cdw 0.6.0(1)

NAME

cdw - front-end for cdrecord, mkisofs, growisofs and other tools

SYNOPSIS

cdw [--help] [--version] [--enable-dvd-rp-dl]

DESCRIPTION

cdw is a front-end for command-line tools used for burning data CD and DVD discs and for related tasks. The tools are: cdrecord/wodim, mkisofs/genisoimage, growisofs, dvd+rw-mediainfo, dvd+rw-format. You can also use cdw to rip tracks from your audio CD to raw audio files. Limited support for copying content of CD and DVD discs to image files is also provided. cdw can utilize md5sum program to verify correctness of writing ISO image to CD and DVD disc.

cdw uses ncurses library to build user-friendly interface and it can be used in UNIX terminal window and in terminal emulator (like konsole, rxvt or gnome-console) in X environment.

cdw supports only ISO9660 filesystem for optical media. Other filesystem for optical media are not supported nor recognized.

SUPPORTED MEDIA

Scope of supported features depends on which tools are installed on end user's system. Full list of supported media and actions is listed below.

CD-AUDIO
    ripping audio tracks to raw audio files

CD-R
    writing files and ISO images (single- and multi-session) with cdrecord/wodim; copying content of first session to image file on your hard disc

CD-RW
    writing files and ISO images (single- and multi-session), erasing (erasing only TOC or blanking whole disc) with cdrecord/wodim; copying content of first session to image file on your hard disc

DVD-R, DVD+R
    writing files and ISO images (multi-session, but without closing disc, or single-session) with cdrecord/wodim and dvd+rw-tools

DVD-RW
    writing files and ISO images (multi-session or single-session); erasing, formatting - quick or slow (full) method; dvd+rw-tools only. WARNING: multiple blanking may quickly render your DVD-RW unusable.

DVD+RW
    writing files and ISO images (both writing to disc from scratch and appending data), without closing disc; blanking disc, but takes lots of time, and you don't need to do it anyway - you can always start writing to the same disc like you would write to blank disc. DVD+RW can be handled by both cdrecord/wodim and dvd+rw-tools.

DVD+R DL
    there is now partial support for DVD+R DL discs: cdw can burn ISO image and files in single session. User has to explicitly enable it by passing "--enable-dvd-rp-dl" command line argument to cdw; cdw can handle DVD+R DL discs only using dvd+rw-tools; this feature is very incomplete and possibly buggy. Dual-layer media other than DVD+R DL are not yet supported. DVD-RAM, Blu-ray, HD-DVD discs are not supported.

MANUAL

You can write data discs either by using previously created ISO image file, or by selecting files from hard drive and writing them directly to disc. cdw provides UI elements for both actions.

First action before creating new ISO image or writing files to disc is selecting files from your hard drive. You can do this by selecting "Add files" in left-hand menu. You will be presented with simple file selector. Use Up/Down arrows or Page Up/Page Down keys to move, Enter key to change current directory, Space key to select files or directories. Selected items will be added to list displayed in cdw window. Use Escape key to close file selector window. The selector window shows you all files and directories (including hidden files) in current directory, in alphabetical order. You will see file size information for every file on the list. You can also delete previously selected files from list: select "Delete files" from the menu and use Up/Down arrow keys to move and Delete key to delete highlighted item. Use Escape key when you finish deleting files from list of selected files.

Now you can select "Create image" from left-hand menu. cdw will display file picker window, where you can select path to new or existing ISO image file on your hard disc. Initial path in the picker is the same path as set in configuration (Configuration window -> ISO filesystem -> Path to ISO image file).

You can also select "Write files to disc" to write selected files to optical disc.

If you want to write ISO image file to optical disc, use "Write image to disc" option in left hand menu. You will be presented with file picker dialog that allows you to select existing ISO image file from your hard disc. Initial path in the picker is the same path as set in configuration (Configuration window -> ISO filesystem -> Path to ISO image file).

