Linux for many years.
I also used CDRWin and another app I forget the name of now in Windows
occasionally when I wanted to burn DAO mode, but once DAO mode was
supported in Linux on my burner, I stuck with Linux burning using
xcdroast for a very long time.

Then at some point, something changed in the kernel which broke CD
burning for me, and it wasn't fixed for months.  During that time,
I switched to using CDRwin for everything in Windows again.  It
was frustrating rebooting just to burn a CD, but necessary.

Then, cd burning worked again.  Yay!  Only it failed randomly sometimes
for some reason that I couldn't figure out.  Eventually I discovered
it was because of autorun or magicdev or something like that, so I
blew those away and it worked again.  Then, if I tried to mount a
CD on CDROM unit #2, it would fry the burn happening on CDburner
unit #1 (both on same IDE cable).

Ever since then, which was around RHL 7.1 or maybe 7.2, CD burning
has been working then broken, then working, then broken, etc., at
least for me.  I've tried 3 different burners, one a DVD burner, and
have experienced unreliable behaviour which I considered unacceptable.
Each time, I scan the lists and bugzilla and find various reports of
problems, and then just work around it temporarily by rebooting a box
into XP and using Nero or CDRwin.  As much as I hate Windows totally,
I don't remember the last time I burned a frisbee in the evil
proprietary OS.

It's been about 6 months since I tried in Linux, on FC4, so I'm not
sure what the current state is like.  Rather than finding out by
endlessly experimenting, I've just kept using Nero in XP, as it
doesn't seem to vary over time, even with various OS updates, etc.

All I can say is that hopefully all of the different aspects of
why cd/dvd burning in Linux is currently a bumpy ride for at least
some people, eventually get worked out, whatever the root cause(s)
happen to be.

Another option for me I suppose, would be to set up an older machine
running RHL 7.0 or whatever the last version was that worked flawless
for me, and just leave it at that OS version forever just to burn
CDs with.  ;o)


> Yours depressed and surrounded by corrupt CDs,

Sometimes it is the media, and other times it may be the burn speed
too.  Try different speeds, and different media.  I find that once
I've found solid media, if I stick to that same brand for a long time,
I end up making almost zero frisbees....  unless I try to burn in
Linux.

HTH.



-- 
Mike A. Harris  *  Open Source Advocate  *  http://mharris.ca
                       Proud Canadian.