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Name

cdrecord - record audio or data Compact Disks or Digital Versatile Disks from a master

Synopsis

cdrecord [ general options ] dev=device [ track options ] track1...trackn

Description

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

The device refers to scsibus/target/lun of the CD/DVD-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/DVD-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= device_name: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.

Cdrecord is completely based on SCSI commands but this is no problem as all CD/DVD writers ever made use SCSI commands for the communication. Even ATAPI drives are just SCSI drives that inherently use the ATA packet interface as SCSI command transport layer build into the IDE (ATA) transport. You may need to specify an alternate transport layer on the command line if your OS does not implement a fully integrated kernel driver subsystem that allows to access any drive using SCSI commands via a single unique user interface.

To access SCSI devices via alternate transport layers, you need to prepend the SCSI device name by a transport layer indicator. The transport layer indicator may be something like USCSI: or ATAPI:. To get a list of supported transport layers for your platform, use dev= HELP:

To make cdrecord portable to all UNIX platforms, the syntax dev= devi_cename:scsibus,target,lun is preferred as it hides OS specific knowledge about device names from the user. A specific OS may 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 cdrecord described below.

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

On SVr4 compliant systems, cdrecord uses 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 cdrecord uses real time scheduling too, but may not be able to gain a priority that is higher than all kernel processes.

In order to be able to use the SCSI transport subsystem of the OS, run at highest priority and lock itself into core cdrecord either needs to be run as root, needs to be installed suid root or must be called via RBACs pfexec mechanism.

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. In the other write modes, the direct file to track relation may not be implemented. In -clone mode, a single file contains all data for the whole disk. To allow DVD writing on platforms that do not implement large file support, cdrecord concatenates all file arguments to a single track when writing to DVD media.

General Options

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/DVD-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. Be

careful when using this option. Cdrecord implements several checks that prevent you from doing unwanted things like damaging CD-RW media by improper drives. Many of the sanity checks are disabled when the -force option is used.

This option also implements some tricks that will allow you to blank bad CD-RW disks.

-immed Tell

cdrecord to set the SCSI IMMED flag in certain commands (load/eject/blank/close_track/close_session). This can be useful on broken systems with ATAPI harddisk and CD/DVD writer on the same bus or with SCSI systems that don’t use disconnect/reconnect. These systems will freeze while blanking or fixating a CD/DVD or while a DVD writer is filling up a session to the minimum amount (approx. 800 MB). Setting the -immed flag will request the command to return immediately while the operation proceeds in background, making the bus usable for the other devices and avoiding the system freeze. This is an experimental feature which may work or not, depending on the model of the CD/DVD writer. A correct solution would be to set up a correct cabling but there seem to be notebooks around that have been set up the wrong way by the manufacturer. As it is impossible to fix this problem in notebooks, the -immed option has been added.

A second experimental feature of the -immed flag is to tell cdrecord to try to wait short times while writing to the media. This is expected to free the IDE bus if the CD/DVD writer and the data source are connected to the same IDE cable. In this case, the CD/DVD writer would otherwise usually block the IDE bus for nearly all the time making it impossible to fetch data from the source drive. See also minbuf= and -v option.

Use both features at your own risk. If it turns out that it would make sense to have a separate option for the wait feature, write to the author and convince him.

minbuf=value
The # minbuf= option allows to define the minimum drive buffer fill ratio for the experimental ATAPI wait mode that is intended to free the IDE bus to allow hard disk and CD/DVD writer to be on the same IDE cable. As the wait mode currently only works when the verbose option -v has been specified, cdrecord implies the verbose option in case the -immed or minbuf= option have been specified. Valid values for minbuf= are between 25 and 95 for 25%...95% minimum drive buffer fill ratio.

-dummy The

CD/DVD-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 or Digital Versatile Disk, if the timing and load response of the system is not known.

-clone Tells

cdrecord to handle images created by readcd -clone. The -clone may only be used in conjunction with with the -raw96r or with the -raw16 option. Using -clone together with -raw96r is preferred as it allows to write all subchannel data. The option -raw16 should only be used with drives that do not support to write in -raw96r mode.

