What is a good distro that supports cd-burning right off the bat? By that I mean, sees both my cd-rom and cd-r-w and has tools that will let me burn without months of agonizing configuration efforts? I'm considering Vector Linux, College Linux or EvilEntity. EE gives me doubts because their website is a mess and I hate the Gothic theme.

I want something stable, with easy package management, that I can install on several partitions like /usr and /home... For some reason Knoppix won't work if I try to install it over more than one / partition. It sees my cdrom and cd-r-w drives, but none of the cd-burning apps work. They all fail to see any data on those drives. cdrecord has the same problem.

I've been RTFM-ing books, manuals, how-to's, man pages, for so long now, I give up. I just want something that will let me get some work done! Any and all suggestions welcome.

Most of the major distros will let you use your hardware right off the bat.

As far as CD buring software, I got XCDRoast to work the first time. Other people here... ahem... kewpie... don't think very highly of it though....

Some comments:

"Xcdroast is uetter junk imho", 03-25-2003
"it's an utter design nightmare", 03-07-2003
"bizarre and obtuse", 02-08-2003
"xcdroast is horrendous", 01-28-2003 AND 12-04-2002
"disgustingly poor", 10-21-2002

and last but not least...

"a very very horrible and nasty application" 01-14-2003

I got X-CDRoast to work once a long time ago, probably with one of the Mandrake versions I tried. I have it configured now, too. It detects my hardware just fine, it just keeps telling me I have nothing loaded in my drives. Ditto for all the other burning software Knoppix came with.
Since these are all GUI front-ends for cdrecord, maybe that is what's broken. I've really tried to "learn" Linux, using distros like Slackware and Debian, but I just don't get the hang of it, I guess. Am ready to break down, admit I flunked Linux, and go for a distro that does everything for the user. Been at this for two years now, since Mandrake 8.0. Feel like I've learned nothing.

I use k3b which is in mandrake 9.1 by default but I got the sources and made a slackware package from them and installed it from that and it works great. Best cdburning software I have seen check it out www.k3b.org

The sad part is you actually gave the time to find all the comments from acid regarding Xcdroast.. hmm.. oh well.

I'm actually looking for a DISTRO, not software. I already have software with Knoppix, and NONE of it works because something is broken or misconfigured in the system. The burning progs ALL detect my hardware automatically, they just don't see any data on the drives when I insert a cd. My fstab is fine as far as I know:

# /etc/fstab: filesystem table.
#
# filesystem mountpoint type options dump pass
/dev/hda2 / reiserfs defaults 0 1
/dev/hda1 none swap sw 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /floppy vfat defaults,users,noauto,showexec,umask=022 0 0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 defaults,ro,users,noexec,noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrw /cdrw iso9660 defaults,ro,users,noexec,noauto 0 0
# partitions found by Knoppix
#/dev/hda2 /mnt/hda2 reiserfs noauto,users,exec 0 0
#/dev/hdb1 /mnt/hdb1 reiserfs noauto,users,exec 0 0

I've been messing with Linux for 2 years now, since Mandrake 8.0. (& 8.1, 8.2, Slack 8.1, Debian Woody, Redhat 7.3, and various others.) Each one defeated me on some level or another, with something I couldn't resolve after lots and lots of RTFM-ing, googling, asking... I haven't been able to burn anything in over 8 months.

I really do want to learn Linux, but I'm at a point where for now, I just want to burn some bloody CDs! I want a good multi-media/desktop system with easier package management than Slackware. Any suggestions?

Ive been using Mandrake for around 5 years, and with the newer versions, cd burning is SO easy! It comes with around 5 burning programs, k3b being the best so far. I am currently using 9.1 RC2. Oh, and you can even "overclock" your cd burner through most of the burning programs...pretty damn cool. I got my 40x TDK to run at 45x flawlessly.

what does "cdrecord --scanbus" say? mine says something like this

Linux sg driver version: 3.1.24
Using libscg version 'schily-0.7'
scsibus0:
0,0,0 0) 'TOSHIBA ' 'DVD-ROM SD-R2102' '1A15' Removable CD-ROM
0,1,0 1) *
0,2,0 2) *
0,3,0 3) *
0,4,0 4) *
0,5,0 5) *
0,6,0 6) *
0,7,0 7) *

and in every distro I believe some sort of cd recording software occurs I said that in mandrake 9.1 k3b is included which I thought was the best recording software out there, but everyone has their favorites. Have you recompiled your own kernel? if so did you forget SCSI emulation?

