Writing in linux using either kde or gnome

rapattack · 05-11-2008, 11:36 PM

Hi I have made a few mistakes doing some burning since I had linux. My former system was set up with Debian and I multisessioned using k3b and I presumed now that I am using ubuntu that it's default would multisession but it overwrote my files today. Is this normal? I know that in windows if it is not set (Nero) in certain versiosn of certain burning programs the same thing can happen.....gee I hope I don't make this presumption/mistake again as now I have lost heaps of videos and pictures. The media was a dvd rewritable. Does this happen with a dvdr? I am using Gnomebaker to write in ubuntu. Sorry if I am not very clear.....please lemme know if there is a general guide as I am experimenting with so many distros at the moment that I am not sure what is normal behaviour in this particular case.

David the H. · 05-13-2008, 12:53 PM

I'm not 100% sure how this works since I've never really used multisession disks myself, but I was always under the impression that the previous sessions remain on the disk; they're just superseded by the newest one. At least, that's what happens with non-rewritable media, since data can't ever be erased. It could be different with a dvd-rw.

Another problem I've heard of is that "open" sessions can sometimes be incompatible between programs because there are various standards and levels of standards for encoding open sessions, and the disk only becomes truly standardized after it's closed. If you had one program create the first session, then tried to access it with a second one, the second program may not have been able to read it and done something like close it out so it could write a new session.

Anyway, there's a mount command option "session=n" available for mounting previous sessions. I believe the current session is numbered as 0, so "session=1" should get you into the one immediately previous to it, if available.

rapattack · 05-14-2008, 06:49 AM

That makes a lot of sense to me.

How do I do that mount command. Sorry I don't know that one.

David the H. · 05-16-2008, 12:08 PM

Read "man mount" in a console window. It's the command for manually mounting a disk. It's very commonly used in Linux.

Code:

The syntax is this:

mount -t <filesystem> -o <options> /dev/<devicename> /<mountpoint>

So you'll probably run something like:

mount -t iso9660 -o session=1 /dev/dvd /mountpoint

You'll have to have root permissions to run it generally. You'll also have to learn exactly what the "/dev" device is for your drive. And DVD's can use the udf filesystem also, so you might have to try that instead of iso9660.

Finally, to unmount it again just use:

Code:

"umount /dev/dvd" or "umount /mountpoint"

(notice that it's umount, not unmount)

rapattack · 07-10-2008, 12:09 PM

Thanks I ended up getting K3b. I dunno why but it just works and I am used to it from using Debian before. I got rid of whatever I was using to burn on Ubuntu.