-dao

-sao

Set SAO (Session At Once) mode which is usually called Disk At Once mode. This currently only works with MMC drives that support Session At Once mode. Note that cdrecord needs to know the size of each track in advance for this mode (see the mkisofs -print-size option and the EXAMPLES section for more information).

-tao

Set TAO (Track At Once) writing mode. This is the default write mode in previous cdrecord versions. With most drives, this write mode is required for multi session recording.

-raw

Set RAW writing mode. Using this option defaults to -raw96r. Note that cdrecord needs to know the size of each track in advance for this mode (see the mkisofs -print-size option and the EXAMPLES section for more information).

-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. If you find any problems with the layout of a disk or with sub channel content (e.g. wrong times on the display when playing the CD) and your drive supports to write in -raw96r or -raw16 mode, you should give it a try. There are several CD writers with bad firmware that result in broken disks when writing in TAO or SAO mode. Writing data disks in raw mode needs significantly more CPU time than other write modes. If your CPU is too slow, this may result in buffer underruns. Note that cdrecord needs to know the size of each track in advance for this mode (see the mkisofs -print-size option and the EXAMPLES section for more information).

-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. Writing data disks in raw mode needs significantly more CPU time than other write modes. If your CPU is too slow, this may result in buffer underruns. Note that cdrecord needs to know the size of each track in advance for this mode (see the mkisofs -print-size option and the EXAMPLES section for more information).

-raw16 Select Set RAW writing mode with 2352 byte sectors plus 16 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+Graphics 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. Writing data disks in raw mode needs significantly more CPU time than other write modes. If your CPU is too slow, this may result in buffer underruns. Note that cdrecord needs to know the size of each track in advance for this mode (see the mkisofs -print-size option and the EXAMPLES section for more information).

-multi Allow

multi session CDs 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/DVDRecorder 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 CDs (except for CDplus). Use only for recording of multi session CDs. If this option is present, the default track type is CDROM XA mode 2 form 1 and the sector size is 2048 bytes. The XA sector subheaders will be created by the drive. The Sony drives have no hardware support for CD-ROM XA mode 2 form 1. You have to specify the -data option in order to create multi session disks on these drives. As long as cdrecord 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 SAO mode. Not all drives allow multisession CDs in 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, cdrecord will work with CD-R drives and with CD-ROM drives.

-atip

Retrieve and print out the ATIP (absolute Time in Pre-groove) info of a CD/DVD recordable or CD/DVD re-writable media. With this option, cdrecord 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 cdrecord 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. DVD media does not have ATIP information but there is equivalent prerecorded information that is read out and printed.

-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 cdrecord 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 cdrecord 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.

-lock

Load the media, lock the door 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, about 172 KB/s for CD-Audio and about 1385 kB/s for DVD media. If no speed option is present, cdrecord will try to get a drive specific speed value from the file /etc/default/cdrecord and if it cannot find one, it will try to get the speed value from the CDR_SPEED environment and later from the CDR_SPEED= entry in /etc/default/cdrecord. If no speed value could be found, cdrecord uses a drive specific default speed. The default for all new (MMC compliant) drives is to use the maximum supported by the drive. If you use speed=0 with a MMC compliant drive, cdrecord will switch to the lowest possible speed for drive and medium. If you are using an old (non MMC) drive that 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. Not all drives support all blanking types. It may be necessary to use blank=all if a drive reports a specified command as being invalid. 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 cdrecord 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.

-format

Format a CD-RW/DVD-RW/DVD+RW disc. Formatting is currently only implemented for DVD+RW media. A ‘maiden’ DVD+RW media needs to be formatted before you may write to it. However, as cdrecord autodetects the need for formatting in this case and auto formats the medium before it starts writing, the -format option is only needed if you like to forcibly reformat a DVD+RW medium.

fs=# Set the FIFO (ring buffer) size to #. You may use the same syntax 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’ or ‘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, cdrecord 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 cdrecord. If the FIFO is active and a pipe from mkisofs into cdrecord is used to create a CD, cdrecord 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 128 MBytes. As a rule of thumb, the FIFO size should be at least equal to the size of the internal buffer of the CD/DVD-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 at a speed less than 20x from an image on a local file system on an idle machine, your machine is either underpowered, has hardware problems or is mis-configured. If you like to write DVDs or to write CDs at higher speed, it makes sense to use at least 16 MB for the FIFO.

