My Linux distro is Damn Small Linux, and I'm using an external CD burner. I like the DSL speed and lightweight feel, but it's default CD burning program CDW absolutely refuses to work properly. So many operations (like blanking a CD or writing to CD) are prone to hanging for no apparent reason. I HATE CDW!

PLEASE don't tell me to type in the cdrecord command manually in the bash shell. I'd have to type in all of the little options and the long directory/file names manually every time I need to do something, and having just ONE little thing not quite right will throw the whole thing off and force me to start over. I don't want to go through all this mumbo jumbo only to get it wrong anyway.

K3B didn't work at all. Gcombust never worked. I thought BashBurn was going to work, but there were various other programs it demanded that I didn't have, and cdrdao refused to install properly. Gtoast doesn't work. X-CD-Roast worked for me back when I was using Fedora, but I can't get it to install properly.

Why is everyone else able to burn CDs but I can't? What exactly do I need to be able to burn CDs? Why aren't there any cookie-cutter scripts out there I can follow? Why must burning CDs be so difficult?

If you have tried all of those CD burning programs and none of them have worked I doubt that trying another will get you any better results. I would suggest trying to troubleshoot some of the problems that you are having with X-CD-Roast since it seemed to work for you on fedora. What about it is failing on the install? What have you tried so far to get it to work?

First do not bother with versions of a distro that are no longer supported. Support for FC1 was dropped quite a while ago, Fedora is on version 8. Running a current version will VASTLY increase your chances that your devices will be supported.

The other issue is USB devices (dvd drives, nics, serial adapters) are just bad. All OSs have issues with them.

Windows has the advantage that the manufacturers write the windows drivers for microsoft. Most of these same manufactures do not make linux drivers and refuse to provide a detailed spec sheet (the type needed to write drivers) for their product (to the general public, linux developers).

If you try both k3b and gnomebaker on any given system and they both fail, you can pretty much stop right there. If neither of them work then it is unlikely that anything else will.

Shameless plug:
Try multiburn
http://www.ilikejam.org/blog/unix/scripts.html

Although, if you can't get cdrdao installed, then it sounds like you've got some deeper problems.

Dave

Hmm, CD writing can be a hassle sometimes. I'm surprised k3b and xcdroast are giving you such a rough time. I would keep on trying with those. As for a quick solution, though... I know you didn't want the recommendation of cdrecord, but if you combine it with a file manager like emelfm you can have a user command set, like:

Burn ISO image=x growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=%f;mpg123 ~/.ready.mp3;sleep 10s
Begin Data DVD=x growisofs -Z /dev/dvd -R -J %f;mpg123 ~/.ready.mp3;sleep 10s
Continue Data DVD=x growisofs -M /dev/dvd -R -J %f;mpg123 ~/.ready.mp3;sleep 10s
Finalize Data DVD=x growisofs -M /dev/dvd=/dev/zero;mpg123 ~/.ready.mp3;sleep 10s

That's from my user_commands file. You can apply this to your cdrecord commands, and you can even set it up within the emelfm GUI. The %f stands for whatever files and directories you have selected, and the beginning of each line is the option you would click on to execute. I would use the first option to burn ISOs, such as the Slackware 12 ISO, the 2nd one to burn all of my avi files, the 3rd and 4th if I wanted to complete a multi session.

I know growisofs is in the example, but just apply the most appropriate cdrecord command with the proper dev name, etc, and you'll be set. Had it not been for xcdroast and k3b, I'd still be using emelfm in this way. The possibilities are endless. It's your world. Even have emelfm run these commands in a terminal running screen, if you'd like.

Peace.

Have you tried gnome-baker?

Have you tried Graveman?

The only issue I have ever had with k3b was when permissions or groups were not set correctly. The lazy way is to just run it as root. In my experience, once it runs, it performs very well.

I have not tried it outside of a complete KDE environment.

Hey, all of you, try Nero. It has better solution of CD/DVD burning for every Linux distro.
http://www.nero.com/enu/linux3.html
http://www.nero.com/enu/downloads-linux2-update.php

ravibure

Been there, done that, and a lot of us have. Most have left it in the dust (where IMHO it belongs).