3. CD Burning

Abstract

In this section we will discuss using K3b to burn:

  • a CD from an ISO image;

  • a set of files to a CD;

  • an audio CD (CDDA);

as well as how to duplicate a CD and erase re-writable media.

K3b also supports DVD recording, but we will concentrate on CD recording here. You only need to install the k3b-dvd package. DVD recording is not very different to CD recording anyway, just make sure you use the menu entries labeled DVD instead of CD.

[Note]Note

Copyrighted Material. Please note that data/audio/video CD/DVD copying is often forbidden by copyright law. The examples provided here are informational only and are not intended to make a CD/DVD pirate out of you. It is assumed that if you want to duplicate copyrighted material, it is because you have the right to do so.

3.1. Getting Started

DrakX or HardDrake should have already configured your CD-R(W) drive properly, we will show you how to put it to use.

Usually, you need root privileges to access the CD burner. With K3b this is not true anymore since it is automatically configured at installation time to give non-privileged users access to the CD burner. However, it is highly recommended that non-privileged users wanting to burn CDs be part of the cdwriter group in order to minimize burning errors due to an overloaded system. So, go ahead and add those users to the cdwriter group. Please refer to Section 6, “Managing Users and Groups”, for information on users and group management.

Choosing System+Archiving+CD burning->K3b from the main menu will start K3b. Figure 11.8, “K3b's Interface” shows K3b's interface with a new data project open.

[Note]Note

If you get a message stating that cdrdao does not run with root privileges or that cdrdao has problems with ATAPI writers, you can safely ignore it. To prevent that message from appearing again put a mark on the Don't show again check-box and click on the Close button.

[Note]Note

The first time K3b is run, or if you change the CD-R(W) drive, a dialog will pop up asking you for confirmation about the burner's speed. Set the speed to match the fastest speed of your burner and click the OK button.

Figure 11.8. K3b's Interface

K3b's Interface

Tool-Bar. Where buttons to perform common actions lie. See Table 11.1, “K3b's Toolbar Buttons”.

File Manager. To choose which files will be included in the burned CD. You can use the left-side tree to navigate your file system structure and also the browser-like buttons at the bottom. The Filter pull-down list is handy for selecting which file types are going to be shown in the File Manager. Drag and drop the files you want to include in the project into the Project Manager.

Project Manager. Where all files which will be on the burned CD are shown and handled. Files can be removed and their location (directory) on the CD can be changed here.

The following table shows the most important buttons available in K3b's tool-bar, their equivalent keyboard shortcuts and a brief explanation of the functions they provide.

[Note]Note

Not all buttons are enabled at all times. For example, the Burn CD button will not be enabled if there is no active project.

Table 11.1. K3b's Toolbar Buttons

ButtonKeyboard ShortcutFunction
 

Create a New Project. Once you click on this button a list of available project types will be shown: choose New Audio CD Project to create an audio CD (see Section 3.3, “Burning Audio CDs (CDDA)”); choose New Data CD Project to create a data CD (see Section 3.2, “Burning Data CDs”); choose New Mixed Mode CD Project to create a mixed mode (data+audio) CD; choose New Video CD Project to create a digital compressed video CD; choose New eMovix CD Project to create an eMovix CD.

Ctrl-O

Open an Existing Project. A standard file dialog will be opened from where you can choose the project you wish to open. By default, only K3b's project files (*.k3b) are shown. Select the project you are interested in and click the OK button.

Ctrl-S

Save the Current Project. A standard file dialog will be opened where you can enter the name under which the current project will be saved. Type the name of the project and click the Save button.

Ctrl-B

Burn the Current Project to a CD. It opens a window which asks for the project's burn settings. Please refer to Section 3.2, “Burning Data CDs”, for more information.

 

Copy a CD. To make an exact copy of a CD. It opens a window which asks for the copy settings. Please refer to Section 3.4, “Duplicating a CD”, for more information.

 

Erase a CD-RW. To erase re-writable media. It opens a window which asks for the erase operation settings. Please refer to Section 3.6, “Erasing CD-RW media”, for more information.

3.2. Burning Data CDs

3.2.1. Burning From an ISO Image

Let us assume you have downloaded a CD-ROM image from the Internet and you want to burn it on a CD. Choose Tools+CD->Burn CD Image... from K3b's menu. Click the “open file” button to browse for the CD image file and select the file in the standard open file dialog. The CD image will be verified and information about it will be displayed (see Figure 11.9, “Burn CD Image Options”).

Figure 11.9. Burn CD Image Options

Burn CD Image Options

Once the image is verified, you can insert the recordable medium and click the Start button to write it to the disc.

[Note]Note

If an already written re-writable medium is found in the CD burner, a dialog will pop-up asking you whether to erase it first. Click Yes and follow subsequent instructions if you want to erase it, or change the medium for a non-written one and click No.

[Tip]Tip

The Speed pull-down list should be set to Auto to make K3b select the fastest possible recording speed supported by the the combination of your CD burner and the currently inserted recordable medium. The “slowest” of them limits that maximum speed.

3.2.2. Burning a Set of Files or Directories

Choose File->New Project->New Data CD Project from K3b's menu (or use the New Project button or keyboard shortcut shown in Table 11.1, “K3b's Toolbar Buttons”). Then drop, into the Project Manager, the files and/or directories to be included on the CD (see Figure 11.10, “Selecting Files/Directories to Include on the CD”).

