Using the CD-Writer

Well, I figured out that you successfully installed your CD-Writer and of course the installation is not complete if you don't successfully record you favorite CDs. The CD-RW has become the favorite device to make backups, and of course archiving files has never been easier using many utilities out there; and Linux is not an exception.

Linux comes with powerful utilities; among them are my favorites, the X-CD Roast and Eroaster. Using your CD Writer under Linux is fairly simple. First you have to install the software and then run the setup (a required configuration).

Install the following packages (each is a different package).

• X-CD Roast
• Eroaster

If you run the software as a regular user for the first time, you will receive a warning message saying that is not configured yet, so it instructs you to run it under root.

Fig 7.1

Do as it says; logout and re-login as root. Start the graphical interface and run X-CD-Roast, it is located under:

Kstart => application => archiving => CD-writer

When you run this configuration, it is one time only. It is mainly to set up the drive, the hard drive space for mirroring the image of your copies and of course your users.

Follow the instruction below to configure it. Look at the picture it shows the details on the configuration.

Fig 7.2

• To start the configuration, click on Setup

This will auto run a drive scan and will present your CD-Writer and any other removable devices.

Fig 7.3

The next step is configuring the correct parameters for the CD-Writer.

• Click on CD Setting tab

Fig 7.4

Make sure that you have the correct drive selected. On the write mode leave it as default.

For the writer's speed, you need to adjust this at a proper speed to make sure you don't get too many errors. For example I have a 24x CD-Writer but depending on the media that I am using, the automatic speed adjustment does not work properly. To fix this problem, I use the writer at a lower speed; at 16x and all the errors disappeared.

Next, you need to set the space on the hard drive for the image storage. Look on the following picture, it shows /home/CD-RW

Fig 7.5

If you are going to use the default directory, make sure that it really exists, and it is writeable.

Fig 7.6

On the miscellaneous tab, you will set the sound option. This is important if you need to receive warning notifications.

The next tab is the options. In this panel you can select the way it will browse for files for your backups.

Last but not least, are the Users. In this panel you specify who can run these applications

Fig 7.7

It is important that you add all users who will use this application.

If you prefer, at the bottom of this panel there is an option to activate non-root privilege. When Change Non-Root Configuration is active, you don't need to run the configuration under root privilege, because any user then can launch it. Once the configuration is finished, you can start using it to create your CDS.

The duplicate CD option from Figure 7.2 allows you to duplicate an exact replica of the original CD.

Fig 7.8

To store specific files to a CD, you need the Create CD option from the main menu (figure 7.2).

Fig 7.9

You can choose the files you need to backup as shown on this picture. CD-Roast is not difficult to use. If you have used a version of Nero for windows; it is almost the same.

• During the configuration, you set your image directory. In this panel you will see all of your images/ISO at the right window title "Image Information". When you have your ISO images ready to be burn, just click on the "Write Track" buttons.

Fig 7.10

• Click on "Layout Tracks" tab, select an image/ISO you want to burn, click the "add" button, then click the "accept track layout" button.

Fig 7.11

• The following panel "Images" shows your current ISO image, if it is the correct image/ISO then it is ready to burn...by clicking the "Write Tracks" button

Fig 7.12