On old and small machines, you need to be more careful with the FIFO size. If your machine has less than 256 MB of physical RAM, you should not set up a FIFO size that is more than 32 MB. 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.

Old Linux systems for non x86 platforms have broken definitions for the shared memory size. You need to fix them and rebuild the kernel or manually tell cdrecord to use a smaller FIFO.

If you have buffer underruns or similar problems (like a constantly empty drive buffer) and observe a zero fifo empty count, you have hardware problems that prevents the data from flowing fast enough from the kernel memory to the drive. The FIFO size in this case is sufficient, but you should check for a working DMA setup.

ts=# Set the maximum transfer size for a single SCSI command to #. The syntax for the ts= option is the same as for cdrecord fs=# or sdd bs=#.

If no ts= option has been specified, cdrecord defaults to a transfer size of 63 kB. If libscg gets lower values from the operating system, the value is reduced to the maximum value that is possible with the current operating system. Sometimes, it may help to further reduce the transfer size or to enhance it, but note that it may take a long time to find a better value by experimenting with the ts= option.

dev=target
Sets the SCSI target for the CD/DVD-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, cdrecord 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/default/cdrecord (see FILES section).

gracetime=#
Set the grace time before starting to write to # seconds. Values below 2 seconds are not allowed.

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 the user to manually select a driver for the device. The reason for the existence of the driver=name option is to allow users to use cdrecord with drives that are similar to supported drives but not known directly by cdrecord. All drives made after 1997 should be MMC standard compliant and thus supported by one of the MMC drivers. It is most unlikely that cdrecord is unable to find the right driver automatically. 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.

The following driver names are supported:

help To get a list of possible drivers together with a short description.

mmc_cd The generic SCSI-3/mmc CD-ROM driver is auto-selected whenever cdrecord finds a MMC compliant drive that does not identify itself to support writing at all, or that only identifies to support media or write modes not implemented in cdrecord.

mmc_cd_dvd
The generic SCSI-3/mmc CD/DVD driver is auto-selected whenever cdrecord finds a MMC-2 or MMC-3 compliant drive that seems to support more than one medium type and the tray is open or no medium could be found to select the right driver. This driver tries to close the tray, checks the medium found in the tray and then branches to the driver that matches the current medium.

mmc_cdr
The generic SCSI-3/mmc CD-R/CD-RW driver is auto-selected whenever cdrecord find a MMC compliant drive that only supports to write CDs or a multi system drive that contains a CD as the current medium.

mmc_cdr_sony
The generic SCSI-3/mmc CD-R/CD-RW driver is auto-selected whenever cdrecord would otherwise select the mmc_cdr driver but the device seems to be made by Sony. The mmc_cdr_sony is definitely needed for the Sony CDU 928 as this drive does not completely implement the MMC standard and some of the MMC SCSI commands have to be replaced by Sony proprietary commands. It seems that all Sony drives (even newer ones) still implement the Sony proprietary SCSI commands so it has not yet become a problem to use this driver for all Sony drives. If you find a newer Sony drive that does not work with this driver, please report.

mmc_dvd
The generic SCSI-3/mmc-2 DVD-R/DVD-RW driver is autoselected whenever cdrecord finds a MMC-2 or MMC-3 compliant drive that supports to write DVDs and an appropriate medium is loaded. There is no Track At Once mode for DVD writers.

mmc_dvdplus
The generic SCSI-3/mmc-3 DVD+R/DVD+RW driver is autoselected whenever one of the DVD+ media types that are incompatible to each other is found. It checks media and then branches to the driver that matches the current medium.

mmc_dvdplusr
The generic SCSI-3/mmc-3 DVD+R driver is auto-selected whenever a DVD+R medium is found in an appropriate writer. Note that for unknown reason, the DVD-Plus alliance does not like that there is a simulation mode for DVD+R media. The author of cdrecord tries to convince manufacturers to implement a simulation mode for DVD+R and implement support. DVD+R only supports one write mode that is somewhere between Track At Once and Packet writing; this mode is selected in cdrecord via a the -dao/-sao option.

