Nero Linux Quick Start Guide
Quick start
NeroLINUX
Nero AG
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not undertake any liability for the correctness of the content of the NeroLINUX
user manual. The contents of the software supplied as well as of the NeroLINUX
user manual may be changed without prior warning.
The trademarks mentioned here are only named for information purposes.
Copyright © 2002-2005 Nero AG
REV 2.01
Table of Contents
1 Preparing to use of NeroLINUX ........................................................ 5
1.1 Software Requirements ................................................................... 5
1.2 Hardware requirements ................................................................... 5
1.3 Installing NeroLINUX........................................................................ 6
2 System configuration ........................................................................ 7
2.1 Linux kernel version ........................................................................ 7
2.1.1 Linux kernel version explanations ...................................................... 7
2.1.2 NeroLINUX requirements................................................................... 8
2.2 Devices configuration...................................................................... 8
2.2.1 Device filenames under Linux ............................................................ 8
2.2.2 IDE Devices configuration with 2.4 kernels ........................................ 9
2.2.3 IDE Devices configuration with 2.6 kernels ...................................... 10
2.2.4 Setting correct permissions on the devices files .............................. 10
2.2.5 Setting up DMA acceleration on IDE devices................................... 11
2.3 3rd Party System Tools Configuration .......................................... 12
2.3.1 SuSE Plugger / SuSE Watcher ........................................................ 12
2.3.2 GNOME CD Player Applet ............................................................... 12
2.3.3 KDE CD Player................................................................................. 13
2.3.4 Magicdev.......................................................................................... 13
2.3.5 KDE Autorun daemon ...................................................................... 14
2.4 Configuring NeroLINUX ................................................................. 15
2.4.1 Initial Setup and Quick Start............................................................. 15
2.4.2 Audio Setup...................................................................................... 15
3 Basic functionality and Interface concept ..................................... 16
3.1 Making a CD or DVD from files stored on your computer's hard
drive................................................................................................. 20
3.2 Burning images .............................................................................. 21
3.3 Making an image bootable ............................................................ 21
3.4 Audio CD recording (Creating CDs playable on your Home
Stereo from other CDs, MP3, WAV etc.)....................................... 22
3.5 Recording Modes in NeroLINUX : How to use NeroLINUX for
Disc-At-Once recording ................................................................. 24
3.6 Creating a CD EXTRA or a Mixed Mode CD ................................. 24
3.7 How to copy a CD or a DVD........................................................... 26
3.8 Working with rewritable media ..................................................... 26
3.9 Managing multisession discs ....................................................... 28
NeroLINUX Table of Contents •••• 3
3.9.1 A introduction to how Multisession is done in general...................... 28
3.9.2 How to start a Multisession disc....................................................... 28
3.9.3 How do I append to a multisession disc? ......................................... 28
4 Advanced functions......................................................................... 31
4.1 Creating a bootable CD or DVD .................................................... 31
4.2 The concept of Precaching ........................................................... 32
4.3 Track to file conversion ................................................................. 32
4.4 Adding a new file type to the NeroLINUX file types registry ...... 33
4.4.1 Specifying the decoder..................................................................... 34
4.4.2 Calculating the track size ................................................................. 34
5 Frequently asked Questions........................................................... 37
5.1 Audio CDs created with NeroLINUX are playing fine on my
computer but are not recognized by my stereo .......................... 37
5.2 When writing audio files, I get a lot of silence at the end of the
track or I get tracks that consist of nothing but silence............. 37
5.3 When copying audio tracks from other CDs, I get nothing but
silence or the tracks seem to be incomplete............................... 38
5.4 I can't write multisession discs .................................................... 38
5.5 I can't hear anything when dragging an audio file or a track to
the preview player but recording works perfectly well............... 38
5.6 NeroLINUX is making awful noises instead of playing tracks ... 38
5.7 NeroLINUX keeps recording a 2 seconds pregap between tracks
which is inappropriate for the type of content I'm recording..... 38
5.8 NeroLINUX seems to be notoriously trying to open a network
connection to some server. Does it have some sort of built-in
Trojan transmitting my data to some remote database? ........... 39
5.9 I tried to burn a disc with a few files on it. When I clicked on
record, NeroLINUX went through all the files and recorded them
onto the disc. However, I cannot mount the result. What went
wrong? ............................................................................................ 39
5.10 NeroLINUX is running fine on my root account but it only
causes error messages if run from my normal user account or it
doesn't display any tracks for my CD-ROM drives. Aren't Linux
users supposed to do their daily work as a normal user? ......... 39
5.11 Burning a DVD takes too much time ............................................ 39
5.12 My external USB/FireWire recorder hangs when recording a disc40
5.13 My USB recorder hides another device when it is plugged in ... 40
5.14 I get the error message “HDIO_SET_DMA: failed: Operation not
permitted” when I try to enable DMA acceleration ..................... 40
6 Support ............................................................................................. 41
7 Glossary............................................................................................ 42
NeroLINUX Table of Contents •••• 4
1 Preparing to use of NeroLINUX
1.1 Software Requirements
NeroLINUX has all the necessary functionality for recording CDs and DVDs built-
in. However, for some special features NeroLINUX relies on some additional
programs and packages installed on your system:
The mpg123 software MPEG1-LayerIII decoder is used to allow recording of
MP3 files on CD as regular audio tracks. Additionally, Gogo’n’Coda can be
used to encode MP3 files.