Another operation you can perform is erasing optical disc - CD-RW, DVD-RW (both Sequential Recording and Restricted Overwrite) or DVD+RW. You can do this by selecting "Erase disc" option in cdw left-hand menu. Please note that extensive erasing of DVD-RW may render your disc unusable if used extensively. In case of CD-RW and DVD-RW you will be asked what type of blanking you want to perform. You can choose fast mode or full mode. First one doesn't take too much time (in case of CD-RW it only erases table of content of your disc), second one can be very time-consuming, depending on disc size and selected speed.

When you will attempt to blank DVD-RW disc, blanking wizard will display dropdown that allows you to choose mode (format) of DVD-RW disc: Restricted Overwrite or Sequential Recording.

cdw can be useful when you want to copy your data CD or DVD to ISO image on your hard drive. You do this by selecting "Read disc" option from left-hand menu. This function allows you to copy first track from your data CD or DVD. Reading second and following tracks from data discs, and reading discs written in mixed mode (one or more data tracks + audio tracks) discs are not supported.

Finally you can use cdw to copy your audio CD to separate files (each track will be written to separate file). You do this by selecting "Read disc" option from menu. cdw can't convert audio tracks to any popular audio format. The tracks are written to files in the same format as they appear on CD (2 channels, 44100 samples per second, 16 bit signed PCM, little endian (intel)). The file names have following name format: track_xx.raw (where xx is track number). You can convert raw track file to wav file using e.g. sox command:

sox -c 2 -r 44100 -L -2 -s track_name.raw -t wav track_name.wav

When you choose one of following menu options: "Write files to disc", "Write image to disc", "Erase disc", cdw will display simple wizard, that will allow you to quickly select values of basic options: mode of operation and speed of writing. Dropdown with operation modes contains only options that are valid for given combination of disc type, disc status, and selected operation. Example: you won't see option "Start new, appendable disc" for CD-R disc that already carries a session, but you will see "Append data, don't close disc" and "Append data and close disc" options. Dropdown with speeds contains only those values that are acceptable for given media. List of speeds may also be limited by parameters of your optical drive.

Write wizard will also display a dropdown with disc writing modes that may be suitable for given disc: these are DAO, TAO or Unspecified. If you don't specify the mode, tool used by cdw to perform writing will select one.

In write wizard window you will have option to select "Configuration" option from main menu - "Configuration" window will appear and you will be able to set up more advanced options - they will affect process of writing.

If you are writing ISO image to CD or DVD disc, cdw allows you to verify correctness of this operation by checking md5 sum of ISO file and of track written to CD. You can request this by checking "Verify write" checkbox that will appear in write wizard. Please note that this checkbox is visible only when you are writing ISO file to empty CD or DVD disc. This function is still experimental. Make sure that md5sum program is installed on your machine.

Following operations (menu options): "Write files to disc", "Create image", "Write image to disc", "Read disc", allow you to track progress of performed operation in progress window. The window will show current status of selected task displaying some numerical values, a progress bar and status message. When you choose "Erase disc" option, progress window will only display status message. In either case the progress window will display some appropriate message when the task is finished.

Please note that sometimes cdw doesn't warn when something goes wrong during a process. It is recommended to always view operation log after every operation ('L' hotkey in main cdw window).

cdw has Configuration window, accessed by selecting "Configuration" item in left-hand menu. The window allows you to set up some options for tools used by cdw, and for cdw itself. Configuration window has following tabs: "Writing", "ISO filesystem", "Audio", "Hardware", "Tools" and "Log and other". You can access them using F2 - F7 keys respectively. Most often changed options are grouped in tabs "Writing" and "ISO filesystem". "Audio" tab contains options related to ripping audio CDs. "Hardware" tab probably will be visited only once, when you use cdw for the first time or when you change your hardware configuration. Here you can set paths to your devices used by cdw.

"Tools" tab allows you to select tools used for given task (burning a disc, creating ISO image). Note that these values aren't saved when you close cdw. Using default values is a reasonable choice, but sometimes you may want to experiment with different implementations of external tools (e.g. cdrecord). In such case make sure that the tool that you want to use is located in directory specified in PATH environment variable, and that it's name is the same as original tool's name.

