dvd-ram udf
 

I've ordered a dvd-ram disc in order to use it as a bridge between my linux system and any windows system that I might want to copy files to. For this purpose, I would need to format the dvd-ram with the UDF-filesystem. Does anyone know if this is possible, and in that case how it is done? I've been googling plenty for it, but without results. Thanks in advance.

Get the latest 2.6 kernel and dvd+rw-tools package. You have to enable udf support either as a module or in the kernel. then just mount the dvd rw. You may want to check the hcl to see if your driver is supported. You may also google pktcdvd I haven't been able to do packet writing to dvd-rws but cd-rws work fine. Mabye they've fixed it by now.

Thanks for your reply, Boow. dvd+rw might be the way to go but dvd-ram is, as far as I understand, considerably different from dvd+/-rw. It's supposedly possible to format a dvd-ram disc with an ext2 filesystem, after which it should work precisely as a normal harddrive. I'm just looking for the equivalence of "mkfs.ext2" that will format a disc with UDF.

All the DVD-RAMs I've bought came pre-formatted UDF.
Beware, though, that XP does not like it when Linux writes to UDF. I use DVD-RAM to archive, and when I try to access a RAM disk after writing to it in Linux, XP complains that the file system is corrupted and wants to reformat the disk.

It comes preformatted? That's great. I should probably mention for anyone else in my position, though, that I came over a package called udftools which includes "mkudffs".

Anyway, I find it rather strange that WinXP would complain about a disc which linux has written to. If the filesystem is UDF, then that should be enough for XP shouldn't it?

Thanks for the info though :)

the udftools package is what I ment sorry bout that. Since i hav this huge harddrive I havn't messed with dvd-rams

You'd think so, wouldn't you? I'll give formatting one under Linux a go and see if that makes any difference.

I've received my dvd-ram disc. It seemed unformatted so I formatted it under linux with mkudffs, and it worked right away without a hassle. I tried the disc under a WinXP machine, and the files could be read alright, but I wasn't able to erase anything from the disc. I never got why, but I'm just happy if WinXP can read the disc so...

I'm glad for your success. Are you using double- or single-sided disks? With or without the casing?

I believe the reason you couldn't write is that XP didn't trust that the filesystem was clean, so it mounted it read-only.

It's a panasonic 3x non-cartridge disc. It's a 4.7GB disc, so assume it is singe sided, but I'm not sure if the whole single-side/double-side thing works the same way with dvd-ram as it does with dvd+/-r(w). My dvd-recorder burns only single side dvd+/-r, though.

Your suspicion with regard to how XP handles the dvd might very well be true; it sounds reasonable to me.

Mine are Fugifilm 4.7GB single-sided non-cartridge, in case you wondered.
I'm pretty sure the single/double sided thing works the same way, as single-sided disks are referred to as "simple face" in French, but I'm not in a position where I've studied it out either. My DVD-RAM experience was just as painless as yours. Isn't it nice when things just work?

Indeed :) And I think that's where linux is heading; where most things will just work... and I like it alot.

Sorry for resurrecting the thread but I have some problems with DVD-RAM. I have an LG GSA-4040B drive which supports 3x DVD-RAM writing if I remember correctly. I formatted my disc with...

# mke2fs /dev/dvdram

...mounted it and tried copying stuff on it. It works but it's painfully slow. It took almost ten minutes to copy a 350 MB tv episode file on it. Even after it had finished, there was still something going on for a few minutes, preventing me from unmounting. Umount didn't say it was busy, it just kept me waiting. Is there something wrong? How can I define the used write speed? DMA is already on.

~500MB in ~15 minutes. I think this is about how fast these discs go.

This is because linux caches some of the data before writing it to disc; so after the operation is over it continues to write. This behavior can, I believe, be overidden with the "sync" option.

Do you have all the appropriate CD/DVD write options enabled in your kernel?