Mandrake Linux 8.2: Installation And User Guide | ||
---|---|---|
Prev | Chapter 12. Graphics Tools And Practical Devices | Next |
Under Mandrake Linux you can burn CDs using either a SCSI or an ATAPI CD-R(W) drive. It is assumed that DrakX already configured your CD-R(W) drive properly, we won't speak about configuring a CD-R(W) drive under Linux but how to put your CD-R(W) drive to use.
All CD recording software treat CD-R(W) drives as SCSI, but the ATAPI drives make use of a feature called "SCSI emulation" which is automatically configured during system installation.
You need to configure different parameters in X-CD-Roast. As always, all configuration tasks must be done as root. So, become root, start X-CD-Roast and press the Setup button. Your CD-R(W) drive will automatically be detected as shown in figure 12-20.
In the CD Settings tab, select the CD Writer Speed and the Audio Read Speed (used for digital audio extraction or "ripping") according to your CD-R(W) drive, as shown in figure 12-21.
Next, you need to set up a temporary directory for CD images. Click on the HD Settings tab and type a directory name in the Path: field (or click on Browse, and select the desired directory) and click on Add, as shown in figure 12-22.
![]() | To store a normal CD image, you need at least 650-700 MB available space in this folder. You can check the amount of available space by pressing the Update button, after you have added paths. |
Next, you need to tell X-CD-Roast which users will be able to burn CDs by clicking on the Users tab. Leaving the settings in their defaults will allow all users from all hosts to burn CDs but not change any parameters of the software as shown in figure 12-23.
Once you are satisfied with the settings, click on the Save configuration button, Ok and then on the Exit button. Now, X-CD-Roast is configured and "almost" ready to be used.
To finish the configuration, every user allowed to use the CD burning software must make a little additional configuration step. When such a user runs X-CD-Roast for the first time, he has to hit the Setup button and accept (or further customize) the settings, and save them. X-CD-Roast is now ready to burn CDs!
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 is in the /tmp directory (the one configured in the 3rd configuration step of X-CD-Roast).
Press the Create CD button, then press the Write Tracks button. In the Layout tracks tab select the ISO image you want to burn to a CD and then click on the Add button. Once you click on the Accept track layout button to confirm the CD layout, you will get something similar to what is shown in figure 12-24.
You can change Write parameters or just accept the defaults and then click on the Write tracks button to burn your CD.
If you want to build your own CD, or to back up some files to a CD, you also need to press the Create CD button in the main menu, but this time you will need to press on Master Tracks in order to be able to select the set of files or directories to include on the CD. In the Master source tab, you can select files/directories to include in the CD.
By default only directories are shown. Removing the mark from the Display directories only check box will let you select individual files as well. Select the directory/file you want to include and press on the Add button to add it to the CD. See figure 12-25.
![]() | You can also exclude files or sub-directories, part of an already selected directory, by selecting them and then pressing the Exclude button. |
Once you are satisfied with the set of files/directories to include, in the Create session/Image tab, press on the Calculate size button to calculate the extents of the CD. Then you have two choices: writing an ISO image of the CD (handy if you want to make multiple copies or want to burn the CD later), pressing on the Master to image file button; or Master and write on-the-fly if you do not want to make an ISO image and burn the CD right away.
If you chose to make an ISO image first, then you need to proceed as explained in Burning From an ISO Image in order to burn the CD. If you chose to master and write on-the-fly, just put a blank CD-R(W) and voilą!
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 stereo or home equipment, not data CDs with OGG, MP3 (or other digital audio format) files on them.
![]() | Please note that data/audio CD copying is 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. |
To record an audio CD, you first need to have your audio tracks digitized in the wave format (*.wav)[1]. Once you have the audio tracks in the directory defined in the 3rd configuration step, all you need to do is to proceed as described in Burning From an ISO Image to write them to CD.
If your drive is a CD-RW (re-writable) one and you use CD-RW media, you might want to format your CD-RW media in order to re-write it with different things. To do so, press the Create CD button, then the Write Tracks button, put a CD-RW medium in the drive, and press the Blank CD-RW button. This GUI doesn't support multi-session writing yet. Also, it supports blanking of new disks only. You will have to use the command line to blank previously written CD-RW.
Here is an example of the command to use as root: cdrecord -force -v blank=all dev=0,0. Be patient, it can take up to 90 minutes to do a full blanking.
As you can see, CD recording under Mandrake Linux is well supported with GUI programs. This section was 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 program's documentation in order to make the most out of your CD recording experience.
[1] | At the moment of this writing, OGG and MP3 compressed audio support was in the works for X-CD-Roast. |