Burning data DVDs from FreeBSD

[Nicholas Esborn]

Tom,

I've used cdrtools (available in the ports) and the binary ProDVD version
of cdrecord, available from ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/ProDVD/.
The author has published a speed-limited license for non-commercial use.

I use mkisofs to create an ISO9660 filesystem, like I would for a CD-R.
I understand mkisofs can create UDF filesystems too these days, but I
haven't tried that yet.  I use RockRidge attributes, which UNIX and
MacOS X can utilize.

Then I use cdrecord-prodvd to burn the ISO to the DVD.  I needed
atapicam(4) for cdrecord to recognize my Panasonic LF-D311.  Cdrecord
writes the image to the DVD-R without drama.  Takes forever at 1x though.
If you want faster write speed (or if you are using cdrecord commercially)
then you can buy a license that unlimits the write speed.

As for the burner hardware, I use the aforementioned Panasonic.  It's a
DVD-RAM/DVD-R.  The DVD-RAMs are nice for archiving data; they're a lot
like the old magneto-optical disks, except with a 9 GB maximum per disk.
It's an obscure format, however.  DVD-RW and +RW drives are much more
common these days.  Still, you can use the plain DVD-R format to exchange
data with others if that's important to you.

As for the Dell notebook, the only thing that comes to mind would be to
use a USB/ATAPI drive case.  It would be slow.  Of course, the Panasonic
drive maxes out at 1 or 2 MB/sec for most stuff anyway.

-nick

On Fri, Mar 28, 2003 at 10:35:45AM -0500, Tom Limoncelli wrote:
> Each month I have a lot of data that needs to be archived to reliable 
> medium.  I'd like to be able to burn it onto DVD-ROM from a FreeBSD box.
> 
> While this isn't really a multimedia issue, people have recommended 
> that I ask here for obvious reasons.  However, I want to point out, 
> this is not video data, just general UNIX files.
> 
> So, my specific question is:
> Does anyone have recommendations of a DVD burner and software that 
> works for them under FreeBSD?
> Does anyone have recommendations for a solution that would work on a 
> Dell C640 laptop?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> --tal
> 
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-- 
Nicholas Esborn
Unix Systems Administrator
Berkeley, California