If you check "Configure tools manually" checkbox in "Tools" tab, you will see "Tools family for handling DVDs" dropdown. See sections below for details on this checkbox.

Currently there are two groups of options in "Log and other" tab:

    •   options for log file

    •   options for target ISO volume size First set of options allow you to configure log file in which cdw saves some messages. Second set of options allow you to configure maximal size of created ISO file - this is the maximal size that is displayed in main window, in "Selected files info".

All options available in Configuration window are described below, in CONFIGURATION section.

You have to use F10 key to save any changes made in Configuration window and close the window. To close Configuration window without saving changes use Escape key.

You can control cdw using application's menu (visible on left side of screen), or using hotkeys.

  Main menu items

    •   Add files: Select files and directories that you want to write to optical disc or to ISO image on your hard disc. Press Space to select a file or directory, use Up and Down arrows to move on the list, press Enter key to change directory, press Escape key to close file selection dialog.

    •   Delete files: List of selected files is displayed on the right side of the screen. If you want to delete files from the list, select this button and use Delete key to delete a file, Up and Down arrows to move on the list or press Escape to end deleting.

    •   Write files to disc: write selected files to optical disc that is currently in drive. You will be warned if there is no disc in drive, the drive is not ready or the disc is mounted.

    •   Create image: write selected files to ISO image file. The ISO image file can be selected in file picker window.

    •   Write image to disc: write ISO image file to optical disc. The ISO image file can be selected in file picker window. You will be warned if there is no disc in drive, the drive is not ready or the disc is mounted.

    •   Read disc: Copy content of your single session data CD/DVD or audio CD to files on hard drive. In case of data CD/DVD discs cdw will create correct image file on your hard disc, but only for first track on disc, rest of tracks won't be read (cdw can't read them correctly). In case of audio CDs cdw will copy each audio track to separate raw audio file. You will have to recode the raw audio track files in order to play them in your media player.

    •   Erase disc: Erase data (partially or fully) from rewritable disc (CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW) that is currently in drive. You can select mode of erasing CD-RW or DVD-RW: fast or full. You can't select mode of erasing of DVD+RW.

    •   Configuration: Selecting this menu option will display cdw Configuration window, where you can set various options.

    •   Quit: close cdw and return to your command line.

  Keys (hotkeys, available in main cdw window)

    •   F1, H, ? - Show this help: Display help window with list of hotkeys.

    •   F10 - Show license of this program: display cdw license.

    •   D - Show information about disc: cdw will run external tool to get some meta-information about optical disc in your drive and display this information in text window.

    •   E - Eject drive tray: open your optical drive's tray (will close tray if it is already open).

    •   F - Write selected files to disc: Write currently selected files to optical disc.

    •   G - Read content of CD: Copy content of your audio or data CD to your hard drive.

    •   I - Write ISO image to disc: Write ISO image to optical disc.

    •   L - Show log of last operation: view file with record of latest operations.

    •   R - Refresh information about disc: cdw will run external tool to get some meta-information about optical disc in your drive and will display short summary in lower-left part of main cdw window.

    •   Q - Quit: close cdw and return to your command line

CONFIGURATION

This section describes Configuration module available via "Configuration" button in left-hand menu in main cdw window. You have to press F10 in Configuration window to save changes made in the window and exit or press Escape key to close configuration window without saving changes. Please note that changes made in "Tools" tab are saved only for current session with cdw.

    •   Writing (first tab)

        •   Erase fast - specifies your preference on mode of blanking CD-RW and DVD-RW discs - if checked, cdw will preselect "Erase fast" mode. Otherwise "Erase all" will be preselected. You can always change preselected mode in erase wizard once you get to it.

        •   Eject when done - open disc drive tray when process of writing or erasing is finished.

        •   Preferred writing speed - here you can select range of speeds that you want to use to perform operation. This means that you can tell cdw to always preselect lowest available speed value, or highest available value, or select some value in the middle. You will be able to change this preselected value in wizard when you run actual operation. Selecting 'auto' item in this dropdown will result in choosing value that is default for your drive.

