Chapter 9. K3b—Burning CDs or DVDs

SUSE LINUX Documentation Part III. Multimedia / Chapter 9. K3b—Burning CDs or DVDs
	8.5. Watching Digital Video Broadcasts with xawtv4		9.2. Creating an Audio CD

Table of Contents

9.1. Creating a Data CD
9.2. Creating an Audio CD
9.3. Copying a CD or DVD
9.4. Writing ISO Images
9.5. Creating a Multisession CD or DVD
9.6. For More Information

Abstract

K3b is a comprehensive program for writing data and audio CDs and DVDs. Start the program from the main menu or by entering the command k3b. The following sections brief you on how to start a basic burning process to get your first Linux-made CD or DVD.

9.1. Creating a Data CD

To create a data CD, go to ‘File’+‘New Project’+‘New Data Project’. The project view appears in the lower part of the window, as shown in Figure 9.1, “Creating a New Data CD”. Drag the desired directories or individual files from your home directory to the project folder and drop them there. Save the project under a name of your choice with ‘File’+‘Save as’.

Figure 9.1. Creating a New Data CD

Then select ‘Burn’ from the toolbar or hit Ctrl-B. A dialog with six tabs offering various options for writing the CD opens. See Figure 9.2, “Customizing the Burning Process”.

Figure 9.2. Customizing the Burning Process

The ‘Writing’ tab has various settings for the burning device, the speed, and the burning options. The following options are offered here:

‘Burning Device’

The detected writer is displayed under this pop-up menu. You can select the speed here too.

	Select Writing Speed with Care
Normally, you should select ‘Auto’, which chooses the maximum writing speed possible. However, if you increase this value but your system is not able to send the data fast enough, the likelihood of buffer underruns increases.

‘Writing Mode’

This option determines how the laser writes a CD. In DAO (disk at once) mode, the laser is not deactivated while the CD is written. This mode is recommended for the creation of audio CDs. However, it is not supported by all CD writers. In the TAO mode (track at once), a separate write process is used for each individual track. The RAW mode is not used very often, because the writer does not perform any data corrections. The best setting is ‘Auto’, because it allows K3b to use the most suitable settings.

‘Simulate’

This function can be used to check if your system supports the selected writing speed. The writing is performed with the laser deactivated to test the system.

‘On the Fly’

Burns the desired data without first creating an image file (do not use this feature on low-performance machines). An image file—also known as an ISO image—is a file containing the entire CD content that is subsequently written to the CD exactly as it is.

‘Only Create Image’

This option creates an image file. Set the path for this file under ‘Temporary File’. The image file can be written to CD at a later time. To do this, use ‘Tools’+‘CD’+‘Burn CD Image’. If this option is used, all other options in this section are deactivated.

‘Remove Image’

Remove the temporary image file from hard disk when finished.

‘Verify Written Data’

Check the integrity of the written data by comparing the MD5 sums of the original and the burned data.

The ‘Image’ tab is only accessible if the option ‘Only create image’ from the previous tab is selected. If this is the case, you can determine the file where the ISO is written.

The ‘Settings’ tab contains two options: ‘Datatrack Mode’ and ‘Multisession Mode’. The ‘Datatrack Mode’ options contains configuration of how data tracks may be written. In general, ‘auto’ is considered the best suited method. The ‘Multisession Mode’ is used to append data to a already written, but not finalized, CD.

In the ‘Volume Desc’ tab, enter some general information that can be used to identify this particular data project, its publisher and preparer, and the application and operating system used in the creation of this project.

Under ‘File system’, specify settings for the file system on the CD (RockRidge, Joliet, UDF). Also determine how symbolic links, file permissions, and blanks are treated. In the ‘Advanced’ tab, experienced users can make additional settings.

After adjusting all settings to your needs, start the actual burning process using ‘Burn’. Alternatively, save these settings for future use and adjustment with ‘Save’.