The ogg123 command line ogg-vorbis decoder as well as the oggtst package
(available from the GnomeToaster Homepage: http://gnometoaster.rulez.org)
is needed to be able to play and record ogg-vorbis files. Additionally, oggenc
can be used to encode ogg-vorbis files.
NeroLINUX has dependency test functionality built-in and will tell you when it
needs a program and cannot find it. A message will pop up in this case telling
you the name of the package, the URL where it can be obtained and what
purpose it has within NeroLINUX.
1.2 Hardware requirements
Recording CD-R/RW or DVD/RW puts a high load on your system's components.
Although most state of the art systems should easily be capable of recording CDR/RW or DVD/RW media perfectly well, the hardware requirements for CD
recording should not be underestimated. Your CD/DVD-Recorder needs a
continuous stream of data with interruptions only as small as can easily be
handled by the onboard buffer provided by your recorder which is usually about
512kb to 2048kb. Depending on the recording speed, this can take less than a
second to exceed.
For the graphical user interface of NeroLINUX you will need about 64MB of
system RAM to record a CD-R/RW or DVD/RW. In fact, this amount of memory is
too little as your X server also uses a lot of RAM.
Your CPU should be at least a Pentium III class 500Mhz CPU. Such a CPU is
required to safely record .mp3 files on the fly for example.
If your CPU or the medium your data is coming from is not fast enough to provide
the content you want to store on a disc in real-time, NeroLINUX can cache data
NeroLINUX Preparing to use of NeroLINUX •••• 5
on your hard drive. To make this possible, you need at least 700MB of free hard
drive space.
1.3 Installing NeroLINUX
NeroLINUX is packaged in the RPM and Debian format. These formats are used
by the majority of the Linux distributions. Please make sure you have
administrative rights on your system before installing NeroLINUX.
To install NeroLINUX, open a terminal, go where your package is located and
type the following command:
rpm -i nerolinux-<version>-<machine>.rpm (RPM package)
dpkg -i nerolinux-<version>-<machine>.deb (Debian package)
You can also use your distribution's software installer tool to install NeroLINUX.
These packages come with a post-installation script that is run automatically after
all the files are successfully copied onto your system. This script will detect the
Linux distribution you are currently using, and if the distribution is supported, it
will add some shortcuts in the KDE and GNOME programs menu. With the
Debian package, it will also add a shortcut to NeroLINUX in the debian-menu
subsystem repository.
NeroLINUX Preparing to use of NeroLINUX •••• 6
2 System configuration
Before using NeroLINUX you need to make sure that your system is correctly
configured. Please read the following instructions very carefully to make sure that
the first disc you record will be successful.
This chapter provides also some information about the way the Linux kernel
internally handles CD and DVD recorders, and how NeroLINUX handles them.
Some sections of this chapter are a little bit technical but we have tried to make
them easy to understand, even if you are not familiar with Linux environments.
Please note that all the examples and commands that are shown can
compromise your system security policy, especially when setting up the
permission on the device files.
2.1 Linux kernel version
2.1.1 Linux kernel version explanations
The kernel is the heart of your Linux system. It provides for example the low-level
drivers used to access your devices.
In order to identify your devices filenames clearly, you need to first know the
version of the Linux kernel you are currently using. To get it, open a terminal and
type the following command:
uname –r
The output of this command should give you three numbers separated by periods
(full stops), for example 2.6.7.
The first number is the kernel version (2 in our example).
The second number is the kernel major number (6 in our example). All
kernels that are considered “stable” have even major number. The kernels
with odd major number are development kernels.
