Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to find time to continue work on this any time soon. If anyone wants to pick up the project, send me an email (address can be found at the end of the page
Packet Writing on Linux
Packet Writing allows you to use a CD or DVD like you would a floppy disk. Files can be copied onto disc, copied, deleted, and as soon as the disc is ejected, it can be inserted into another computer and similar operations can be performed (no actual burning process required).
As of Linux 2.6.10, we now have 3 fancy ways that we can use packet writing for CD's/DVD's through the kernel. I aim to improve/simplify the userspace access to these writing techniques, and to make the functionality easily available under Linux desktop environments (GNOME/KDE).
The Packet Writing Methods
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Mt. Fuji
Mt Fuji is the standard packet writing support available on almost all CD/DVD writer drives.
You use userspace tools to create a "pktcdvd" device on appropriately blanked media, which can then be formatted, mounted, and used like any other filesystem.
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Mt. Rainier
Mt Rainier is a new-ish technology available on some CD/DVD writer drives, which implements packet writing truly in hardware. The access granularity is fine enough to allow raw access to disc contents, and Mt Rainier also provides automatic handling of bad blocks.
After blanking a CD/DVD appropriately, you use a Mt Rainier format tool to initialize the media, then you can format and mount the /dev/cdrom node like an other block-device.
Your CD/DVD writer must be Mt. Rainier capable in order to use this writing method.
I am currently working on improving the userspace tools/libraries for this capability. See this page.
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DVD-RAM (for DVD+RW)
Some DVD+RW writer drives support the "DVD-RAM" specification, which similarly to Mt Rainier, allows fine grainularity access to the media. Not all DVD+RW drives will support this.
After blanking a DVD+RW appropriately, you can immediately format and mount the /dev/cdrom node like any other block-device.
Desktop Support
After ensuring that we have full support in user-space for the packet writing capabilities, I plan to implement this functionality into GNOME/KDE. I have not given this much thought yet but will probably involve creating device formatting utilities for each environment.
- Daniel Drake <dsd@gentoo.org>
Updated 2005-02-20