Specifications

/cdrom may not be fully readable. Please use a more recent kernel like 2.0.36. The option −pad for cdrecord
applies to audio CDs only and the option −pad for mkisofs requires a patch, which is as much work to apply
than to upgrade to a bug−free Linux kernel.)
Note:
Some ancient versions of mount are not able to deal with loopback devices. If you have
such an old version of mount, then upgrade your Linux−system. Several people have
already suggested putting information about how to get the newest mount utilities into this
HOWTO. I always refuse this. If your Linux distribution ships with an ancient mount,
report it as a bug. If your Linux distribution is not easily upgradable, report it as a bug.
If I include all the information that is necessary to work around bugs in badly designed Linux
distributions, this HOWTO would be a lot bigger and harder to read.
Write the CD−image to a CD
This section only covers writing data CDs in TAO mode, because it is the most frequently used mode for
data. For more information about the differences of TAO and DAO, please see the chapter about audio
CD−Rs. If you use DAO mode with the tool cdrdao, then remember to add a dummy audio track at the end of
the TOC file (see the README).
Not much more left to do. If you haven't already tried, it's a good time for the command
cdrecord −scanbus
This will tell you to which SCSI device your CD−writer is attached to. All other methods of guessing the
information printed so nicely by cdrecord have been removed from the HOWTO.
Before showing you the last command, let me warn you that CD−writers want to be fed with a constant
stream of data. So the process of writing the CD image to the CD must not be interrupted or a corrupt CD
will result. It's easy to interrupt the data stream by deleting a very large file. Example: if you delete an old
CD−image of 650 Mbytes size, the kernel must update information about 650,000 blocks on the hard disk
(assuming you have a block size of 1 Kbyte for your filesystem). That takes some time and is very likely to
slow down disk activity long enough for the data stream to pause for a few seconds. However, reading mail,
browsing the web, or even compiling a kernel generally will not affect the writing process on modern
machines.
Please note that no writer can re−position its laser and continue at the original spot on the CD when it gets
disturbed. Therefore any strong vibrations or other mechanical shocks will probably destroy the CD you are
writing.
When you are mentally prepared, dress up in a black robe, multiply the SCSI−id of the CD−writer with its
SCSI−revision and light as many candles, speak two verses of the ASR−FAQ (newsgroup
alt.sysadmin.recovery) and finally type:
CD−Writing HOWTO
Write the CD−image to a CD 17