        •   Dummy write - writing in dummy mode: writing program does not do actual writing, only attempts to perform writing. Warning: may not work when writing to DVDs. This option is not used when blanking discs.

        •   Pad - insert blank sectors after real data in track on CD. This may prevent some read errors on Linux systems. It is suggested to check this option when writing multisession CD discs.

        •   Pad size - specify number of sectors that should be appended after written data. Sometimes default amount enabled by "Pad" option is not enough.

        •   Burnproof - Buffer Underrun Proof writing. If your writer supports this feature, you are suggested to use it and check this box. In this case the program waits for data if the buffer is getting empty. This option is used only when writing CDs.

        •   Other cdrecord options - other, unlisted here, options passed to cdrecord/wodim. cdw currently does not provide a method to set some options of cdrecord/wodim using checkboxes and dropdowns. You can pass the options to cdrecord/wodim yourself, just put them into this field.

        •   Other growisofs options - other, unlisted here, options passed to growisofs. cdw currently does not provide a method to set some options of growisofs using checkboxes or dropdowns. You can pass the options to growisofs yourself, just put them into this field.

    •   ISO filesystem (second tab)

        •   Volume ID label - default name of disc, assigned to disc when you write data to it. The volume ID is also assigned to ISO image file that you create on your hard disc.

        •   Ask for volume ID - if you check this option, cdw will ask you for disc name (label) every time you will be writing selected files to disc, or when you will be creating ISO image from selected files.

        •   ISO level - set the ISO9660 conformance level. Consult mkisofs man page for more details (search for "ISO9660 conformance level").

        •   Joliet information - generate Joliet directory information.

        •   Rock Ridge - generate Rock Ridge attributes that describe files on ISO filesystem.

        •   Useful RR attributes - generate more useful (reasonable) values of Rock Ridge attributes.

        •   Long Joliet names - allow for long file names (check mksiofs man page for details) - checking this option may be useful when some of selected files have very long names;

        •   Follow symbolic links - check this option if files that are referenced by selected symbolic links should be included in generated ISO filesystem. In other words: if in file selection window you will select symbolic link, or there will be a symbolic link in selected directory, cdw will or will not include target file referenced by this link depending on state of this checkbox. Not selecting this option may result in invalid symbolic links in created file system.

        •   Path to ISO image file - location of ISO image file that will be written to optical disc when you select "Write image to disc" from main menu. This is also location of ISO file created when you select "Create image" item from main menu.

        •   Boot disc options - specifies parameters for creating bootable disc (El Torito bootable CD for x86 PCs). Use this option at your own risk, it is not tested.

        •   Other mkisofs options - other, unlisted here, options passed to mkisofs. cdw currently does not provide a method to set some options of mkisofs using checkboxes or dropdowns. You can pass the options to mkisofs yourself, just put them into this field.

    •   Audio (third tab)

        •   Audio output dir - path to directory, into which cdw will write raw audio tracks, ripped from audio CD.

    •   Hardware (fourth tab)

        •   "cdw should use this drive" dropdown - option allowing you to select one of detected drives, or to use path to drive entered manually ("custom path");

        •   "custom path to drive" - field in which you can specify your own path to a device, to be used when cdw can't autodetect all drives in your computer.

        •   SCSI device - parameters describing your SCSI hardware, in following format: scsibus,target,lun (for a SCSI-emulated IDE CDRW: 0,0,0). It is used only by cdrecord and you should enter appropriate value only if cdrecord has problems with device path in form of '/dev/xxx'. Otherwise this field should be left empty. This option hasn't been tested, so use it at your own risk.

    •   Tools (fifth tab) First thing that you will see in this tab "Configure tools manually" checkbox, it is unchecked by default, and this is safe default value. In this state cdw select tools itself. If you check this checkbox you will be presented with six dropdowns: first allows you to choose tools "family", five remaining dropdowns allow you to select paths to tools used by cdw for some tasks. These dropdowns are explained below:

        •   "Tools family for handling DVDs" dropdown - if you have both cdrtools and dvd+rw-tools installed on your machine, you can select one of those tool families to handle your DVD operations, e.g. you may decide to burn data to DVD discs with cdrecord instead of growisofs - this is the place where you select the tool sets.