The last number is the kernel release number (7 in out example).
The Linux kernel version is often identified by the first two numbers, as there is
no significant change between two releases of the same kernel. So when you see
for example 2.4 kernel, it means a kernel with a version number of 2 and a major
number of 4.
NeroLINUX System configuration •••• 7
2.1.2 NeroLINUX requirements
In order to use NeroLINUX you will need at least a 2.4 kernel. To be plainly
usable, especially with high-speed recorders like DVD recorders, a 2.6 kernel is
highly recommended.
2.2 Devices configuration
Under Linux, all the devices are associated to one or more specific file(s) called
device file. All the device files that are available on your machine are located
inside the /dev directory.
But, depending on the version of the Linux kernel you are using, your recorder
device filename may differ, due to the low-level driver it is using. In this chapter
you will find some explanations about discovering your device filenames and how
to set access on them.
If you have enough technical competences, you can safely skip this section. In
any case, if NeroLINUX detects that something is misconfigured on your system,
it will warn you when starting.
2.2.1 Device filenames under Linux
Currently, you can have many different interfaces on a recorder: IDE, SCSI, USB
or FireWire (IEEE 1394).
2.2.1.1 IDE devices
Actually, most internal recorders are connected to the IDE bus. Linux assign
them a device file according to their position on this bus (bus number and
master/slave settings). Basically, you should have the following naming
convention:
/dev/hda : Primary Master device
/dev/hdb : Primary Slave device
/dev/hdc : Secondary Master device
/dev/hdd : Secondary Slave device
2.2.1.2 SCSI devices
SCSI recording devices are handled by two different drivers under Linux, and so
two different device files are created to handle one physical device:
/dev/srX or /dev/scdX : Used only to read data from media
/dev/sgX : Used by NeroLINUX to communicate with the device
(X is a number identifying your device)
If your recorder is correctly recognized by the Linux kernel it should appear in the
file /proc/scsi/scsi. Unfortunately, there is no way to determine the X number from
the SCSI coordinates of your recorder. But usually, the numbers are used
incrementally, starting from 0, corresponding to the position of the device in the
/proc/scsi/scsi file.
NeroLINUX System configuration •••• 8
Sometimes, depending on your kernel configuration, one of these files can be
unavailable. In order to have both, you should make sure that your kernel is
configured with the following options:
CONFIG_SCSI (SCSI support)
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SR (SCSI CD-ROM support : provides /dev/scdX)
CONFIG_CHR_DEV_SG (SCSI generic support : provides /dev/sgX)
Usually all distributions are shipping a kernel configured with these options, so no
need to worry. For more information about how to configure your kernel for
recording CD or DVD, you can have a look to the generic Linux HOWTOs:
CD-Writing HOWTO
CDROM-HOWTO
2.2.1.3 External devices
As all external devices are associated with a virtual SCSI device, the filename
scheme is the same as for real SCSI devices.
If you do not see your external device in the /proc/scsi/scsi file after you plugged
it in, make sure that the kernel is correctly configured. For more information you
can have a look to your Linux distribution documentation.
2.2.2 IDE Devices configuration with 2.4 kernels
2.2.2.1 ‘ide-scsi’ driver
With 2.4 kernels, all IDE devices that you want to be available in NeroLINUX
must use the ide-scsi driver (even CD/DVD readers). This driver associates a
virtual SCSI device with a standard IDE device.
Usually, Linux distributions automatically configure everything so that only
recorders use this driver. In such a case, you will not be able to use your CD or
DVD readers inside NeroLINUX. In such a case, the next session is useful.
How to make a device use the ‘ide-scsi’ driver
Before trying to configure a device, make sure that you have configured your
kernel with the following options:
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDESCSI (SCSI emulation support)
CONFIG_SCSI (SCSI support)
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SG (SCSI generic support)
Configuring a device, so that it will use the ide-scsi driver, is done by providing a
specific argument hdx=scsi to the kernel command line. For example, if the
device file corresponding to your recorder is /dev/hdb, you will have to provide
hdb=scsi to the kernel command line.
If you do not know how to do this, please have a look to your distribution
documentation about how to pass options to the kernel at boot time. Please also
note that most of the actual distributions provide some graphical fontends to
modify the boot loader parameters:
NeroLINUX System configuration •••• 9
For Red Hat Linux run ksconfig (This application is called ‘Kickstart
Configurator’). When the application is running, click on ‘Boot Loader Options’
and fill the ‘Kernel Parameters’ field.
