Multisession CDs created with K3B are corrupted

[tlahtopil]

If you burn a CD in K3B with "Start multisession" option, you may get a corrupted disc, unmountable and unreadable by almost any general purpose computer.

 

This happens because cdrecord is called with "-xa1" flag, wich forces a very uncommon disc format. There's no way yet for the average desktop user (like me) to change the command sent by a frontend like K3B, so, if your frontend doesn't allow to change the command line in the Preferences or Configure windows, and thus delete or replace the "-xa1" flag with "-data" (so your disc has the most-common format), you may need a hack to get rid of it.

 

Here's the one I found (http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/ar...005/05/3/283857), translated to more understandable terms:

 

1. Quit all your CD burning frontends.

2. All this must be done as Root, so you may better work in a Root terminal or start a Konqueror-like graphic file manager as Root, with terminal emulator enabled.

3. Find cdrecord (type "which cdrecord" in your terminal).

4. Create a script with a plain text editor:

 

# replace "-xa1" with "-data"

re_match="-xa1"

replace="-data"

parg=$(echo $* | sed -e "s/$re_match/$replace/")

#echo "$parg"

/usr/bin/w_cdrecord $parg

 

5. Save it as "cdrecord-wrapper" in a new directory inside the one you found cdrecord (here, "/usr/local/bin/patch/").

6. Enable all permissions on cdrecord-wrapper for everybody, including the execution ones.

7. Rename cdrecord to "w_cdrecord" (select the icon and hit F2; in terminal, type "mv /usr/bin/cdrecord /usr/bin/w_cdrecord").

8. Make a symlink in the same directory where you found cdrecord (now, w_cdrecord) called (of course) "cdrecord", that points to the script (type in terminal "ln -s /usr/local/bin/patch/cdrecord-wrapper /usr/bin/cdrecord"). _Don't_ create a symlink with the graphic file manager, it may not work.

9. Leave immediately Root mode (close your Root terminal or graphic file manager).

10. Start K3B or your preferred frontend and give a try. If K3B finds any problem with permissions, it will guide you to fix them. You may also need to open Preferences > Configure K3B... (with dots) > Programs, select "cdrecord" and click on "Find".

 

Toys like "magicdev" or "automount" may crash your burning process, so you better disable or kill them before starting K3B. I found this mandatory to continue multisession discs.

 

 

** Silly question I don't want to answer with my own box: May it work if instead of making a "cdrecord" symlink to the script this one is named "cdrecord" itself and saved in /usr/bin?

 

[moved from Software by spinynorman]

Edited June 9, 2005 by tlahtopil

[Steve Scrimpshire]

** Silly question I don't want to answer with my own box: May it work if instead of making a "cdrecord" symlink to the script this one is named "cdrecord" itself and saved in /usr/bin?

 

Yes, it would work, but it is much safer practice to use the symlink so that:

 

(1) You always remember it is not the real cdrecord.

(2) If you update cdrecord, you can see right away that your wrapper no longer is being used. It suddenly is no longer a symlink.