CD Burning

Abstract

In this section we will discuss the usage of 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.

Note

Copyrighted Material. Please note that data/audio CD copying is often forbidden by copyright law. The examples provided here are informational only and are not intended to make a CD 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.

Getting Started

Under Mandrake Linux you can burn CDs using either a SCSI or an ATAPI CD-R(W) drive. It is assumed that your CD-R(W) drive was already configured properly at installation time, we will not speak about configuring a CD-R(W) drive under Linux but how to put your CD-R(W) drive 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 gain high priority access to the CD burner, so go ahead and add those users to the cdwriter group. Please refer to the section called “UserDrake: Managing Users and Groups on Your System”, for information on users and group management.

Choosing Applications+Archiving+Cd burning->K3b from the main menu will start K3b (see Figure 13.10).

Note

If you get a message stating that cdrdao does not run with root privileges 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.

Figure 13.10. K3B's Interface

K3B's Interface

Tool-Bar. Where buttons to perform common actions lie. See Table 13.1.

File Manager. To choose which files will be part of 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 to select which file types are going to be shown in the File Manager. Drag the files you want to include in the project and drop them into the Project Manager.

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

Audio Player. When burning an audio CD, files which are currently part of the project can be listened to. Drag the files you want to listen to from the Project Manager and drop them in the Audio Player. Above the play list you will find the usual Play, Pause, Stop, Previous and Next audio control buttons.

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

Note

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

Table 13.1. 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 Project to create an audio CD (see the section called “Burning Audio CDs (CDDA)”); choose New Data Project to create a data CD (see the section called “Burning Data CDs (CD-ROMs)”); choose New Mixed Mode Project to create a mixed mode (data+audio) CD; choose New Video Project to create a digital compressed video CD; choose New eMovix 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 existing project you wish to open. By default, only K3b's project files (*.k3b) are shown. Select the project you are interested in and click on 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 on the Save button.

Ctrl-B

Burn the Current Project to a CD. It opens a window that asks for the project's burn settings. Please refer to the section called “Burning Data CDs (CD-ROMs)”, for more information.

 

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

 

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

Burning Data CDs (CD-ROMs)

Note

Where appropriate, the Audio Player component has been removed to make the example screenshots clearer. You can show/remove components by putting or removing a checkmark on “Show” entries in the Settings menu.

Burning From an ISO Image

Let's assume you downloaded a CD-ROM ISO image from the Internet and you want to burn it on a CD. The ISO image file is in the /tmp/ directory. Navigate to it using K3b's File Manager.

Choose File->New Project->New Data Project from K3b's menu (or use the New Project button or keyboard shortcut shown in Table 13.1). Then, drag the ISO image file (Some_CD_Image.iso in the example) and drop it in the Project Manager (see Figure 13.11).

Figure 13.11. Selecting the ISO Image to Write to CD

Selecting the ISO Image to Write to CD

Clicking on the Burn CD button (or choosing the Project->Burn menu entry) will display a window where you can select writing parameters (see Figure 13.12). For burning an ISO image, only the recording speed should be changed, using the Speed pull-down list. Make your changes to the settings, insert a recordable medium on the CD burner and then click on the Write button to start writing the CD.

Figure 13.12. Setting Writing Parameters

Setting Writing Parameters

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

The Speed pull-down list will only show recording speeds that are supported by the combination of your CD burner and the currently inserted recordable medium. The “slowest” of them limits the maximum recording speed available.

Burning a Set of Files or Directories

If you want to build your own CD, or to back up some files to a CD, the procedure is the same as that explained in the section called “Burning From an ISO Image”, except that instead of an ISO image file, you should drop, in the Project Manager, the files and/or directories to be included on the CD (see Figure 13.13).

Figure 13.13. Selecting Files/Directories to Include on the CD

Selecting Files/Directories to Include on the CD

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. The bar's color codes are as follows:

Green

The set's size is less than that of the selected medium's capacity (650 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.

Note

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

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 this writing, K3b supports recording audio CDs from tracks digitized in the wave (*.wav), Ogg Vorbis (*.ogg) and MP3 (*.mp3) formats. K3b can create digital audio tracks starting from audio CDs: this task is known as “ripping”.

The cdparanoia package must be installed to be able to rip audio CDs. Please refer to Chapter 21, RpmDrake: Package Management for information on package installation. Also ensure that K3b's default temporary storage directory exists and that you must have write access to it. Choose Settings->Configure K3b... from the menu and then, under the Misc section, fill the Default Temporary Directory field with a directory of your choice or keep the suggested folder, and then click on the OK button.

Insert the audio CD to rip tracks from and select 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 the ones you do not want to rip and click on gears button to show a dialog and confirm ripping options (see Figure 13.14).

Figure 13.14. CD Ripping Options

CD Ripping Options

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

Choose File->New Project->New Audio Project from K3b's menu (or use the New Project button shown in Table 13.1). 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 13.15).

Figure 13.15. 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 Manger, proceed as described in the section called “Burning From an ISO Image”, to write them to CD.

Duplicating a CD

Figure 13.16. Setting Copy CD Options

Setting Copy CD Options

Choose Tools->Copy CD from the menu (or use the button shown in Table 13.1) and a dialog will pop up (Figure 13.16). 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 on the Start Copy 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.

Erasing CD-RW media

Figure 13.17. 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->Erase CD-RW... from the menu (or use the button shown in Table 13.1) and a dialog will pop up (Figure 13.17). 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 on the Start button to start erasing the CD-RW.

Final Notes

As you can see, CD recording under Mandrake Linux 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.