Half a Page of Scribbled Linux

The output from Kino isn’t suitable for burning a DVD. It’s one giant mpeg file (in this case dvd.mpeg). In order to create the directory structure DVD’s use, you need dvdauthor. This program uses an XML file as input. The simplest is a DVD with one chapter on it that just plays when you put it in a DVD player. Here is dvd.xml:

<dvdauthor>

    <vmgm />

    <titleset>

        <titles>

            <pgc>

                <vob file="dvd.mpeg" />

            </pgc>

        </titles>

    </titleset>

</dvdauthor>

Then you run dvdauthor: dvdauthor -o dvd_dir -x dvd.xml which creates a directory called dvd_dir. Then you need to run mkisofs -dvd-video -udf -o dvd.iso dvd_dir/ to create the file that will be used to burn the DVD.

The Plextor DVD burner is an IDE unit, so SCSI emulation must be set up for it. For me, that meant adding the following lines to /etc/modules.conf:

# 27dec2003:  SCSI emulation for Plextor PX-708A DVD burner on /dev/hdc

options ide-cd ignore=hdc            # tell the ide-cd module to ignore hdc so scsi can have it

alias scd1 sr_mod                    # load sr_mod upon access of scd1 (scd0 is CD burner)

pre-install sg     modprobe ide-scsi # load ide-scsi before sg

pre-install sr_mod modprobe ide-scsi # load ide-scsi before sr_mod

pre-install ide-scsi modprobe ide-cd # load ide-cd   before ide-scsi

Burning a DVD threw me for a loop. The Plextor burner supports DVD+RW and DVD-RW. I bought +RW disks when I ordered it. Initially I wanted to use RW disks for testing, so if I messed them up, I wouldn’t create a coaster. Once I made a good disk, I’d use the DVD+R disks, as these are more likely to play in a standard DVD player. The problem is, dvdrecord doesn’t work with plus media, only dash media, so I got this funny error:

Last chance to quit, starting real write in 0 seconds. Operation starts.

trackno=0

dvdrecord: Input/output error. reserve track: scsi sendcmd: no error

CDB:  53 00 00 00 00 00 05 2C 30 00

status: 0x2 (CHECK CONDITION)

Sense Bytes: 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0A 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00

Sense Key: 0x5 Illegal Request, Segment 0

Sense Code: 0x20 Qual 0x00 (invalid command operation code) Fru 0x0

Sense flags: Blk 0 (not valid)

cmd finished after 0.000s timeout 200s

dvdrecord: Cannot open new session.

Using the tools from DVD+RW/+R/-R[W] for Linux fixed that problem. There’s a nice tutorial at the bottom of that page that explained everything. I used these commands:

dvd+rw-mediainfo /dev/dvdrw

dvd+rw-format /dev/dvdrw

growisofs -Z /dev/dvdrw=dvd.iso 

then ogle /dev/dvdrw to play the new disc.

One thing that still needs to be fixed is that the raw1394 module doesn’t get loaded automatically when Kino is started, so for now I have to check first with /sbin/lsmod | grep 1394 and modprobe raw1394 if it’s not there.