Info:
-I installed a new NEC-3500A 16 x DVD burner.
-Just loaded Fedora Core 2 (It has the software k3b, growisofs.. etc. installed)
-k3b errors out with dvds, but will burn cd's fine.
-I am using 8x memorex dvd-r 4.7GB media

I turned to growisofs from the command line, and did a:

growisofs -Z /dev/cdrom -r /{some directory with tars in it}

That command burns to dvd, but the tars appear to be corrupt in linux. They read fine in windows.

I cannot use the -speed={speed of 1-8} ... growisofs says cannot change speed.

I have also tried adding -J in the line right after the -r, but growisofs doesn't like it.

k3b has problems, burning files over 4.4GB. k3b also errors out because its trying to change the drive speed... and like I said growisofs didn't like that.

Also, i have been burning tars because burning untarred files and directories changes the capitalization and name length.

I am trying to use the burner to backup data files that rest on an ext3 drive.

I know I have alot here... any help would be greatly appreciated.

Have you tried using mkisofs directly to make an ISO image on your harddrive? growisofs has caused problems for me any time I didn't do this. Also, if you use mkisofs at least once, you can mount the image via loopback to make sure it's readable under linux - that way if it doesn't work, you can fiddle with the mkisofs parameters until it does, and then try giving those to growisofs directly.

CroMagnonagnon,

Thanks for the reply.... I have not tried mkisofs by itself. So to be sure I get this right... I would use mkisofs to make an image file on my hd... and then use growisofs to burn the image?

What is loopback? I have never mounted an image file before would it go like this?:
mkdir /mnt/tempimage
mount ./image.iso /mnt/tempimage

Makeing an image file first will deffinatly sve me some dvd coasters!!

Do you have any clue how to get the speed option to work?

thank you!

Yep, sounds like you've got it, except for a small detail on the mount command. Here's an example of the whole shebang:

mkisofs -o large.iso directory_with_tars
mkdir /mnt/tempimage
mount -o loop large.iso /mnt/tempimage
[check /mnt/tempimage files)
growisofs -Z /dev/dvd=large.iso

I'm not sure about changing the speed, but when the ISO image is fine, I have not burnt a single coaster with this method (even though the write speed was all over the place when the machine was busy...)

Good luck!