I've read several threads about bin/cue files whilst trying to find out how to mount bin/cue files in linux - like daemon tools does in Windows. I found out how...
But first - why do so many people think bin files are so many different things!?? I've seen numerous times people just saying "use 'mount -t iso9660 some.bin /some/dir'" - this is crap! (in most circumstances...)
So i'd like to set the record straight:
bin/cue files are paired.
- The bin file is a raw image of a cd. A cd is composed of sectors (approx. 333,000 on a 74min cd) of 2352 bytes each. Different types of cd use different amounts of space in the sectors for actual data. A normal PC cd will use 2048 bytes per sector - the rest of each sector is given over to error correction. PSX/VCD cds use 2336 bytes, Audio cds use the full 2352 bytes with no error correction. Since bin files are raw data images, they are larger than iso files. The bin image can contain of any type of cd.
- The cue file is necessary, it specifies the mode that a cd image is written in (see elsewhere for description of mode) and the number of bytes that have been read into the image per sector (normally 2352). Also index is specified. A typical cue file looks like:
FILE "image-name.BIN" BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00
Now for some useful info! The linux mount command will not mount a bin file. If you can mount a particular bin file then its an .iso file with a .bin extension. In my searches, I came across several handy utilities:
isodump - get it here:
http://www-tet.ee.tu-berlin.de/solyg...0.05.02.tar.gz
isodump will dump iso images from bin (CloneCD img) files. Its not perfect, and failed on one or two i tested.
cdfs - get it here:
http://www.elis.rug.ac.be/~ronsse/cd...4.20-a.tar.bz2
cdfs is a file system kernel module. You can use it instead of iso9660 when you mount cds. It will show all the tracks on a cd as files in the mounted directory, i.e. A data cd may show a single .iso file, an audio cd will show some .wav files (yes, it adds the WAV header!!), and a mixed cd may show an .iso file and an apple hfs image, and some .wav files...! This thing rocks!!
And now for what you've all been waiting for - cdemu. This is another kernel module, but this one creates virtual cd drives, just like daemon tools. A userspace program allows you to link a bin/cue file pair to a virtual cd device, and then simply use the linux mount command to mount the virtual cd!! Oh yeah, its here:
http://robert.private.outertech.com/virtualcd/
So, now you CAN mount .bin files!!!!
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Richard Wellstead
http://www.uselinux.co.uk/
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