Figure 11.10. Selecting Files/Directories to Include on the CD

Selecting Files/Directories to Include on the CD
[Note]Note

Adding directories containing lots of files, can take some time, please be patient and wait until the Adding files to Project PROJECT_NAME... message disappears from K3b's status bar.

The space occupied by the selected files/directories will be shown by a color-coded bar at the bottom of the Project Manager, together with the quantity expressed in MB and the available MB of the medium's total capacity. The bar's color codes are as follows:

Green

The set's size is less than that of the selected medium's capacity (700 MB by default). There are no capacity-related problems.

Yellow

The set's size is nearly equal the selected medium's capacity. If it is a few MB below the medium's capacity, there will be no capacity-related problems; if it is a few MB above the medium's capacity, the CD might be written without problems, but there is little guarantee of success.

Red

The set's size exceeds the medium's capacity by lots of MB. The CD will not be recorded properly.

Right-clicking on any file/directory in the Project Manager will pop-up a contextual menu with options to remove and rename files, create new (empty) directories, etc. Files and directories can be relocated (change the directory under which they will appear) on the CD using drag-and-drop.

[Tip]Tip

Renaming the top element of the left side tree in the Project Manager will change the CD's volume name (K3b data project by default for data CDs).

Clicking the Burn... button (or choosing the Project->Burn menu entry) will display a window where you can select writing parameters (see Figure 11.11, “Setting Writing Parameters”). Insert a recordable medium in the CD burner and then click the Burn button to start writing the CD.

Figure 11.11. Setting Writing Parameters

Setting Writing Parameters

3.3. Burning Audio CDs (CDDA)

CD recording is not limited to data CDs, you can also record audio CDs. By audio CDs, we mean CDs that you can play in your car or home stereo equipment, not data CDs with OGG, MP3 or any other digital audio format files on them.

At the time of writing, K3b supports recording audio CDs from tracks digitized in the wave (*.wav), Ogg Vorbis (*.ogg) and MP3 (*.mp3) formats. You can mix digital audio formats, K3b will decompress the compressed ones on the fly. K3b can also create digital audio tracks starting from audio CDs: this task is known as “ripping” (see Section 3.5, “Audio CD Extraction (Ripping)”).

Choose File->New Project->New Audio CD Project from K3b's menu (or use the New Project button shown in Table 11.1, “K3b's Toolbar Buttons”). Select K3b's File Manager's filter to Sound Files, navigate to where the digitized audio files are and then drag the audio tracks and drop them in the Project Manager (see Figure 11.12, “Selecting Audio Tracks to Include on the CD”).

Figure 11.12. Selecting Audio Tracks to Include on the CD

Selecting Audio Tracks to Include on the CD

Use drag and drop to move the files up and down the compilation. Once you have the tracks compiled in the order you want in the Project Manager, proceed as described in Section 3.2.2, “Burning a Set of Files or Directories”, to write them to CD.

3.4. Duplicating a CD

Figure 11.13. Setting Copy CD Options

Setting Copy CD Options

Choose Tools+CD->Copy CD from the menu (or use the button shown in Table 11.1, “K3b's Toolbar Buttons”) and a dialog will pop up (see Figure 11.13, “Setting Copy CD Options”). Select the number of copies (1 in the example), whether to remove the temporary image or not (yes in the example), the reader and burning devices (automatically set) and click the Start button to start duplicating the CD. The “sourceCD will be read, an image of it will be made and then the “targetCD will be written.

3.5. Audio CD Extraction (Ripping)

The cdparanoia package must be installed to be able to rip audio CDs. Please refer to Chapter 13, Package Management through Rpmdrake for information on package installation. Also, make sure that enough temporary space is available: you can check the available space in K3b's status bar near the right.

Insert the audio CD to rip tracks from and double click on the drive in K3b's File Manager left side tree. The CD will be read and, by default, all tracks will be marked to be ripped. Remove the check mark from those you do not want to rip and click on gears button to show a dialog to set ripping options (see Figure 11.14, “CD Ripping Options”).

Figure 11.14. CD Ripping Options

CD Ripping Options

Remove the checkmark from the Use filename pattern for ripped files option to have tracks named TrackNN.wav and stored in the directory specified in the Destination Base Directory field (your home directory, by default) and click the Start Ripping button to start ripping.

3.6. Erasing CD-RW media

Figure 11.15. Setting CD-RW Blanking Options

Setting CD-RW Blanking Options

You might want to format your CD-RW media in order to write it with different data. To do so, choose Tools+CD->Erase CD-RW... from the menu (or use the button shown in Table 11.1, “K3b's Toolbar Buttons”) and a dialog will pop up (see Figure 11.15, “Setting CD-RW Blanking Options”). The Erase Type can be set to Fast (the CD-RW is quickly erased in up to 3 minutes); Complete (the CD-RW is completely erased taking up to 90 minutes); and a few options related to multi-session recording. Insert the medium on the CD burner and click the Start button to erase the CD-RW.

3.7. Going Further

As you can see, CD recording with Mandrakelinux is well supported with graphical programs. This section is a kind of mini-HOWTO of CD recording for the most common tasks you might want to do. However, CD recording uses are not limited to things described here. Please refer to the FAQ on the K3b web site for more information.