DVD Burning
Template:Article summary start Template:Article summary text Template:Article summary heading Template:Article summary wiki Template:Article summary wiki Template:Article summary wiki Template:Article summary heading Template:Article summary wiki Template:Article summary wiki Template:Article summary end
Writing (or "burning") DVDs requires a different approach than burning CDs. DVDs offer much higher capacities, and the standard CD writing tools will not suffice.
This HOWTO covers a narrow scope for now: writing data onto DVDs using the command line.
Contents
Required packages
- You still need the standard CD writing tools known as cdrtoolsAUR (which can be replaced by cdrkit, if desired).
- You also need the new DVD writing tools known as dvd+rw-tools found in the official repositories.
Procedure
This HOWTO will use the command growisofs
from the dvd+rw-tools package. If you have ever written CDs from the command line before, you will know the process of first creating an iso9660 file (mkisofs
), and then burning it to CD (cdrecord
). growisofs
merges these steps, so you do not need extra storage space for the ISO file anymore. Another advantage is that multisession writing has been simplified.
Overview
Essentially, writing a new DVD follows this procedure:
$ growisofs -Z /dev/cdrw -r -J /path/to/files
where /dev/cdrw
is your DVD writer device.
To continue a DVD (write an additional session), you use:
$ growisofs -M /dev/cdrw -r -J /path/to/files
To burn an ISO image to disc, use:
$ growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/cdrw=/path/to/iso
To create a video DVD, use the following (NOTE: rather than using /dev/srN
directly, consider /dev/dvdN
or even just plain /dev/dvd
):
$ growisofs -Z /dev/sr0 -dvd-video /path/to/video
-
-Z
- start at the beginning of the DVD using the following device
-
-M
- start after the last session on the disc using the following device
-
-r
- Rock Ridge support with sane permission settings (recommended, extended Unix info)
-
-J
- Joliet support (recommended, extended info for Windows NT and Windows 95)
-r
will choose different permissions than the real ones; to use the exact permissions use -R
instead. See the man page of mkisofs
for more information.readcd
:
$ readcd -v dev=/dev/cdrw -f image.isoas per CD Burning Tips, then use the
growisofs
example above to burn the ISO to a new blank disc.Example
Although the above might suffice for you, some users require extra settings to successfully write DVDs.
A simple DVD writing template:
$ growisofs -Z /dev/cdrw -v -l -dry-run -iso-level 3 -R -J -speed=2 -joliet-long -graft-points /files/=/path/to/files/
-
-Z
- as seen above, this starts a new DVD; to continue a multisession DVD, use
-M
-
-v
- increase verbosity level (more output)
-
-l
- breaks DOS compatibility but allows for longer filenames
-
-dry-run
- simulate writing (remove this flag if you are sure that everything is set up correctly)
-
-iso-level 3
- defines how strict you want to adhere to the iso9660 standard (
-iso-level 1
is very strict while-iso-level 4
is very loose) -
-R
- see above
-
-J
- see above
-
-speed=2
- start burning at 2X speed
-
-joliet-long
- allows longer Joliet file names
The final part needs more explanation:
-graft-points /files/=/path/to/files/
This specifies that files will be stored in the subdirectory /files
rather than the DVD root. See the mkisofs
manual for details.
growisofs
is basically just a front-end to mkisofs
. That means that any option for mkisofs
also works with growisofs
. See the mkisofs
man page for details.Re-writable DVDs
The process for burning re-writable discs is almost the same as for normal DVDs. However, keep in mind that virgin DVD+RW media needs to be initially formatted ("blanked") prior to usage. Blanking can be done using the program dvd+rw-format
like this:
$ dvd+rw-format /dev/cdrw
where /dev/cdrw
is your DVD writer device.
Troubleshooting
Permission denied
If you encounter a permissions error, make sure that you are a member of the group "optical":
# usermod -aG optical username
after which you will have to log off and then log on again.
growisofs
will not run via sudo.