[Techtalk] Writing to CD-RW

[Anne Wainwright]

Hi, Rudy,

see lower down.

On Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:33:01 +0800
Rudy Zijlstra <rudy at grumpydevil.homelinux.org> wrote:

> Anne Wainwright wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I just set up a cd-rw to keep my favourite photos on, incrementing
> > them over time. I used to do this on Windows, where the cd-rw
> > installs like a hard drive and you can drag-and-drop files and it
> > will write to the cd automagically.
> >
> > In ubuntu using the gnome CD/DVD Creator this does not happen, it
> > successfully blanks the disk of everything already on it and then
> > writes the new stuff to the disk.
> >
> > I use the F-Spot photo organiser which offers to export to CD, all
> > goes well until it gets to this roadblock when it hooks in to
> > CD/DVD Creator.
> >
> > Have looked at other available cd writing packages like cdrskin and
> > mybashburn but do not see that this issue is explicitly covered.
> > Have also done a search on my list of techtalk posts going back to
> > only to 2006, and also on The Mail Archive, for any relevant
> > discussion. Nothing found.
> >
> > Is this a fundamental difference in cd-rw philosophy on linux, am I
> > expecting something I am not going to get?
> >
> > thanks for assistance in advance
> > Anne
> >   
> 
> Hi Anne,
> 
> There are 2 ways of writing an CDROM. On is using ISOFS (and all the 
> tools you have described use that), the other is using UDF, see 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Disk_Format for more
> information.
> 
> Although linux can read UDF, i have never investigated writing using
> UDF under linux. And what you are describing sounds very much like
> UDF usage under windows (which has its own problems).
> 
> If it works, you probably have to mount using udf, after which you
> can simply drag and drop onto it.
> 
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> 
> Rudy

Yes, you are right. Everywhere that I look, CD-RW and packet writing
and UDF file system are linked.

Things like cdrskin and mybashburn make no mention of udf.

I see in Ubuntu udftools which seems to offer needed utilities. I
further note that K3b appears to handle UDF but with no mention of
packet writing, this is in the Wikipedia entry. but I find nothing on
the K3b site, and anything I google (or bing) is either old and/or
related to burning large files. In any case udftools appears to put one
back at the command-line age, nothing wrong with that but nothing wrong
with modern conveniences either.

Maybe I should not be using CD-RW as my investigations indicate limited
shelf life of these disks, but that is a seperate issue.

I will follow this further, see my posts to the other respondents to my
original post.

thanks so much
Anne