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Hi,

I'm using K3B to burn CDs and DVDs with Slack 10.0, and it seems too slow.
The burner is a 16x, but burning in "Auto" mode only gets me something
between 2.5 and 3.5x. Burning under the former system (some obscure OS from
Redmond)) was much faster.

I've googled around a bit, and found two categories of answers. The first
suggest to "check the DMA", the other to "turn on SCSI emulation". Now
before I get a degree in computer science (I'm a writer... OK, I use LaTeX
with VIM, but there are limitsD), could someone briefly explain these two
concepts to me, or maybe better, point me to some comprehensive
to-the-point documentation?

Thanks,

Niki Kovacs

On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 18:11:11 +0200, Kiki Novak wrote:
> I'm using K3B to burn CDs and DVDs with Slack 10.0, and it seems too slow.
> The burner is a 16x, but burning in "Auto" mode only gets me something
> between 2.5 and 3.5x. Burning under the former system (some obscure OS
> from Redmond)) was much faster.

In case you are running kernel 2.8(.x) read the warning on the K3B site:

"Do not use Kernel 2.6.8

A patch that was introduced into the kernel shortly before the 2.6.8
release makes K3b and also the dvd+rw-tools unusable on Linux (unless run
as root but that is not recommended). The very important GET CONFIGURATION
MMC command is rejected by the kernel for reasons I cannot see and writing
commands like MODE SELECT also fail (K3b cannot detect CD writers without
it) even when the device is opened O_RDWR. Until this issue has been
solved I strongly recommend to stick to kernel version 2.6.7."

I personally prefer mkisofs and cdrecord, but I heard many people cannot
burn CD's with K3B and kernel 2.6.8.

With kind regards,
Daniel de Kok

On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 18:24:43 +0200, Daniel de Kok wrote:
> In case you are running kernel 2.8(.x) read the warning on the K3B site:

That should of course be 2.6.8(.x).

> Hi,
>
> I'm using K3B to burn CDs and DVDs with Slack 10.0, and it seems too slow.
> The burner is a 16x, but burning in "Auto" mode only gets me something
> between 2.5 and 3.5x. Burning under the former system (some obscure OS
> from Redmond)) was much faster.

Have you tried manually setting the speed to 16x? My burner burns at 4-24x
in auto mode depending on the media and how it's feeling, but I've
successfully burnt at 32x, even without burn-free.
>
> I've googled around a bit, and found two categories of answers. The first
> suggest to "check the DMA"

DMA is short for Direct Memory Access, I think. AIUI it gives the processor
direct access to the drive's buffer. Meaning you can write to it much
quicker.

> , the other to "turn on SCSI emulation".

ATAPI (the standard used by modern IDE cd recorders) is a bastard protocol
involving encapsulating SCSI commands in IDE ones. To handle this, until
recently you would tell Linux to fake a scsi controller and it would see
the cd recorder as being connected to this. There was a recent witchunt
against SCSI emulation as Torvalds took a dislike to it, and it's
officially deprecated in 2.6 kernels, but that fact is that it's the
fastest and most stable way of using an ATAPI cd recorder. You can turn on
SCSI emulation by passing a boot parameter of "hdx=ide-scsi" to your
kernel. For a one off, just enter that after the label name at the lilo
prompt (press tab if you have a graphical lilo). To do it permanently, add
an append= line to your lilo.conf. Assuming you have no other SCSI devices,
your drive will now be at /dev/sr0 and also at /dev/sg0 in a different way
(don't ask), so you may need to modify the permissions on both of these and
you will need to modify your fstab. However, I think you'll find it makes
for better cd writing.

> Now
> before I get a degree in computer science (I'm a writer... OK, I use LaTeX
> with VIM, but there are limitsD), could someone briefly explain these
> two concepts to me, or maybe better, point me to some comprehensive
> to-the-point documentation?
>
http://www.fokus.gmd.de/research/cc/...E/README.ATAPI
is the cdrecord take on these issues and quite helpful.
There is some useful information in
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/CD-Writing-HOWTO.html, but it hasn't been updated
in a long time.

Daniel de Kok wrote:

> On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 18:11:11 +0200, Kiki Novak wrote:
>> I'm using K3B to burn CDs and DVDs with Slack 10.0, and it seems too
>> slow. The burner is a 16x, but burning in "Auto" mode only gets me
>> something between 2.5 and 3.5x. Burning under the former system (some
>> obscure OS from Redmond)) was much faster.
>
> In case you are running kernel 2.8(.x) read the warning on the K3B site:
>
No, I'm running the stock 2.4.something kernel that ships with Slack 10.0.

MikeyD wrote:

> ATAPI (the standard used by modern IDE cd recorders) is a bastard protocol
> involving encapsulating SCSI commands in IDE ones. To handle this, until
> recently you would tell Linux to fake a scsi controller and it would see
> the cd recorder as being connected to this. There was a recent witchunt
> against SCSI emulation as Torvalds took a dislike to it, and it's
> officially deprecated in 2.6 kernels, but that fact is that it's the
> fastest and most stable way of using an ATAPI cd recorder. You can turn on
> SCSI emulation by passing a boot parameter of "hdx=ide-scsi" to your
> kernel. For a one off, just enter that after the label name at the lilo
> prompt (press tab if you have a graphical lilo). To do it permanently, add
> an append= line to your lilo.conf. Assuming you have no other SCSI
> devices, your drive will now be at /dev/sr0 and also at /dev/sg0 in a
> different way (don't ask), so you may need to modify the permissions on
> both of these and you will need to modify your fstab. However, I think
> you'll find it makes for better cd writing.

Thanks. I'll try that.

NK

MikeyD wrote:
> DMA is short for Direct Memory Access, I think. AIUI it gives the processor
> direct access to the drive's buffer. Meaning you can write to it much
> quicker.

the other way around: it gives the PCI controller direct access to the
computer's memory (hence the name ;-) so it can put data directly from the
disk into RAM, without the CPU being involved. speeds up disk access.

<http:/www.whatis.com> is usually a good place to look up these things.

--
Joost Kremers joostkremers@yahoo.com
Selbst in die Unterwelt dringt durch Spalten Licht
EN:SiS(9)

Kiki Novak mickey@mouse.com wrote:.

>I'm using K3B to burn CDs and DVDs with Slack 10.0, and it seems too slow.
>The burner is a 16x, but burning in "Auto" mode only gets me something
>between 2.5 and 3.5x. Burning under the former system (some obscure OS from
>Redmond)) was much faster.

Get a green felt tip marker and colour th outside edge of the disc.
That will fix the problem.


cordially, as always,

rm

Realto Margarino <guymacon@imamoron.org> wrote:
>
> Kiki Novak mickey@mouse.com wrote:.
>
>>I'm using K3B to burn CDs and DVDs with Slack 10.0, and it seems too slow.
>>The burner is a 16x, but burning in "Auto" mode only gets me something
>>between 2.5 and 3.5x. Burning under the former system (some obscure OS from
>>Redmond)) was much faster.
>
> Get a green felt tip marker and colour th outside edge of the disc.
> That will fix the problem.

It's not much fun going to all the work of spoofing somebody who
keeps changing his address. Kind of makes it a waste of money,
doesn't it?

cordially, as always,

rm

On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 18:24:43 +0200, Daniel de Kok wrote:

> I personally prefer mkisofs and cdrecord, but I heard many people cannot
> burn CD's with K3B and kernel 2.6.8.

ok, but k3b is just a gui for mkisofs/cdrecord/cdrdao/growisofs....