cdrecord and some of its warnings.
 

kernel 2.6.21.5, Slackware 12.0
cdrecord 2.01

Hi:
This is the command line I used to run cdrecord. Afterwards,
I ran 'cdrecord -media-info' on the same disc and, as a result, I got the messages contained in the file I am adjoining. There, two consecutive warnings can be seen, which I quote:
The disk, after recording, however, is both readable by GNU/linux and another O.S. What is the meaning of those warnings and what are its possible implications? I would like to know. Thanks.

P.S.: I now regret not having specified 'speed=some_moderate_speed'. But this is quite a different matter.

I don't think this means anything other than it is detecting that the disk is prerecorded and telling you how much is left for burning. At the end, when you don't want to add any more, you can probably get rid of the warning if you fixate the disk.

Thank you very much for your reply. I get confused by the term "prerecorded". I thought that if I buy a disk it can be either blank or prerecorded. For instance, RCA Victor releases prerecorded CDs. Now, if I burn some files onto a blank CD, I get a recorded disk, I would say. All these are pure assumptions but, according to them, how can I get a prerecorded disk starting from a blank one?

From man page:
After you write the DVD, it will be detected as "prerecorded" or already recorded, but with the ability to append data. Now, you may or may not be able to permanently fixate the disk depending on media type. It doesn't matter that much tho, only for 100% compatibility.

H_TeXMeX_H: thanks for your answer. You must have cdrecord > 2.01. My manual is less explicit. It's been most kind of you to explain the meaning of "prerecorded". I am used to write only CDs, and never had got a message like that quoted in post #1.

Cdrecord always warns me saying "there are unsettled issues with Linux-2.5 and newer". And I run under 2.6. Some day I'll upgrade cdrecord althou as a rule the program must not be newer than the O.S. if downwards compatibility is taken for granted. But let's assume these "unsettled issues" do not affect the DVD recording in my particular case. Althou cdrecord man has many things to say about Philips drives and I happen to be using one.

Getting back to the point, -media-info, for this DVD, gives
data type: standard
disk status: complete
session status: complete.

But I think it SHOULD say
disk status: incomplete/appendable
session status: empty,

[QUESTION #1: shouldn't it?]

given that I used the option -multi. However I must take into consideration what you have just said:
I know that, for CDs, I may choose between permanently fixating the disk or not. I take "disk fixation" as synonymous with "disk closing" (this perhaps being a friendly term not belonging to the tech jargon) and with the action of writing a lead out area. Hence, according to you, for DVDs, in at least one of its specifications, DVD-R or DVD+R, there is not such an option. Either the disk is always fixated or it can never be fixated at all. Adding the information given by -media-info (see above), it seems that the former applies. [QUESTION #2: Am I right?]

In connection with multi-session recording it may be interesting to read an LQ post written by cdrecord's author. There, after explaining that "the multi-border [= multi-session] status for DVD+R is unknown", he says And this is what I did. To use DVD-R as the target. And I wrote pure data. I even specified -data.

Well, if you made your way up to this point in the post, my compliments. Please do no think I am cheerfully relying on LQ. Right now I am busily skimming throu the ECMA-279 standard in an attempt at getting acquainted with optical discs authoring concepts and terminology. All the best.

1) Probably, but there's not much documentation on what that output actually means.

2) I can't be sure, but I think in your case there is no way to permanently close the disk. You can try.

Jörg Schilling (author of cdrecord) had a dispute with the kernel "hackers" with much flaming etc. When the dust settled he changed the license of cdrecord and made it produce the "error" message.

The maintainers of the debian distribution then made a fork of the old cdrecord and named it "wodim". If you need more details have a look at Wikipedia (or google ;)).

I heard about that, but I didn't know this was what it was about. I think he has done this multiple times tho, about different things, and how the kernel is very wrong.

That may well be but this is the most prominent case AFAIK.

Moved to Slackware forum at the request of the OP.

Thanks, JZL240I-U.

After having done some thinking, I had decided not taking any notice of those messages. And this, because several disks burned by Nero, a program tested by millions of users (running under MS Windows), were reported the same as I quoted in post #1.

Now your post has confirmed me in that decision while at the same time provided information of the utmost importance to me given that I have switched to mkisofs and cdrecord a long time ago. All the best, Enrique.

You're welcome. Have a nice week :).