mmc_dvdplusrw
The generic SCSI-3/mmc-3 DVD+RW driver is auto-selected whenever a DVD+RW medium is found in an appropriate writer. As DVD+RW media needs to be formatted before it’s first use, cdrecord auto-detects this media state and performs a format before it starts to write. Note that for unknown reason, the DVD-Plus alliance does not like that there is a simulation mode nor a way to erase DVD+RW media. DVD+RW only supports one write mode that is close to Packet writing; this mode is selected in cdrecord via a the -dao/-sao option.

cw_7501
The driver for Matsushita/Panasonic CW-7501 is autoselected when cdrecord finds this old pre MMC drive. Cdrecord supports all write modes for this drive type.

kodak_pcd_600
The driver for Kodak PCD-600 is auto-selected when cdrecord finds this old pre MMC drive which has been the first high speed (6x) CD writer for a long time. This drive behaves similar to the Philips CDD-521 drive.

philips_cdd521
The driver for Philips CDD-521 is auto-selected when cdrecord finds a Philips CDD-521 drive (which is the first CD writer ever made) or one of the other drives that are known to behave similar to this drive. All Philips CDD-521 or similar drives (see other drivers in this list) do not support Session At Once recording.

philips_cdd521_old
The driver for Philips old CDD-521 is auto-selected when cdrecord finds a Philips CDD-521 with very old firmware which has some known limitations.

philips_cdd522
The driver for Philips CDD-522 is auto-selected when cdrecord finds a Philips CDD-522 which is the successor of the 521 or one of it’s variants with Kodak label. Cdrecord does not support Session At Once recording with these drives.

philips_dumb
The driver for Philips CDD-521 with pessimistic assumptions is never auto-selected. It may be used by hand with drives that behave similar to the Philips CDD-521.

pioneer_dws114x
The driver for Pioneer DW-S114X is auto-selected when cdrecord finds one of the old non MMC CD writers from Pioneer.

plasmon_rf4100
The driver for Plasmon RF 4100 is auto-selected when cdrecord finds this specific variant of the Philips CDD-521.

ricoh_ro1060c
The driver for Ricoh RO-1060C is auto-selected when cdrecord finds this drive. There is no real support for this drive yet.

ricoh_ro1420c
The driver for Ricoh RO-1420C is auto-selected when cdrecord finds a drive with this specific variant of the Philips CDD-521 command set.

scsi2_cd
The generic SCSI-2 CD-ROM driver is auto-selected whenever cdrecord finds a pre MMC drive that does not support writing or a pre MMC writer that is not supported by cdrecord.

sony_cdu924
The driver for Sony CDU-924 / CDU-948 is auto-selected whenever cdrecord finds one of the old pre MMC CD writers from Sony.

teac_cdr50
The driver for Teac CD-R50S, Teac CD-R55S, JVC XR-W2010, Pinnacle RCD-5020 is auto-selected whenever one of the drives is found that is known to the non MMC command set used by TEAC and JVC. Note that many drives from JVC will not work because they do not correctly implement the documented command set and JVC has been unwilling to fix or document the bugs. There is no support for the Session At Once write mode yet.

tyuden_ew50
The driver for Taiyo Yuden EW-50 is auto-selected when cdrecord finds a drive with this specific variant of the Philips CDD-521 command set.

yamaha_cdr100
The driver for Yamaha CDR-100 / CDR-102 is auto-selected when cdrecord finds one of the old pre MMC CD writers from Yamaha. There is no support for the Session At Once write mode yet.

cdr_simul
The simulation CD-R driver allows to run timing and speed tests with parameters that match the behavior of CD writers.

dvd_simul
The simulation DVD-R driver allows to run timing and speed tests with parameters that match the behavior of DVD writers.

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 1 MB 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. If you like to set driver options without running a typical cdrecord task, you need to use the -setdropts option in addition, otherwise the command line parser in cdrecord will complain. Currently implemented driver options are:

burnfree
Turn the support for Buffer Underrun Free writing on. This only works for drives that support Buffer Underrun Free technology. This may be called: Sanyo BURN-Proof, Ricoh Just-Link, Yamaha Lossless-Link or similar.

