[Debburn-devel] wodim -tao and wodim -msinfo doesn't work on a DVD

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

> I still don't know
> how to make a real appending on the disk. This would be nice on a non
> rewriteable DVD.

Well, if you insist in using wodim or cdrecord then you are out
of luck, as it seems.

Try one of the programs which know better about DVD specs.
E.g. get cdrskin (by me) which understands many options of
cdrecord resp. wodim.
It runs on Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris.

If you cannot get a precompiled package, then build it from source.
Get
  http://scdbackup.sourceforge.net/cdrskin-1.0.4.pl00.tar.gz
go with it to a directory of your choice and do
  tar xzf cdrskin-1.0.4.pl00.tar.gz
  cd cdrskin-1.0.4
  ./configure
  make
and as superuser
  make install

The multi-session cycle on DVD-R[W] is the same as with wodim on CD.
Avoid option -sao in all sessions.

First session:
  genisoimage -o first_session.iso ...your.options...
  cdrskin -v dev=/dev/sr0 -multi -eject first_session.iso

Further sessions:
  c_values=$(cdrskin dev=/dev/sr0 -msinfo 2>/dev/null)
  genisoimage -o further_session.iso -M /dev/sr0 -C $c_values \
              ...your.options...
  cdrskin -v dev=/dev/sr0 -multi -eject further_session.iso

Blanking:
  cdrskin -v dev=/dev/sr0 blank=fast

blank=fast will do full blanking on DVD-RW.
Only blank=deformat_sequential_quickest does the crippling fast
blanking of DVD-RW.

Make sure to eject and reload between sessions. Else the operating
system will not be aware of the content change on the DVD.
genisoimage -M would then not work properly.


Having warned about the pitfalls of -M, let me finally point out that
less tricky ISO 9660 multi session is performed by my program
xorriso which is a combined ISO 9660 program and burn program.
See
  http://www.gnu.org/software/xorriso/xorriso.html


Have a nice day :)

Thomas