## Homepage of

#
cdrskin

## Limited cdrecord compatibility wrapper for libburn

## Purpose:

- Burns preformatted data to CD-R or CD-RW

## Hardware requirements:

A CD recorder suitable for libburn.pykix.org (SCSI or IDE/ATAPI writers compliant to mmc standard).

## Software requirements :

Linux kernel 2.4 or higher
  With kernel 2.4 the drive has to be under ide-scsi emulation.
  With kernel 2.6 the drive should not be under ide-scsi.
libpthread
  is supposed to be a standard system component.

## GPL software included:

libburn-0.2.1 (inofficially stable SVN snapshot)
  (by Derek Foreman, Ben Jansens, and team of libburn.pykix.org)
  transfers data to CD

This program system has been tested on Intel/AMD Linux systems only.
Ports to other usable systems are appreciated. Reports are welcome.

## Special features:

- Source code is independent of cdrecord

## Commands:

The goal is to provide some of cdrecord's options in a compatible way. This has been achieved quite sufficiently for the needs of backup tool scdbackup and for data CD projects of K3b (see examples).
Further enhancements depend on people who can describe and discuss their wishes as well as on the development of libburn.
cdrskin -help
  reports the cdrecord compatible options
cdrskin --help
  reports the non-cdrecord options
man cdrecord
  documents the standard for which cdrskin is striving. Do not bother Joerg Schilling with any cdrskin problems. (Be cursed if you install cdrskin as "cdrecord" without clearly forwarding this "don't bother Joerg" demand.)
Currently (and sparsely) supported gestures :
  $ cdrskin -scanbus
  $ cdrskin dev=1,1,0 -checkdrive
  $ cdrskin dev=1,1,0 -atip
  $ cdrskin -v dev=1,1,0 blank=all eject_device=/dev/cdrom -eject
  $ cdrskin -v dev=1,1,0 blank=fast eject_device=/dev/cdrom -eject
  $ cdrskin -v dev=1,1,0 speed=12 fs=8m -sao driveropts=burnfree eject_device=/dev/cdrom -eject padsize=300k my_image.iso
  $ cdrskin -v dev=1,1,0 ... ... track_1.iso padsize=300k track_2.afio
  $ find . | afio -oZ - | cdrskin -v dev=1,1,0 fs=32m speed=8 -sao driveropts=burnfree padsize=300k tsize=650m -

## Known deficiencies:

- No audio features yet. (Note: Option -audio is enabled in cdrskin-0.1.5 as offered below, but no beheading of .au or .wav files takes place yet.)
- Burns only a single closed session. No -multi option yet.
- No TAO mode and therefore no writing on-the-fly without a predefined source size.
- cdrskin -scanbus or --devices hangs for quite a while if there is a CD drive which does not work properly (e.g. because it has individual problems with DMA). So if the superuser gets no result with cdrskin --devices then one should disable DMA with the problematic CD drives (like: `hdparm -d0 /dev/hdd` ) and try again.
  In severe cases it might be necessary to guess the device name /dev/sgN resp. /dev/hdX of the non-ill burner if it cannot be found otherwise among its ill peers. Alternatively one can guess the address of the ill device, remove rw-permissions and retry the bus scan as non-superuser.
- Burners other than /dev/sg0 and /dev/hdX (i.e. without ide-scsi) need a user supplied device address for program eject. (Note: -eject is now working in libburn-0.2.1 SVN and the workaround described here is obsolete with cdrskin-0.1.5 as offered below.)

Download as source code (see README):
  cdrskin-0.1.4.tar.gz (580 KB).
  The "stable" cdrskin tarballs are tested and eventually slightly modified SVN snapshots from libburn.pykix.org . All modifications are to be re-merged into that SVN repository.
  cdrskin is part of libburn - full libburn is provided with cdrskin releases.
Download as single x86 binaries (untar and move to /usr/bin/cdrskin):
  cdrskin_0.1.4-x86-suse9_0.tar.gz, (50 KB),
    runs on SuSE 9.0 (2.4.21) , RIP-14.4 (2.6.14) , Gentoo (2.6.15 x86_64 Athlon).
  cdrskin_0.1.4-x86-suse9_0-static.tar.gz, (250 KB), -static compiled,
    runs on SuSE 7.2 (2.4.4), and on the systems above.

Documentation:
  README a short introduction
  cdrskin --help non-cdrecord options
  cdrskin -help cdrecord compatible options

Contact:
  Thomas Schmitt, scdbackup@gmx.net

License:
  GPL, an Open Source approved license

Development snapshot:
  README 0.1.5
  cdrskin_0.1.5 --help
  cdrskin_0.1.5 -help
  Maintainers of cdrskin unstable packages please use SVN of libburn.pykix.org
  Download: `svn co http://libburn-svn.pykix.org/trunk libburn_pykix`
  Build: `cd libburn_pykix ; ./bootstrap ; ./configure ; make`
  Build of SVN versions needs autotools of at least version 1.7 installed. But after the run of `./bootstrap`, only vanilla tools like make and gcc are needed.
The following downloads are intended for adventurous end users or admins with full system souvereignty.
Source (./bootstrap is already applied, build tested, for more see above upcoming README ):
  cdrskin-0.1.5.tar.gz (580 KB).
Binary (untar and move to /usr/bin/cdrskin):
  cdrskin_0.1.5-x86-suse9_0.tar.gz, (50 KB).
  cdrskin_0.1.5-x86-suse9_0-static.tar.gz, (250 KB)