The default is to turn BURN-Free off, regardless of the defaults of the drive.

noburnfree
Turn the support for Buffer Underrun Free writing off.

varirec=value
Turn on the Plextor VariRec writing mode. The mandatory parameter value is the laser power offset and currently may be selected from -2, -1, 0, 1, 2. In addition, you need to set the write speed to 4 in order to allow VariRec to work.

audiomaster
Turn on the Yamaha Audio Master Q. R. feature which usually should result in high quality CDs that have less reading problems in Hi-Fi players. As this is implemented as a variant of the Session at Once write mode, it will only work if you select SAO write mode and there is no need to turn it off. The Audio Master mode will work with a limited speed but may also be used with data CDs. In Audio Master mode, the pits on the CD will be written larger then usual so the capacity of the medium is reduced when turning this feature on. A 74 minute CD will only have a capacity of 63 minutes if Audio Master is active and the capacity of a 80 minute CD will be reduced to 68 minutes.

forcespeed
Normally, modern drives know the highest possible speed for different media and may reduce the speed in order to grant best write quality. This technology may be called: Plextor PowerRec, Ricoh Just-Speed, Yamaha Optimum Write Speed Control or similar. Some drives (e.g. Plextor, Ricoh and Yamaha) allow to force the drive to use the selected speed even if the medium is so bad that the write quality would be poor. This option tells such a drive to force to use the selected speed regardless of the medium quality.

Use this option with extreme care and note that the drive should know better which medium will work at full speed. The default is to turn forcespeed off, regardless of the defaults of the drive.

noforcespeed
Turn off the force speed feature.

speedread
Some ultra high speed drives such as 48x and faster drives from Plextor limit the read speed for unknown media to e.g. 40x in order to avoid damaged disks and drives. Using this option tells the drive to read any media as fast as possible. Be very careful as this may cause the media to break in the drive while reading, resulting in a damaged media and drive!

nospeedread
Turn off unlimited read speed.

singlesession
Turn the drive into a single session only drive. This allows to read defective or non-compliant (illegal) media with extremely non-standard additional (broken/illegal) TOC entries in the TOC from the second or higher session. Some of these disks become usable if only the information from the first session is used. You need to enable Single Session mode before you insert the defective disk!

nosinglesession
Turn off single session mode. The drive will again behave as usual.

hidecdr
Hide the fact that a medium might be a recordable medium. This allows to make CD-Rs look like CD-ROMs and applications believe that the media in the drive is not a CD-R.

nohidecdr
Turn off hiding CD-R media.

tattooinfo
Use this option together with -checkdrive to retrieve the image size information for the Yamaha DiskT@2 feature. The images always have a line length of 3744 pixel. Line number 0 (radius 0) is mapped to the center of the disk. If you know the inner and outer radius you will be able to create a pre distorted image that later may appear undistorted on the disk.

tattoofile=name
Use this option together with -checkdrive to write an image prepared for the Yamaha DiskT@2 feature to the medium. The file must be a file with raw image B&W data (one byte per pixel) in a size as retrieved by a previous call to tattoofile=name . If the size of the image equals the maximum possible size (3744 x 320 pixel), cdrecord will use the first part of the file. This first part then will be written to the leftover space on the CD.

Note that the image must be mirrored to be readable from the pick up side of the CD.

-setdropts

Set the driveropts specified by driveropts=option list, the speed of the drive and the dummy flag and exit. This allows cdrecord to set drive specific parameters that are not directly used by cdrecord like e.g. single session mode, hide cdr and similar. It is needed in case that driveropts=option list should be called without planning to run a typical cdrecord task.

-checkdrive

Checks if a driver for the current drive is present and exit. If the drive is a known drive, cdrecord 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/DVD-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.

-abort Try to send an abort sequence to the drive.

If you use cdrecord only, this should never be needed; but other software may leave a drive in an unusable condition. Calling cdrecord -reset may be needed if a previous write has been interrupted and the software did not tell the drive that it will not continue to write.

-overburn

Allow cdrecord 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 SAO or RAW mode. Known exceptions are TEAC CDR50S, TEAC CD-R55S and the Panasonic CW-7502. Some drives do not allow to overburn as much as you might like and limit the size of a CD to e.g. 76 minutes. This problem may be circumvented by writing the CD in RAW mode because this way the drive has no chance to find the size before starting to burn. 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 option 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.

