In FC3, I downloaded images and upgraded to FC4. I also burned a 3-inch FC4 rescue disc. No problem.

Now in FC4 (using exactly the same hardware), cdrecord fails saying:

cdrecord: fifo was 0 times empty and 0 times full, min fill was 100%.
cdrecord: fifo had 64 puts and 0 gets.
cdrecord: OPC failed.
cmd finished after 18.518s timeout 60s
Sense flags: Blk 294439 (not valid)
Sense Code: 0x15 Qual 0x02 (positioning error detected by read of medium) Fru 0x0
Sense Key: 0x3 Medium Error, Segment 0
Sense Bytes: 70 00 03 00 04 7E 27 0E 00 00 00 00 15 02 00 00
status: 0x2 (CHECK CONDITION)
CDB: 54 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
cdrecord: Success. send opc: scsi sendcmd: no error
(This example was from trying to burn exactly 64Mb of data onto a blank 185Mb disc).

FC4 can read my 3-inch discs with no problem. Before and after trying to burn 3-inch discs, I have successfully read/burned both CDs and DVDs.

(I really like those little discs--perfect for minor backup, distributing a days' worth of pictures, carrying around scanned images, etc.)

Any ideas on how I might be able to tweak cdrecord into burning 3-inch discs?

Thanks!

Have you tried a slower burn speed? I don't have any little discs but one burner in particular has to be set to a low speed.

In the previous example, I had cdrecord set to burn at -speed=4. My drive is capable of much faster burn speeds, but I have never tried because I have always thought "4 is a nice, slow, safe option".

I'll try to "burn as fast as possible" and see what happens.

Good thinking.

The strangest thing possible: I burned at "maximum speed possible"--didn't work.
I burned at 1X speed: didn't work.
I tried a number of speeds and then 8X worked!!!!!

It's very "mo min chi miao"--English? Maybe something like "without rhyme or reason". Anyway, my drive is a Pioneer and I have no idea why this has happened.

One thing still bothers me, though: Using CD/DVD Creator, it still doesn't allow SetPriority() to do its job, without root permissions. There is always that "high possibility of buffer underruns" warning. This option should be available. You should be allowed to enter the root password to get better reliability when burning.

The ability to use the GUI to burn is failed if you can't safely do anything else while a disc is being written.

Thanks, Homey! You set me on the right track. At least I can burn those now, without installing FC3 on another drive, rebooting, etc.

Strange is good as long as it works.