Many thanks to Joerg Schilling for cdrecord,
and to Derek Foreman and Ben Jansens for creating libburn.
Historic versions based on Derek's and Ben's icculus.org/burn :
cdrskin-0.1.2.0.2.ts.tar.gz
cdrskin-0.1.3.0.2.ts.tar.gz

Example for a setup of device permissions. To be done by the superuser:
(CD devices which offer no r-permission are invisible to normal users.)
(CD devices which offer no w-permission are not useable.)
  # `cdrskin --devices`
  `...`
  `0 dev='/dev/sg0' rwrwr- : 'TEAC' 'CD-ROM CD-532S'`
  `1 dev='/dev/hdc' rwrw-- : 'LITE-ON' 'LTR-48125S'`
  # `chmod a+rw /dev/sg0 /dev/hdc`

Example how to setup K3b to use cdrskin for burning data CD projects.
(K3b is a GUI frontend which uses cdrecord for CD burning.)

Example for a test session with a cdrecord based scdbackup installation:
  $ `cdrskin -scanbus`
  `...`
  `scsibus1:`
  `1,0,0 0) 'TEAC' 'CD-ROM CD-532S' '?' Removable CD-ROM`
  `scsibus2:`
  `2,2,0 1) 'LITE-ON' 'LTR-48125S' '?' Removable CD-ROM`
  $ `export SCDBACKUP_SCSI_ADR="2,2,0"`
  $ `export SCDBACKUP_CDRECORD="cdrskin -v -v tao_to_sao_tsize=650m eject_device=/dev/cdrecorder"`
  (eject_device= has to be the appropriate address for program eject)
  $ `scdbackup_home`

Example for a permanent configuration of cdrskin based scdbackup
  $ `cd scdbackup-0.8.6/inst`
  $ `export SCDBACKUP_USE_CDRSKIN=1`
  $ `export SCDBACKUP_EJECT_ADR=/dev/cdrecorder`
  $ `./CONFIGURE_CD`
  `...`
  `cdrskin 0.1.2 : limited cdrecord compatibility wrapper for libburn`
  `...`
  `------------------- SCSI devices. To be used like 0,0,0`

If your system is stricken with some ill CD device then this can stall and you will have to press `Ctrl+C` to abort. In this case, you may execute `export SCDBACKUP_NO_SCANBUS=1` and try again.

  `1,0,0 0) 'TEAC' 'CD-ROM CD-532S' '?' Removable CD-ROM`
  `2,2,0 1) 'LITE-ON' 'LTR-48125S' '?' Removable CD-ROM`
  `------------------- end of SCSI device list`
  `...`
  `* Your cdrecord offers -driveropts=burnfree with your recorder.`
  `...`
  `scdbackup for CD 0.8.6 : First stage of installation done.`
  `...`
  `Now give it a try. Run : scdbackup_home`
  $ `unset SCDBACKUP_USE_CDRSKIN SCDBACKUP_EJECT_ADR`

To get back to using cdrecord :
  $ `cd scdbackup-0.8.6/inst`
  $ `export SCDBACKUP_USE_CDRSKIN=0`
  $ `./CONFIGURE_CD`
  `...`
  $ `unset SCDBACKUP_USE_CDRSKIN`

### About the relationship of cdrecord and cdrskin

First of all: this relationship is single sided, as cdrskin has to be aware of cdrecord but not vice versa.
I am a long time user of cdrecord and it works fine for me. Especially i do appreciate its write mode -tao which allows to pipe arbitrary data on CD and CD-RW via stdin. cdrecord is reliable, versatile and well maintained. So for me - there would be not problem with it.
But the author of cdrecord and the Linux kernel people foster a very hostile relationship. Ok, that's their business, not mine (or ours if you are with me). One has to be aware, though, that this relationship might lead to a situation where cdrecord is no longer available for certain Linux kernels.
To have my own project prepared for such a time, i began to implement its cdrecord gestures on top of libburn. From now on i invite other interested users of cdrecord to teach cdrskin the gestures necessary for their cdrecord applications. Contact me. Let's see what we can achieve.
I am aware that libburn and cdrskin still have way to go until you can simply install cdrskin as cdrecord and may expect any application to run with it. Currently i do not encourage this approach, but of course such a replacement opportunity is the long term goal of a cdrecord compatibility wrapper.
It is very important to me that this project is not perceived as hostile towards Joerg Schilling and his ongoing work. I owe him much. For cdrecord, for mkisofs, for star. Chapeau.

Enjoying free Open Source hosting by www.webframe.org
and by sourceforge.net

Links to my other published software projects :
  scdbackup, multi volume CD backup
    (a second source of above)
  Some Tools for Image Collectors
    (a second source of above)
  pppoem, a DSL throughput monitor (mainly for Linux kernel 2.4)

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