If used together with the -audio option, cdrecord may be used to write audio CDs from a pipe from cdda2wav if you call cdrecord with the *.inf files as track parameter list instead of using audio files. The audio data is read from stdin in this case. See EXAMPLES section below. Cdrecord first verifies that stdin is not connected to a terminal and runs some heuristic consistency checks on the *.inf files and then sets the track lengths from the information in the *.inf files.

If you like to write from stdin, make sure that cdrecord is called with a large enough FIFO size, reduce the write speed to a value below the read speed of the source drive and switch the burn-free option for the recording drive on.

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 packet 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 information based on information taken from a file that contains ascii information for the text strings. Cdrecord supports CD-Text information based on the content of the *.inf files created by cdda2wav and CD-Text information based on the content from a CUE sheet file. If a CUE sheet file contains both (binary CDTEXTFILE and text based SONGWRITER) entries, then the information based on the CDTEXTFILE entry will win.

You need to use the -useinfo option in addition in order to tell cdrecord to read the *.inf files or cuefile=filename in order to tell cdrecord to read a CUE sheet file in addition. If you like to write your own CD-Text information, edit the *.inf files or the CUE sheet file with a text editor and change the fields 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. If both, textfile=filename and CD-Text information from *.inf or *.cue files are present, textfile=filename will overwrite the other information.

cuefile=filename
Take all recording related information from a CDRWIN compliant CUE sheet file. No track files are allowed when this option is present and the option -dao is currently needed in addition.

Track Options

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 nonaudio header information. In all other cases, cdrecord 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. cdrecord recognizes that audio data in a .WAV file is stored in Intel (littleendian) 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 cdrecord 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, cdrecord 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 byteswapped (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 cdrecord 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 size is a multiple of 2048 bytes. The file with track data should contain an ISO-9660 or Rock Ridge 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 CD-drives with 2 KB sector size to be used for reading.

-data

is the default, if no other flag is present and the file does not appear to be of one of the well known audio file types.

If neither -data nor -audio have been specified, cdrecord 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 size is a multiple of 2336 bytes.

-xa

If this flag is present, all subsequent tracks are written in CD-ROM XA mode 2 form 1 format. The data size is a multiple of 2048 bytes. The XA sector sub headers will be created by the drive. With this option, the write mode is the same as with the -multi option.

-xa1

If this flag is present, all subsequent tracks are written in CD-ROM XA mode 2 form 1 format. The data size is a multiple of 2056 bytes. The XA sector sub headers are part of the user data and have to be supplied by the application that prepares the data to be written.

-xa2

If this flag is present, all subsequent tracks are written in CD-ROM XA mode 2 form 2 format. The data is a multiple of 2324 bytes. The XA sector sub headers will be created by the drive.

-xamix If this flag is present, all subsequent tracks are written in

a way that allows a mix of CD-ROM XA mode 2 form 1/2 format. The data size is a multiple of 2332 bytes. The XA sector sub headers are part of the user data and have to be supplied by the application that prepares the data to be written. The CRC and the P/Q parity ECC/EDC information (depending on the sector type) have to be supplied by the application that prepares the data to be written.

-cdi

If this flag is present, the TOC type for the disk is set to CDI. This only makes sense with XA disks.

-isosize

Use the ISO-9660 file system size as the size of the next track. This option is needed if you want cdrecord 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 cdrecord from reading the two run out blocks that are appended by each CDrecorder in track at once mode. These two run out blocks cannot be read and would cause a buffer underrun that would cause a defective copy. Do not use this option on files created by mkisofs and in case cdrecord reads the track data from stdin. In the first case, you would prevent cdrecord 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, cdrecord 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, cdrecord 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. Cdrecord assumes a sector size of 2048 bytes for the padsize= option, independent from the real sector size and independent from the write mode. The megabytes mentioned in the verbose mode output however are counting the output sector size which is e.g. 2448 bytes when writing in RAW/RAW96 mode. See fs= option for possible arguments. To pad the equivalent of 20 minutes on a CD, you may write padsize=20x60x75s. 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. This may e.g. be used to find out how much overburning is possible with a specific media.

