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

[Transpacific]

I ought to know better than to say "SUCKS" in any case.

I tried to make the point that, other things being equal
(I know about filesystems in general, I'm just not familiar with their 
peculiarities in dealing with CDs),
all I wanted to "see quickly" was the example use. Had the handbook's 
example for "burncd" merely
had an example "mkisofs" command generating the input to be burnt with 
burncd, I would have "gotten it"
right away. Others have pointed out that "man burncd" discusses ISOs, 
but that material is on "man page 2",
as it were - and in reading the description and arguments, I was gulled 
by the phrase "fixating the CD writes
a TOC and makes the CD readable". It said it wrote files to the CD, I 
didn't see a reminder or warning that
only ISOs would make sense. Now that I know better about what can 
meaningfully be put on a CD, now I know.
I had always equated ISOs with "bootable install images", but now I get 
it. In fact that distinction was reinforced
in using windows CD burning software where ISOs had to be handled 
differently to be written correctly - what
I was otherwise seeing was what appeared to be dumping files to the CD, 
but underneath the program was
encapsulating the data as ISO on the fly, evidently. I wouldn't suspect 
"burncd" didn't function similarly.
And, of course, everyone else already knew about ISOs, and so nobody 
thought to ask that pre-basic question.

As to the "why didn't you just read ..." - I was in a hurry; this was a 
trivial thing to be able to do, so I knew it
was only a matter of seeing commands to do it and I'd take it from 
there. In fact, I didn't go back and read the
documentation to find out what was wrong; I just took a look at the 
"cdrecord" command doc and the mkisofs
example to create the source was there, and I said, oh, ran it for 
burncd, voila. So the "missing FAQ" would
be sort of an intermediate or slight level of detail, perhaps more like 
a tear-out reference card summary of the
actions to take (and any underlying kernel/library/package requirements.)

My apologies to Father Greg.

==

Jerry McAllister wrote:

>On Fri, Mar 23, 2007 at 03:00:49PM -0400, Jerry McAllister wrote:
>
>  
>
>>On Thu, Mar 22, 2007 at 04:16:58PM -0700, 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"
>>>
>>>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.
>>>
>>>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.
>>>
>>>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.
>>>      
>>>
>
>Sorry for replying to my own reply, but.
>  
>
>>Oh, I just assumed you had done the mkiso.
>>    
>>
>
>Should be mkisofs of course.
>
>  
>
>>If that is not in the handbook and FAQ, it should be, of course.
>>    
>>
>
>Just took a look and the handbook does have all this and more.
>
>You should actually read it before jumping all over everything
>about lack of documentation.   There may be some terminology such
>as Rock Ridge and Joliet that could use a more clear explanation,
>but what you needed to know was clearly there.
>
>////jerry
>
>  
>
>>Sorry.
>>
>>////jerry
>>
>>    
>>
>>>=======
>>>
>>>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.
>>>
>>>-foo-
>>>      
>>>
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>>    
>>