The CdRecord page, for configuring the defaults for cdrecord.

cdrecord is a terminal program that performs cd burning operations to CDs-DVDs.

It belongs to the cdrtools package in Slackware and something relevant to other Distros.

If cdrecord is not globally configured, then it needs all the information through the command line.

This is not a problem if you use programs that act as frontends and are generally more friendly, considering not only configuration, but actual operation as well.

XCdRoast and cdrtoaster are some frontends. cdrtoaster in particular is a tcl/tk graphical script!

There may be occasions however, that you may need the functionality of the terminal program itself.

Despite all its power and functionality, trying man cdrecord may result in panic, not only for the Linux newbie.

So, to configure defaults about cd-dvd writer, burning speed and cache will not harm at all, especially because all default configuratuion can be overriden through the command line.

Frontends can be used - if configured - by any user, but crdecord itself is run by root.

furthermore, for kernels before 2.6.0, scsi emulation must be enabled, but this is always taken care by Linux Distros.

Be root and issue the command cdrecord - scanbus.
root@athlon:/home/micro# cdrecord -scanbus
Cdrecord 2.00.3 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2002 Jörg Schilling
Linux sg driver version: 3.1.25
Using libscg version 'schily-0.7'
scsibus0:
        0,0,0     0) 'SONY    ' 'CD-RW  CRX175E2 ' 'S002' Removable CD-ROM
        0,1,0     1) *
        0,2,0     2) *
        0,3,0     3) *
        0,4,0     4) *
        0,5,0     5) *
        0,6,0     6) *
        0,7,0     7) *
root@athlon:/home/micro#

cdrecord will printout information about real or emulated SCSI Cd Recording RW or WORM Devices.

Q: Excuse me, what's a WORM device?
A: Write Once Read Many.

Now we can configure the defaults.
Continue running as root, and type:
pico /etc/defaults/cdrecord or use your favorite text editor.
An example of /etc/defaults/cdrecord
Sony=0,0,0 8 16M burnfree
CDR_DEVICE=Sony

We named the first (and only in my box) device 0,0,0 "Sony", 8x default writing speed and 16Mb cache.

We also configured it to be the default cdr device.

And the burnfree capability will be used.

That's it.

Now we can make an iso image of a directory containing movies for example:
micro@athlon:/home/shared/documents$ mkisofs -o movies.iso Movies
This ISO image is 122 Mb

Then we simply do: cdrecord -v movies.iso as root with an empty cd inside the recorder.

Now with not all that panic, we can revisit the cdrecord manual page and learn more.

That's all folks.

Q: No, wait. What more do I need to know more about mkisofs?
A: mkisofs can add more than one directories to the iso image.

To be certain about the image size, all you have to do is for example:
du -sh Movies to know about the directory size.

In addition, this iso image can be mounted as a directory and tested before burned.

Login as root:
mkdir /mnt/iso
mount -t iso9660 -o ro,loop movies.iso /mnt/iso
and then:
ls /mnt/iso for example

That's all folks.