-nopad Do not pad the following tracks - the default.

-shorttrack

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

-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 microsec pre-emphasis. 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, cdrecord 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 (with ‘s’ appended) as an argument to the tsize= option of cdrecord (e.g. tsize=250000s). See fs= option for possible arguments.

Examples

For all examples below, it will be assumed that the CD/DVD-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 cdim_age.raw:

cdrecord -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, cdrecord will run without creating an image of the ISO 9660 filesystem. Simply run the pipeline:

mkisofs -R /master/tree | cdrecord -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 real-time 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:

cdrecord -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:

cdrecord -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:

cdrecord -v 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 | cdrecord 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 dev=2,0 -vall cddb=0 -B -Owav

and then run

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

This will try to copy track indices and to read CD-Text information from disk. If there is no CD-Text information, cdda2wav will try to get the information from freedb.org instead.

To copy an audio CD from a pipe (without intermediate files), first run

cdda2wav dev=1,0 -vall cddb=0 -info-only

and then run

cdda2wav dev=1,0 -no-infofile -B -Oraw - | \ cdrecord dev=2,0 -v -dao -audio -useinfo -text *.inf

This will get all information (including track size info) from the *.inf files and then read the audio data from stdin.

If you like to write from stdin, make sure that cdrecord is called with a large enough FIFO size (e.g. fs=128m), reduce the write speed to a value below the read speed of the source drive (e.g. speed=12), and switch the burn-free option for the recording drive on by adding driveropts=burnfree.

To set drive options without writing a CD (e.g. to switch a drive to single session mode), run

cdrecord dev=1,0 -setdropts driveropts=singlesession

If you like to do this when no CD is in the drive, call

cdrecord dev=1,0 -force -setdropts driveropts=singlesession

To copy a CD in clone mode, first read the master CD using:

readcd dev=b,t,l -clone f=somefile

or (in case the CD contains many sectors that are unreadable by intention) by calling:

readcd dev=1,0 -clone -nocorr f=somefile

will create the files somefile and somefile.toc. Then write the CD using:

cdrecord dev=1,0 -raw96r -clone -v somefile

Environment

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/default/cdrecord.

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).

CDR_FORCERAWSPEED

If this environment variable is set, cdrecord will allow you to write at the full RAW encoding speed a single CPU supports. This will create high potential of buffer underruns. Use with care.

CDR_FORCESPEED

If this environment variable is set, cdrecord will allow you to write at the full DMA speed the system supports. There is no DMA reserve for reading the data that is to be written from disk. This will create high potential of buffer underruns. Use with care.

RSH

If the RSH environment is present, the remote connection will not be created via rcmd(3) but by calling the program pointed to by RSH. Use e.g. RSH=/usr/bin/ssh to create a secure shell connection.

Note that this forces cdrecord to create a pipe to the rsh(1) program and disallows cdrecord to directly access the network socket to the remote server. This makes it impossible to set up performance parameters and slows down the connection compared to a root initiated rcmd(3) connection.

RSCSI If the RSCSI environment is present, the remote SCSI server will not be the program /opt/schily/sbin/rscsi but the program pointed to by RSCSI. Note that the remote SCSI server program name will be ignored if you log in using an account that has been created with a remote SCSI server program as login shell.

Files

/etc/default/cdrecord
Default values can be set for the following options in /etc/default/cdrecord. 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/default/cdrecord 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, four items are recognized: the SCSI ID of the drive, the default speed that should be used for this drive, the default FIFO size that should be used for this drive and drive specific options. The values for speed and fifosize may be set to -1 to tell cdrecord to use the global defaults. The value for driveropts may be set to “” if no driveropts are used. A typical line may look this way:

teac1= 0,5,0 4 8m “"

yamaha= 1,6,0 -1 -1 burnfree

This tells cdrecord 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.

See Also

cdda2wav(1) , readcd(1) , scg(7) , fbk(7) , mkisofs(8) , rcmd(3) , ssh(1) .

Notes

Not all options described in this manual may be supported by the GPL variant of cdrecord. Cdrecord issues a warning if an attempt is made to use an option that has been disabled in the GPL variant.

