SOLVED: Re: Problems with "burncd" - cannot mount result on unix or windows

[Chuck Swiger]

On Mar 22, 2007, at 4:16 PM, UCTC Sysadmin wrote:
> In looking at the documentation for "cdrecord", the examples showed  
> a two-step process
> of making an ISO image then burning it.
>
> Here's my deal:
>
> NEVER HAVING BURNED a CD or DVD on FreeBSD before -
> I go to the documentation to FIND OUT HOW
> and there really is no HOW
>
> So I look in vain for
>
> "What you need to do in the kernel if anything to support burning  
> CDs/DVDs"
> "What additional support libraries or software would be needed"
> "The stepwise process for burning CDs or DVDs"

It helps if people read the FreeBSD handbook:

   http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/creating- 
cds.html

> I created a junk file called "junk.tar" as a single file to put on  
> a CD to prove the command works.
> I then use
>
> burncd -f /dev/acd0 data junk.tar fixate
>
> and of course trying to
>
> mount -t cd9660 /dev/acd0 /mnt
>
> fails and the CD is also unreadable on windows.

"tar tf /dev/acd0" would give you the contents of the junk.tar file  
you burned.

> Well duh. That is because THE FILE SYSTEM HAS TO BE CREATED MANUALLY.
> Now, users used to smart unix commands read the man page and it  
> SAYS of burncd
>
> fixate writes a TOC and makes the CD readable
>
> I am writing an ISO9660 device (a device for which ISO9660 is a  
> reasonable default FS - yes? no?)
> Any meaningful defaults here? Did the man page tell me I hade to  
> wrap my data inside a filesystem image?
> I did not see that. So DUH is right.

There are lots of possible filesystems one could put on a CD.   
ISO-9660 is a common choice, and even a reasonable default, but if  
you want to write files directly to the CD as a block-access device,  
you can.

> I then said, hey.
>
> mkisofs -R -o image.raw junk.tar
>
> THEN said
>
> burncd -f /dev/acd0 data image.raw fixate
>
> and VOILA like magic all is good. It works and reads on unix and  
> windows like a champ.
>
> =======
>
> So THE FAQ and/or HOWTO SUCKS, is the problem. If that offends  
> purists, try fixing your transmission
> under deadline with a japanese shop manual translated into english  
> and no diagrams. Documentation makes
> all the difference, both to novices and to professionals. Someone  
> who knows the how and what should
> write a contributed thing - whenever they have the time and desire  
> to educate the unwashed masses.

Actually, "man burncd" does give a bunch of examples-- it has an  
entire section of them-- and finishes with the comment:

      In the examples above, the files burned to data CD-Rs are  
assumed to be
      ISO9660 file systems.  mkisofs(8), available in the FreeBSD  
Ports Collec-
      tion, as part of the sysutils/cdrtools port, is commonly used  
to create
      ISO9660 file system images from a given directory tree.

-- 
-Chuck