CD Burning?

[mcdougrs]

Hey everyone,

I have been wondering about this ever since I got a CD burner almost 3 years ago... Why isn't CD burning built into the kernel and whatever the Windows equivilant would be? For some reason it just makes sense to me that I should be able to use a pice of hardware without using special software. I do understand that this thought is still here because of my complete lack of knowledge on OS programming and hardware functionality just to name a couple.

Just a thought that I kinda wanted to share.

[CP]

There are quite a few good apps out there for CD Burning in Linux, and a lot of really good documentation. I think there is a PET here on it. I used to use K3B, which is a great app, but requires KDE, so when I switched to Fluxbox I started to use XCDRoast, not quite so good, but still not bad. HTH
CP

[mcdougrs]

I know, and I haven't even needed to burn anything while in Linux (I only recently made a dedicated Linux laptop and it is an older one) so this was purely a hypothetical question, why the support isn't just build in... I mean you can read a CD because, I assume, the ability is built into the kernel. Why not CD burning?

Just a question like I said and I don't know anything when it comes to the kernal or CD burning (maybe a little) for that matter?

The easiest way to enable cd burning in linux is to enable scsi emulation during install. When it says options to pass to kernel do "hdc=ide-scsi" this will enable scsi emulation and allow you to use xcdroast.

[trickster]

Windows did not had built-in cd-burning supportuntil Windows XP, and that is not full support really. More so, I doubt is supported at kernel level, but that Microsoft just packed a cd-burning application as part of Windows. Red Hat has a cd burning application bundled with it, if I can recall correctly.
I don't know really if it would be possible to add that support at kernel level. However, on my opinion, it would just make your kernel bigger, and consume more resources by having that support loaded even if you were not using it at the moment.

cd burning is not even really in the kernel so that is why it is not "built-in" most stock kernels do include the modules necessary to enable burning these modules are also used for other devices such as zip drives. most oses, in the past, were the same they only had the kernel modules necessary to support cdrw hardware and it was up to the user to purchase the necessary software to burn.

linux happens to have some of the best burning software out there. none surpasses the first and best though which is cdrecord. all others are merely front ends. cdrecord is pretty standard on every distro. any that doesn't have it is just plain stupid imho.

my two cents.

[horus]

[quote author=Izan Seth link=board=12;threadid=5874;start=0#56021 date=1040014473]
I know, and I haven't even needed to burn anything while in Linux (I only recently made a dedicated Linux laptop and it is an older one) so this was purely a hypothetical question, why the support isn't just build in... I mean you can read a CD because, I assume, the ability is built into the kernel. Why not CD burning?

Just a question like I said and I don't know anything when it comes to the kernal or CD burning (maybe a little) for that matter?
[/quote]

Yeah... I always thought that having to compile in all the modules needed for CD-RW support was kinda hokey. Glad to see that Red Hat 7.2 compiled it all in for me during install this trip when it found my CDRW drive during hardware probing.

That's right. I didn't have to do a thing except configure XCDRoast and I was burnin' with the best of 'em. The deal here is making sure your hardware is supported... many CDRWs are not recognized. I have a Lite-On 48X that was found first try. My old Memorex 2X was a much higher quality piece of equipment (even if it was older and slower), but Linux didn't seem to like it for some reason... I never did get it to work, and I tried everything in every CDRW how-to I could get my hands on. This new drive (and possibly new motherboard) made all the difference.

Moral: if you're running anything after RH 7.2, check your hardware if it didn't get set up for you... something may be wrong or incompatible.
If your drive is supported, definitely look at enabling the ide-over-scsi emulation (unless it's a SCSI CDRW you're trying to configure...)

Hope this helps you out some.

Later On,
horus

The newest cdrtools (2.0) actually supports ATAPI cdburning (that means none of that scsi emulation crap).. So now we have the same level of cdr support as say FreeBSD.

And with the upcoming kernel 2.6 we will have support to DMA transfers for CD devices, this again means better CD burning backend than Windows (I mean technically we are all ready better, but featurewise we will support the same and maybe even more than Wintendo)

(most distros already ship with a backport of this wonderful patch)

Now... go ahead and install K3B and burn your heart out.

[Kernel_Killer]

I used to use K3B, which is a great app, but requires KDE, so when I switched to Fluxbox I started to use XCDRoast,

I use K3B in Flux. E-Roaster is good too. Might need to use SCSI emulation when you boot up though for these.

[CP]

Do you have the KDE libs or anything installed? Or can I just install it without? I have XCDroast working fine, but I thought that K3B required KDE, which is why I switched.
CP