Preemptive apology: this might end up being a hardware-related problem but I'm going to try the software fora first.

I occasionally burn copies of CDs for use in the car (I have a ton of out-of-print releases that I don't want damaged) using the instructions in the manpage for wodim. That involves a specific icedax command followed by a wodim command to copy a CD "in the most accurate way".
I have been using the above commands with the aim to accurately reproduce CDs that have tracks that segue into one another so as to avoid that jarring gap.

What sometimes seems to happen is that the CD copy will not have correct indexing information. While the CD is playing, if you let it go from start to finish, everything's fine. However, if you try to skip to, say, track "4", the player hangs and there's no way to reach that track. I notice the playback problem mainly in the car since that is where the CDs are intended to be played back but I have noticed it on a CD played connected to my nice stereo in the family room.

Is this:

a) problem with the icedax command producing invalid information regarding the tracks?

b) a wodim problem where it's not writing information to the blank properly?

c) a hardware problem with the burner (a Pioneer IDE DVD-RW DVR-110D)?

d) some sort of poisoning/copy-protection scheme to prevent people from duplicating CDs?

e) an error in the wodim manpage?

The problem is not occurring with every CD I burn though, to be honest, I don't burn that many. CDs created from a variety of sources (my "road trip" CDs) seem to get created without any problems [1]. The problem only seems to be occurring when I use the above combination of icedax/wodim commands to make a copy of a whole CD.

In case anyone wants to know: this is a problem that I've seen going back to SuSE/OpenSuSE 11.x. I'm currently at 12.2.

I normally let the burner run a full speed. Has anyone found that using "speed=0" on the wodim command line fixes problems like this?

TIA...

--
Rick


[1] -- Except for when the burn process encounters an MP3 file that was created from a WAV file that was supposedly ripped from the CD without errors but in actuality was corrupted and resulted in a messed up MP3.

This is probably simplistic. But are you doing a sync in terminal before demounting?

I never have to umount the burned disc so I cannot recall ever explicitly issuing a "sync" before "eject". Not that I need another copy of this but I'll give it another go and add a "sync" command after the "wodim" command completes. I'll post results. BTW, at the completion of the "wodim" command the standard message about how the buffers were used showed nothing that would looked like there had been any problems associated with buffers not being available, had overflowed, etc.

Also, I tried copying the same disc using "wodim" with a "speed=0" switch (which resulted in another index mess) and then using Brasero (which resulted in a disc that didn't have the index wackiness). Not sure what Brasero is doing behind the GUI, er, scenes... but it works. So I guess I can cross option "d" off my list of potential causes. (Or replace it with "didn't issue 'sync' after burning".)

--
Rick

And the results are... no joy. Syncing after the wodim command completes does not help. (Actually didn't expect it to.) It fails in the same way as previous wodim-created discs: Press play. After play begins, press the index buttom to skip to track 2. It takes several seconds for anything to happen. Press index again to track 3. Again, it takes several seconds (more than the previous track skip) before any audio is heard. Press index again and while the display shows that we're on track 4 everything actually hangs. Try to return to track 3 and, while the display shows that we're on track 3, nothing happens. After a few seconds (five or so) the player returns to track 1 as though I'd pressed "stop".

Sort of a bummer because I do spend a lot of time outside the GUI and it was nice to be able to rip/burn CDs in another console while I worked away in another.

Anyone got any ideas as to what wodim options I should be using? Obviously the ones in the manpage are no good or incomplete.

As usual, TIA...

--
Rick