For SuSE Linux, run YaST2, select System in the left pane and then double
click on Boot Loader Configuration. Once the module is launched, click on Edit
Configuration Files to set up the device parameters.
2.2.3 IDE Devices configuration with 2.6 kernels
2.2.3.1 Major changes in the device drivers
With 2.6 kernels, the native IDE CD-ROM driver, called ide-cdrom, has been
completely rewritten to use the latest technologies available and permit CD and
DVD recording. This driver includes DMA acceleration that let you use highspeed devices (like DVD recorders) without any kind of problems.
One other important point is that in this version of the Linux kernel, the ide-scsi
driver that has been used with old kernels has been deprecated. If you continue
using this driver with a 2.6 kernel, your devices will not be available with
NeroLINUX (Note that you will also have a warning from the kernel at boot time).
2.2.3.2 NeroLINUX requirements
In order to use an IDE device with NeroLINUX under a 2.6 kernel, you must
associate it with the ide-cdrom driver. In order to do this, you must check the
kernel command line to be sure that no device is associated with the old ide-scsi
driver (no hdXX=ide-scsi parameter).
If you do not know how to do this, please have a look to your boot loader
documentation.
2.2.4 Setting correct permissions on the devices files
2.2.4.1 Static /dev support
You need to allow user accounts to have access to all your disc devices. This is
done under Linux by setting correct permission on the corresponding device
filenames. In this section we will give you a way to correctly configure the
permission on the devices filenames for all users of the system. If you are
experienced with user rights management, you can skip this section.
To setup correct permissions on your device files, first make sure you have
enough privileges to do so. Then, open a terminal and type the following
command:
chmod o+r+w /dev/sg*
chmod o+r+w /dev/hdX
(where X is the letter corresponding to the IDE device)
You can run the last command more that one time if you have multiple IDE
devices.
These commands will allow users to have read and write permission on all your
SCSI generic devices (CD-ROM for example) and your IDE disc devices.
NeroLINUX System configuration •••• 10
Another possibility, if you only want to give access to some users, is to create a
new group called for example nero and change the group of the device files
corresponding to your CD/DVD devices with it. Then give read/write permission
to the group on these device files and finally, just add all the users that are
allowed to use NeroLINUX to the new-created group.
2.2.4.2 Udev support
NeroLINUX supports udev, the new /dev file system implementation that are
used in SuSE Linux 9.2 and Fedora Core 3 for example. The only thing that can
appear is that a hot plug device that gets plugged in when NeroLINUX is already
started is not recognized. In that case, just restart NeroLINUX.
With this file system, all permissions are set during boot time using some specific
configuration files. So to make your modifications permanent, you have to change
the files located in /etc/udev/. For more details, you can have a look to udev FAQ.
2.2.5 Setting up DMA acceleration on IDE devices
DMA acceleration provides an improvement in throughput for the disc drives, and
let you safely use all your recording devices. Depending on your Linux kernel and
distribution configuration, you might have DMA acceleration that is automatically
enabled on startup.
If your hardware supports it, it is generally a good idea to enable DMA
acceleration not only for IDE hard disk drives, but also for disc drives such as
CD/DVD readers and recorders. Please note that if one of your devices has no
DMA acceleration, NeroLINUX will warn you when starting the application.
To enable DMA acceleration on one of your device, you can run the following
command (as root):
hdparm –d1 /dev/hdX
(where X is the letter corresponding to the IDE device)
This settings is not permanent. If you want to enable DMA at boot time, you can
add the command above in one of your startup scripts. As these scripts are
distribution dependant, please check your distribution documentation to find out
how to do this. Please note that most of the distribution have some graphical
fontends to configure this.
For example, with SuSE Linux distributions, you can use YaST2 to setup the
DMA mode of your IDE devices. To do this, launch YaST2 and select the
Hardware item in the left pane and then double-click on IDE-DMA Mode. Once
the module is launched, make sure that all your disc drives DMA mode is set to
‘On’.
NeroLINUX System configuration •••• 11
2.3 3rd Party System Tools Configuration
Some 3rd party system tools, like automounter utilities or new hardware detection
daemons, can cause side effects when using NeroLINUX. As you have no way
under Linux to lock a disc drive, these utilities can send commands to a drive
when NeroLINUX is burning. In that case it can make your recording process fail.
Before using NeroLINUX, you must make sure that no other application is
accessing the drive you plan to use for recording.
In this chapter, we give you a list of applications that can cause problems. Please
pay attention that there might be some other utilities interfering with NeroLINUX:
it is impossible to list all applications that bring errors!