        •   "Path to mkisofs" dropdown - here you can select one of instances of tool responsible for creating ISO file systems.

        •   "Path to cdrecord" dropdown - here you can select one of instances of tool used for getting meta information from CD/DVD and for burning files and ISO image to CD or DVD.

        •   "Path to growisofs" dropdown - here you can select one of instances of tool used for burning files and ISO image to DVD.

        •   "Path to dvd+rw-mediainfo" dropdown - here you can select one of instances of tool used for getting meta information from DVD discs.

        •   "Path to dvd+rw-format" dropdown - here you can select one of instances of tool used for formatting DVD discs. Remember that these settings are saved only for your current session with cdw, and that the settings will be discarded when you close cdw.

    •   Log and other (sixth tab):

        •   Log file path - path to file, in which cdw writes its messages and messages from external tools (mkisofs, cdrecord, growisofs, dvd+rw-mediainfo). Specifying this path is obligatory.

        •   Show log after writing - show the content of log file after writing to disc or creating image.

        •   Maximal ISO volume size - size of ISO filesystem that you want to create. Most often it is equal to capacity of optical disc that you want burn data to. This is a dropdown, from which you can select one of preselected values, or select "Custom value". This custom value can be entered below the dropdown.

        •   Custom ISO volume size - size of ISO filesystem that you want to create. This is the place where you can enter nonstandard value of target ISO filesystem size.

OPTIONS

Command line options are following:

-h, -- help
    displays information about invoking cdw and its options

-v, --version
    displays cdw version and copyright information

--enable-dvd+rp-dl
    enables very basic support for DVD+R DL discs

FILES

    •   .cdw.conf: Configuration file, usually stored in user's home directory.

    •   cdw.log: Log file, usually stored in /tmp directory. Path to this file can be modified in Configuration window ('Log' tab > 'Log file path' field).

    •   .cdw.colors: File with definition of color schemes used to make cdw user interface more readable. File is stored in user's home directory.

    •   temporary files: cdw uses some small temporary files to store various information. They are usually created in /tmp directory.

ENVIRONMENT

    •   HOME - cdw assumes that this variable exists and is set to valid user directory. If not, then user is asked to select some other 'base' directory.

    •   PATH - cdw reads this environment variable to find directories with executable files. cdw will search in these directories for some tools.

DIAGNOSTICS

cdw uses log file (/tmp/cdw.log by default) to store information about actions performed. You can access this file using your file manager, or pressing 'L' key in cdw window. Read this file for any hints if you experience any problems.

BUGS

There are still some bugs related to memory management.

cdw is developed and tested almost exclusively on x64 GNU/Linux, running cdw on other configurations may produce some platform-specific bugs. Currently I can't verify them in any way.

cdw still fails to detect some problems reported by wodim/cdrecord mkisofs/genisoimage or growisofs, although things have improved in latest 4 versions). It is recommended to read log file after every operation.

Copying data CDs to ISO image may finish with message "Problems occurred when copying tracks". This does not have to mean that output ISO file is corrupted: this be a sign of some low-level problems when reading from optical disc. Similar message displayed after ripping audio CD may mean that one or more track files created on your hard disc is corrupted and it is caused by invalid audio CD.

If you notice any other bugs please let me know. You can do this either using bug tracker on cdw project site (http://sourceforge.net/projects/cdw/) or by sending me an e-mail: acerion@wp.pl.

AUTHOR

cdw is currently developed by Kamil Ignacak (acerion@wp.pl). First developer of cdw was Varkonyi Balazs (http://sourceforge.net/users/vbali/).

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2002 Varkonyi Balazs, Copyright (C) 2007 - 2010 Kamil Ignacak. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html for details.

SEE ALSO

cdrecord(1), mkisofs(8), growisofs(1), dvd+rw-mediainfo(1), dvd+rw-format(1), cdrdao, mybashburn, k3b(1), gnomebaker(1), xorriso(1), libisoburn1, libburn4, libcdio.