CD Burning in the lab

Assume that the data you want to write in the CD are in the following directory:

/home/pepito/data_to_cd/

First, you have to create an iso image:

mkisofs -J -o pepito_data.iso /home/pepito/data_to_cd

The -J switch generates the Joliet extensions together with the iso9660 name conventions, which is a good thing for Windows systems.

The next step is to write the iso image to the CD:

cdrecord dev=0,0,0 pepito_data.iso

That's it. The dev=0,0,0 varies from machine to machine, but it should work the same in all the computers in the lab. If it does not work, you can find the right one with:

cdrecord -scanbus

It is possible that the regular users do not have permissions to write in the corresponding device (in the lab is /dev/sg0), and cdrecord will complain. In that case you will have to ask the nearest labmate with superpowers (i.e., Steve), to run as root:

chmod 666 /dev/sg0

For music CDs (this is for information only, you should be doing research and not burning music anyway ;), you have to generate the corresponding wav files, like:

ogg123 -d wav -f song.wav song.ogg
mpg321 -w song.wav song.mp3

Put all the song.wav files in one directory, and rename the tracks in the order you want them in the CD, like:

01.song....wav, 02.song...., etc.

Inside this directory, run:

cdrecord dev=0,0,0 -audio *.wav