On Solaris you need to stop the volume management if you like to use the USCSI fallback SCSI transport code. Even things like cdrecord -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.

Cdrecord 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 cdrecord on an unknown system. Writing a CD is a real-time process. NFS will not always deliver constantly the needed data rates. If you want to use cdrecord with CD-images that are located on a NFS mounted filesystem, be sure that the FIFO size is big enough. I used cdrecord 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 underruns are not caused by your source disk, you may use the command

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

to create a disk that is entirely made of dummy data. Cdrecord 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, cdrecord may safely be installed suid root. This allows all users or a group of users with no root privileges to use cdrecord. Cdrecord in this case checks, if the real user would have been able to read the specified files. To give all user access to use cdrecord, enter:

chown root /usr/local/bin/cdrecord
chmod 4711 /usr/local/bin/cdrecord

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

chown root /usr/local/bin/cdrecord
chgrp cdburners /usr/local/bin/cdrecord chmod 4710 /usr/local/bin/cdrecord

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/DVD-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.

When using cdrecord with the broken Linux SCSI generic driver. You should note that cdrecord uses a hack, that tries to emulate the functionality of the scg driver. Unfortunately, the sg driver on Linux has several severe bugs:

· It cannot see if a SCSI command could not be sent at all.

· It cannot get the SCSI status byte. Cdrecord for that reason

cannot report failing SCSI commands in some situations.

· It cannot get real DMA count of transfer. Cdrecord cannot tell

you if there is an DMA residual count.

· It cannot get number of bytes valid in auto sense data.

Cdrecord cannot tell you if device transfers no sense data at all.

· It fetches to few data in auto request sense (CCS/SCSI-2/SCSI-3

needs >= 18).

The FIFO percent output is computed just after a block of data has been written to the CD/DVD-Recorder. For this reason, there will never be 100% FIFO fill ratio while the FIFO is in streaming mode.

Diagnostics

You have 9 seconds to type ^C to abort cdrecord 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:

cdrecord: 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 first line gives information about the transport of the command. The text after the first colon gives the error text for the system call from the view of the kernel. It usually is: I/O error unless other problems happen. The next words contain a short description for the SCSI command that fails. The rest of the line tells you if there were any problems for the transport of the command over the SCSI bus. fatal error means that it was not possible to transport the command (i.e. no device present at the requested SCSI address).

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 really needed to complete.

The following message is not an error:

Track 01: Total bytes read/written: 2048/2048 (1 sectors). cdrecord: 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

It simply notifies, that a track that is smaller than the minimum size has been expanded to 300 sectors.

Bugs

Cdrecord has even more options than ls.

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

Credits

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 cdrecord.

Chris P. Ross (cross@eng.us.uu.net)
For the first implementation of a BSDI SCSI transport.

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)

Heiko Eiszfeldt (heiko@hexco.de)
for making libedc_ecc available (needed to write RAW data sectors).

Mailing Lists

If you want to actively take part on the development of cdrecord, you may join the developer mailing list via this URL:

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

The mail address of the list is: cdwrite@other.debian.org

Author

Joerg Schilling
Seestr. 110
D-13353 Berlin
Germany

Additional information can be found on: http://www.fokus.fhg.de/usr/schilling/cdrecord.html

If you have support questions, send them to:

cdrecord-support@berlios.de
or cdwrite@other.debian.org

If you have definitely found a bug, send a mail to:

cdrecord-developers@berlios.de
or schilling@fokus.fhg.de

To subscribe, use:

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

The old cdwrite mailing list may be joined by sending mail to:

cdwrite-request@other.debian.org

and including the word subscribe in the body. The mail address of the list is:

cdwrite@other.debian.org

Attributes

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

box; cbp-1 | cbp-1 l | l . ATTRIBUTE TYPE ATTRIBUTE VALUE = Availability SUNWmkcd = Interface Stability Unstable

Notes

This utility is part of cdrtools. The source for cdrtools is available in the SUNWmkcdS package.

Table of Contents

• Name
• Synopsis
• Description
• General Options
• Track Options
• Examples
• Environment
• Files
• See Also
• Notes
• Diagnostics
• Bugs
• Credits
• Mailing Lists
• Author
• Attributes
• Notes