2.3.1 SuSE Plugger / SuSE Watcher
This utility is shipped with SuSE Linux distributions. It automatically detects if new
medium are inserted in a drive. If it is the case, it launches a specific utility,
depending on the media type.
This utility can cause error during burn processes, especially when burning in
Track-At-Once mode. So make sure that it is not configured to use your recorder.
To do this, please check the SuSE Plugger documentation.
Note that you can easily disable these utilities. To do this, right-click on their
icons and select ‘Quit’. Those icons are located just beside the clock, on the righthand side of the KDE panel.
2.3.2 GNOME CD Player Applet
As this applet is polling the drive it is connected to every second to see if it
contains a playable disc, you should make sure that it is not configured to use
your recorder.
To do this, right-click on the applet and select the ‘Preferences’ item and make
sure that the ‘Device path’ is not the device path of your recorder.
NeroLINUX System configuration •••• 12
2.3.3 KDE CD Player
The KDE CD Player applet (also known as kscd) is also polling the drive it is
connected to. Make sure that this utility is not configured to use your recorder.
To do this, open the configuration dialog and check that the CD-ROM device
prompted is not your recorder.
2.3.4 Magicdev
Magicdev is an automounter utility included in the GNOME desktop utilities, that
polls every disc drives to see if they contain a useable medium. If it is the case, it
will automatically be mounted. In order to avoid risks, make sure that this utility is
not running when burning with NeroLINUX.
To configure magicdev, click on ‘Start here’ icon on your desktop, and select
‘Preferences/Peripherals/CD Properties’ or ‘Desktop Preferences/CD and DVD’
(It depends on the GNOME version you are using). Make sure that everything is
unchecked, so that magicdev will never try to mount automatically a disc, or start
a CD player application.
NeroLINUX System configuration •••• 13
In some case, the magicdev process can still be running even if everything above
is unchecked. In that case, you can safely ignore NeroLINUX warning message.
2.3.5 KDE Autorun daemon
Autorun is a daemon that is sometimes included in KDE. Make sure that it is not
configured to run with your active recorder before burning with NeroLINUX
otherwise you could get into troubles when burning discs.
To completely remove this daemon, just delete the ‘Autorun.desktop’ file in your
‘.kde/Autostart’ directory. The autorun daemon will not be loaded the next time
you log in.
NeroLINUX System configuration •••• 14
2.4 Configuring NeroLINUX
2.4.1 Initial Setup and Quick Start
Start NeroLINUX from the account you are planning to run it in the future by
typing nero on a terminal. If you have not set up your system for write access of
users to the CD-Recorder device, you will have to use the root account. Please
be aware that this is a potential security problem on your system. Please, see the
previous sections and the FAQ for ideas on how to make your CD-Recorder
accessible to normal users.
You will be prompted to enter your NeroLINUX serial number. Once the serial
number has been correctly entered, you will be prompted to restart NeroLINUX.
NeroLINUX performs a drive auto detection at startup. Check that all your drives
are listed in the ‘Disc Drives’ section on the bottom of the tree located in the top
left part of NeroLINUX’s main window. If one or more drive is missing, have a
look to the previous sections of this chapter to see if your system is correctly
configured.
To select the recorder you want to use, select Recorder/Choose Recorder or click
on the toolbar icon. Select the line corresponding to your recorder and click on
‘OK’. The name of the recorder you selected should now appear in the right side
of the status bar. Please note that when you double-click on the name of the
active recorder a dialog pops up to allow you to choose another recorder.
For most configurations, this is all you have to do to get NeroLINUX up to date.
The following sections will deal with some special cases.
2.4.2 Audio Setup
NeroLINUX has abilities to play audio streams with its preview player. You
should also select the audio driver that NeroLINUX should use when previewing
audio files. To do so, enter NeroLINUX’s Preferences window by choosing
File/Preferences, and select ‘Audio System’ pane. A list of available drivers is
presented, depending on the sound libraries installed on your system.
The sound libraries supported by NeroLINUX are:
Open Sound System (OSS)
Enlightenment Sound Daemon (esd)
If you do not know which sound server you are using, have a look at the process
list. If you see a process called esd you are using esd. If esd is not present, you
should select OSS to be able to preview some sounds.
If you are using a sound card driver coming from the ALSA project, make sure
that you have loaded the OSS compatibility driver. For more details about the
ALSA sound drivers, you can have a look to the ALSA homepage.
NeroLINUX System configuration •••• 15
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