How to properly mount a DVD-R/W drive and how to use it from the command line?

[Benjamin Lutz]

Olaf Greve wrote:
> [...]
> Now, this is where the issue lies. When putting a CD-ROM in the drive,
> and trying to access it through the /cdrom mountpoint I get an empty
> directory listing (not correct) and when manually trying to do the
> following:
> mount /dev/acd0 /cdrom
> I get the error (on all CD-ROMs):
> mount: /dev/acd0 on /cdrom: incorrect super block
> 
> Now, the entry in /etc/fstab for this device is set to:
> /dev/acd0     /cdrom    cd9660    ro,noauto    0    0
> 
> Which is fine for a CD-ROM drive.

To mount both CDs and DVDs use either:

  mount_cd9660 /dev/acd0 /cdrom

(The system must know what kind of filesystem you want to mount. It does
not figure it out on its own like Linux does.) If you have an /etc/fstab
entry for the file system you wish to mount (which you do, in this
case), alternatively you can use the short version:

  mount /cdrom

This fetches the necessary information from /etc/fstab.

> However: what should the proper settings be for a DVD-RW drive? Surely
> at least the 'ro' flag is incorrect, but is that all?

No, that is correct. I don't think FreeBSD supports packet writing. In
other words: If you wish to (re)write a DVD, you need to use a proper
burning program (eg the somewhat misnamed growisofs), you can't just
copy files to it by mounting it.

> Also: are there other locations where I should tell FBSD (and if so:
> how) about the presence of the new drive?

FreeBSD will automatically detect any drives. Under FreeBSD 4.x, and
with exotic configurations, it was sometimes necessary to manually
create devices nodes.

> Finally: I do not intent to run X on the machine, as it'll be a
> webserver only (well, incl. DB stuff etc.), and the drive is intended
> for being used to make remote back-ups on DVD-RW (yes: someone will
> physically swap the DVDs when necessary ;) ). What I'd like to know is
> what the easiest/best ways are to do so from the command-line. Does
> anyone have some scripts for this? Or perhaps some pointers to a good
> (preferrably free) program or tutorial?

Use some program to produce an iso image of the files you want to burn
(check the cdrtools port), then use growisofs to burn that iso.

Cheers
Benjamin

PS: Please don't cross-post to several lists at once.
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