Cdrecord 1.11a34 (i686-pc-linux-gnu)
Linux sg driver version: 3.1.24
Using libscg version 'schily-0.6'
scsibus0:
cdrecord: Warning: controller returns wrong size for CD capabilities page.
0,0,0 00 'E-IDE ' 'CD-ROM 56X L ' '23 ' Removable CD-ROM
0,1,0 1) 'CREATIVE' 'CD-RW RW8439E ' '1R09' Removable CD-ROM
0,2,0 2)*
0,3,0 3)*
etc...

I don't even know how to compile a kernal. Heck, I couldn't even figure out how to copy the above from the terminal... I typed it out in an editor. I really don't know how to do anything...

SuSE ;-)

Works out of the bat for all of my hardware since 8.0. Wachout for 8.2 -> it is comming up.

Now I use SuSE Linux 8.1, k3b is the default cd-burning software and run without complicated setup. I have cdbakeoven just in case k3b doesn't work (happened once when I upgrade the package).

I have Yamaha F1 CDRW and k3b-0.8.1 alows me burn at 44x top.


Have a lot of fun :-)

My vote goes to Mandy 9.1 then, a nice all round distro for sure, but if k3b comes with it then that's reason enough.

Once all Linux apps start looking like k3b everyone will start switching to linux desktops.

So this means that if you downloaded an ISO image from say www.linuxiso.org, than you can use cdrecord on the command line like this:

cdrecord -v -speed=4 -dev=0,1,0 filepathname.iso

That will create a bootable installation disk. On the other hand, you have to go a couple steps further if you want to actually burn data or music cd's. I am using Mandrake 9.1 and I like Gnome Toaster. I noticed K3b there, but I have never tried it yet.

To burn a data cd with Gnome Toaster, put the band new cdr or cdrw into the burner drive, open Gnome Toaster. And you will see three icons on the left. The top icon is a folder, the middle is a large 'T' and the other is an icon of a disc. First step is to select the disc icon and press 'clear disk'. This operation formats the file system on the cd so it can be used on LInux. Than in the left pane you will see a tree list of your filesystem. Navigate the tree and find the data file(s) that you want to burn, which will appear in the right pane. Now choose the folder icon because you will still have the disk icon pressed. This changes the bottom half of the screen. Drag and drop files from the right pane, into the bottom right pane, and you will see your disk filling up. When your disk is full with all the data files you want to burn than choose the disk icon once again, and this time press record.

As far as burning music goes, I believe it works very simularly, but I have not tested that just yet. What I mentioned here is for burning data files. I don't have any time at the moment to test music cd's, but I have done it in the past. I used yet a different method however, because I used a command line utility called mpg123. It turns a wav file into an mp3 like this:

mpg123 -w file.wav file.mp3

Than from there I forget what the hell I did. I think I used some other utility to burn the set of mp3's to cd as a cda file. It was too long ago. I'm sure other people have better methods for burning music, but the above methods work fine for burning ISO images and data cd's.

I'm copying the directions for cdrecord and Gnome Toaster. Y'all write great instructions! I burn mostly music, since I trade live Dave Matthews Band shows. I never burn .wav files faster than 4x, so slow burner is fine with me.

I decided on Mandrake 9.1, and hope they got the bugs worked out since the 8.* versions. I saw an ad at Distrowatch for a company called www.spidertools.com . They made an instructional CD for Mandrake that shows how to configure and use the progs that come with it. Also a CD tutorial for 500 Linux commands. Comes bundled with 9.1. So I ordered it.
Off Topic: My husband will be so annoyed. Every time I install a new Linux, he works to beat all the high scores in Maelstrom. Fills the high scores with his name, and I go and wipe it out. It's become a joke around here...

Those instructions are only good for using cdrecord on the command line to burn Linux cd's (iso's) and than using Gnome Toaster to burn data cd's (photos, tar files, ebooks, other documents, etc).


You can use cdrecord to take a wav and make it into a cda track. I can't quite remember how to turn a .mp3 into a .wav. I can figure this out, but at the moment I have too much homework.

Now I remember what I was doing. I was ripping cd's into wav files, than turning them into mp3s.

Example cd rip:
put a cd disk into your burner drive and type:

cdda2wav --device 0,0,0

It will take the first track and put it on your computer as a .wav file. Just a test. It works fine for me.