# CD/DVD Burning Nightmare

## DaleNixon

I've been happily burning CDs with cdrecord for years in linux.  I've been burning DVDs with growisofs for the last few months as well.  I always ignored the warnings that cdrecord likes to throw out about buffer underruns etc. when burning as a normal user, but apparently I shouldn't have.

   Many of the CDs and DVDs I've burned in the past give me Input/output errors when I try to copy them back to my hard drive.  The only solution I can think of is to burn CDs and DVDs as root.  Is there any way to safely burn CDs and DVDs as a normal user?  I sortof assumed that I was safe since I've burned countless discs in Windows and the Mac OS with no problems.

Note:  This phenomenon has occurred across mutliple burners and motherboards, so I'm fairly certain it is not a hardware problem.

----------

## zieloo

Add the user to cdrecording group in /etc/group

----------

## DaleNixon

 *Quote:*   

> Add the user to cdrecording group in /etc/group

 

```
cheryl root # grep cdrecording /etc/group

cheryl root #
```

Hmmm.... I don't seem to have one.

OH... the cdrw group?    :Embarassed:   :Surprised: 

What exactly does this group have access to?  Is there a doc someone can point me to?

----------

## mazirian

I was burning CDs fine until somewhere in the kernel 2.6.9 series, then nothing would burn correctly.  I use cdrecord from the command line and sometimes nautilus's built in burning feature.  I researched this issue on the forums and, after receiving the same advice, added myself to the cdrom and cdrw groups.  This did not solve the problem, however.  The only way I can now assure an accurate copy is to run cdrecord as root.  Oddly, this contradicts many current threads here that say you should not need to do this.

Maybe someone will jump in here with some ideas...?

----------

## zieloo

My advice is not to use a >2.6.7 kernel... Maybe you cannot burn, because in 2.6.x kernel versions burning via ATAPI interface is default? Check it out - you will need to turn off scsi emulation in your kernl. conf.

----------

## DaleNixon

I am using 2.6.7 and will stick with it until the kernel devs and the cd burning people can hold hands and sing again.  Anyway, my kernel version is not to blame.  I've put myself in the cdrw group (not in the cdrom group... is that necessary too?).  Unfortunately, I haven't needed to burn anything since I posted this... hehe... I'll probably burn a test CD as a user just to see if it writes bad data.

----------

## zieloo

What exact errors do you experience? I've never had problems with cd burning since I added scsi emulation to the krnel. Works perfectly... I even made my antic cdrw to burn at speed 11x-12x while it's maximum speed is only 8x... (ust a little digression:P)

----------

## mazirian

cdrecord gives me the standard error messages warning me not to use it with a 2.6 kernel and then burns the disc.  The real error is that cdrecrd creates coasters.  You get read/write errors when accessing data on the cdr it burns.  I can only produce an exact copy of a disc image (verified by hash comparison) by running cdrecord as root.   It's not the end of the world, I just had the impression that it shouldn't be necessary to have to burn as root.

----------

## zieloo

And it's not neccessary in fact... I do it succesully without su-ing to r00t. I saw it somewhere that sb got the same problem. Don't sure if it's this forum...

----------

## piewie

still no burning problems with 2.6.7-love5

----------

## vonhelmet

I can't burn CDs with cdrecord. Full stop. No questions asked. It doesn't want to work any more on my setup. I've tried several different kernels, tried it as root, non-root, fiddled with the suid bit on executables, tried doing it with k3b, in the console, tried ATAPI, tried SCSI emulation (yes, in a 2.6 kernel)... You name it.

No luck. It just won't work. It prints some error messages, then the process goes zombie and won't die and it locks the CD drive.

I've no idea what the problem is, or why it won't burn. I've gotten beyond caring, because it seems there is no single cause or solution for this problem. A million people on the forums are suffering, all with slightly different symptoms, and a lot of them can't fix it with any of the advice being given out.

Want my advice, which worked for me flawlessly?

Install cdrdao and use that. Screw cdrecord.

In the meantime, wait for Jorg Schilling to chill and hack his code so it works with the - apparently dubious - linux kernel interface, or for the kernel guys to sort out what the hell they're doing, or for Linus to get sick of the whole damn thing and write it himself, or for the work on libburn to get finished.

Use cdrdao. Seriously.

----------

## mazirian

Don't have much experiance with cdrdao, but  I'll give it a shot.

Thanks for the advice.

----------

## DaleNixon

I burned a test disc as a user in the cdrw group and it worked fine although I still got the scary warning about buffer underruns.

----------

## tristure

From my experience (My pb being that most of the CD I burn are unreadable), cdrdao didn't change anything. I still get the same problem.

Tried various kernels, from 2.6.7 gentoo dev sources to 2.6.9 nitro 4...

I'm on the verge of the nervous breakdown with this issue. Just when the whole rest of my setup was at last working perfectly   :Crying or Very sad: 

----------

## DaleNixon

Even when you burn as root?

----------

## tristure

Yes.

----------

