NAME
cdrecord - record audio or data Compact Discs 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.
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 implemen-
tations may require to specify a filename in addition. In
this case the corect syntax for the device is: dev=
devicename:scsibus,target, or dev= devicename:target,lun.
If the name of the device node that has been specified on
such a system referres to exactly one SCSI device, a short-
hand in the form dev= devicename:@ or dev= devicename:@,lun
may be used instead of dev= devicename:scsibus,target,
To make cdrecord portable to all UNIX platforms, the syntax
dev= devicename:scsibus,target, 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 confi-
guration 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 the real time
class to get the highest scheduling priotity 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 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
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. Using
-debug
Print additional debug messages. This may help to find
out problems with sector sizes and sector types. Using
-debug slows down the process and may be the reason for
a buffer underrun.
-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 tim-
ing and load response of the system is not known.
-dao Set Disk At Once mode. This currently only works with
MMC drives that support non raw Session At Once mode.
-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 addi-
tional 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 ses-
sion 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 DAO/SAO mode. Not all drives allow multises-
sion 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, 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 recordable or CD rewritable 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.
-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 writ-
ing 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.
-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, cdrecord
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 other-
wise specified. If a number is followed directly by
the letter `b', `k', `m', `s' of `f', the size is mul-
tiplied by 512, 1024, 1024*1024, 2048 or 2352. If the
size consists of numbers separated by `x' or `*', mul-
tiplication 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 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 sup-
port, 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).
timeout=#
Set the default SCSI command timeout value to #. 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 dev-
ice. To get a list of possible drivers use
driver=help. The reason for the existence of this
option is to allow users to use cdrecord with drives
that are similar to supported drives but not known
directly by cdrecord. Use this option with extreme
care. If a wrong driver is used for a device, the pos-
sibility 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 simultaion
driver correctly simulates even a buffer underrun con-
dition. If the -dummy option is present, the simul-
taion 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 burnproof option is imple-
mented to support Buffer Underrun Proof writing with
drives that use the Sanyo BURN-Proof technology.
-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-Recorder on a system. The numbers
printed out as labels are computed by: bus * 100 + tar-
get
-reset
Try to reset the SCSI bus where the CD recorder is
located. This works not on all operating systems.
-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.
-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 inter-
face.
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 inter-
face.
mcn=med_cat_nr
Set the Media Catalog Number of the CD to med_cat_nr.
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 con-
sidered 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, 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 (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
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
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 nor-
mally 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 actu-
ally 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 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 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,
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 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 mul-
tiple 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 mul-
tiple 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 to read
the image of a track from a raw disk partition or on a
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 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 if
cdrecord reads the track data from stdin. This option
currently 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 super-
seded 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. 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 lenght 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.
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 as an argument to the tsize= option of
cdrecord.
See fs= option for possible arguments.
EXAMPLES
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:
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 filesys-
tem. 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
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:
cdrecord -v speed=1 dev=2,0 -audio track*.cdaudio
To check if it will be ok to use double speed for the exam-
ple 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 -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 | 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 -v255 -D2,0 -B -Owav
and then run
cdrecord -v dev=2,0 -dao -useinfo *.wav
ENVIRONMENT
CDR_DEVICE
This may either hold a device identifier that is suit-
able 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).
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 sys-
tem. Such an identifier may not contain the char-
acters ',', '/', '@' or ':'.
Each line that follows a label contains a TAB
separates 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 cdrecord 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 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
mkisofs(1), scg(7), fbk(7).
NOTES
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 mas-
ter 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 realtime
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 with medium
load on a SS20/502 and even at quad speed on a
Sparcstation-2 which was heavily loaded, but it is recom-
mended 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
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 sys-
tem, 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 con-
nected 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 ses-
sion containing the data track.
Many operating systems are not able to read more than a sin-
gle 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 ver-
sion) 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:
o It cannot see if a SCSI command could not be sent at
all.
o It cannot get the SCSI status byte. Cdrecord for that
reason cannot report failing SCSI commands in some
situations.
o It cannot get real DMA count of transfer. Cdrecord can-
not tell you if there is an DMA residual count.
o It cannot get number of bytes valid in auto sense data.
Cdrecord cannot tell you if device transfers no sense
data at all.
o 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-Recorder. For this reason,
there will never be 100% fifo fill, 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)
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 avail-
able, 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 replace-
able 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 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)
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.
Cdrecord 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.
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 os a BSDI SCSI
rtansport.
Grant R. Guenther (grant@torque.net)
For creating the first parallel port tran-
sport implementation for Linux.
Kenneth D. Merry (ken@kdm.org)
for providing the CAM port for FreeBSD
together with Michael Smith
(msmith@freebsd.org)
MAILING LISTS
If you want to actively take part on the development of
cdrecord, you may join the cdwriting mailing list by sending
mail to:
other-cdwrite-request@lists.debian.org
and include the word subscribe in the body. The mail
address of the list is:
cdwrite@lists.debian.org
AUTHOR
Joerg Schilling
Seestr. 110
D-13353 Berlin
Germany
Additional information can be found on:
http://www.fokus.gmd.de/usr/schilling/cdrecord.html
Mail bugs and suggestions to:
joerg@schily.isdn.cs.tu-berlin.de or js@cs.tu-berlin.de or
schilling@fokus.gmd.de
Man(1) output converted with
man2html
GMD Homepage
FOKUS Homepage
Schily's Homepage
