Burn CDs with the Solaris™ 8 Operating Environment

A simple command-line program, cdrecord, makes burning CDs with Solaris software quick, simple, and cost-effective. The cdrecord program, which works for both SPARC™ and Intel architecture systems, is included on the Solaris Software Companion CD (Update 2 and higher), and is also available for free download from http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/freeware/download.html.

While optional, configuring a cdrecord startup file, /etc/default/cdrecord, will save time in the future. This startup configuration file can hold information that cdrecord will need every time it's used, such as the CD recorder's speed, device name, the preferred buffer size, and so on. Alternatively, these options can be entered into the command line before every use.

The first step is to identify the CD recorder device name, which can be found by scanning the device buses. In order to scan the devices, however, the volume management must be turned off.

1. Log in as root.

2. Turn off volume management by typing /etc/init.d/volmgt stop.

3. Discover the CD recorder and CD-ROM drive device names by typing cdrecord -scanbus at the root prompt. The command output should be similar to this:

   # cdrecord -scanbus
   cdrecord 1.9 (i386-pc-solaris2.8) Copyright (C) 1995-2000
   1,0,0 100) 'CREATIVE' 'CD5233E ' '1.00' Removable 
     CD-ROM
   2,4,0 204) 'PLEXTOR' 'CD-R PX-R820T' '1.05' Removable 
     CD-ROM

The device ID is the first three numbers listed in each entry—in this case, device 2,4,0 is the CD recorder. The configuration file can also include a recording speed (for example, 8 times), and a buffer size (for example, 8 megabytes) to help avoid under runs. To create the configuration file, located in /etc/default/cdrecord, type the following:

# cat /etc/default/cdrecord
CDR_FIFOSIZE=8m
CDR_SPEED=8
CDR_DEVICE=USCSI:2,4,0

The cdrecord program startup configuration file is now set up for the future!

CD to CD

To duplicate an existing CD, insert the CD into the CD-ROM drive. (Remember, duplicating CDs might require certain copyright and license permissions!) Then follow these steps:

1. Determine the controller and target numbers. These are listed in the cdrecord -scanbus output (from the previous steps):

1,0,0 100) 'CREATIVE' 'CD5233E ' '1.00' Removable CD-ROM

The first number is the controller number and the second number is the target number. In this case, they're set at 1 and 0, respectively. Also note that in the Solaris 8 platform, the IDE CD-ROM drive device names are very similar to SCSI device names—both contain target numbers.

Choose an output file with sufficient free hard disk space (at least 700MB recommended). For this example, the free space is located in the /local filesystem.

2. Capture an ISO image file of the CD by typing the following (at the root prompt):

# dd if=/dev/dsk/c1t0d0p0 of=/local/mycdromfile.iso

It will take about 5–10 minutes to copy the entire CD image file to disk.

3. After inserting a blank CD into the CD-ROM drive, burn the image from disk onto a second CD by typing this:

# cdrecord -v /local/mycdromfile.iso

This should take about 15–30 minutes, depending on the speed of the CD burner. In the above command, -v displays each step with extra information, just in case something isn't successful.