Burning CDs and DVDs using Linux is as easy as it gets. If you have bad memories of the poor utilities in Windows or bloated third-party suites, cheer
up: Ubuntu includes a slimline and effective program called Brasero. Brasero can create audio and data CDs and DVDs, video discs and even discs from ISO images. If you want to perform a straight copy from one CD to another, then it's more than capable of the task. Follow our guide and you'll discover that using writable and rewritable discs with Linux is even easier than it is with Windows. Jim Martin Deputy Editor Burning CDs and DVDs using Brasero Brasero is Ubuntu's built-in disc-burning application and it offers a range of easy-to-use options. Jim Martin shows you how to feel the burn Creating data discs and audio CDs is easy with Brasero. The friendly interface has a selection of large buttons that allow you to burn audio CDs and data discs, create video DVDs, make direct copies of CDs and DVDs and burn ISO images of a CD or DVD. It can also erase rewritable CDs and DVDs. How to... Burn an audio CD 1 Insert a blank CD-R into your CD writer and launch Brasero Disc Burner, which you'll find under Sound & Video in the Applications menu. Click the Audio project button under the 'Create a new project:' heading. 2 Add some audio files by clicking the green + button and browsing to your music. Brasero supports any format for which you have the codecs installed. Fire it up immediately after you install Ubuntu and you'll find it won't even support MP3s. To install a codec, simply search for the formats you need in Synaptic Package Manager and mark them for installation. When this is done, choose the files you want to burn. Ctrl-A selects all files in the folder, or click on the first one you want, hold Shift and click on the last to select a block of files. 3 Click Add and the files will be added to the project. You can type a title for the CD in the box at the bottom, and double-click on each track to edit the information; this is useful if you have a CD player that displays text. You can split tracks using the knife icon in the toolbar, while the pause icon adds a two-second pause after a track. 4 Click the Burn button in the bottom corner. The only option you may want to change if you have problems burning discs is to reduce the speed to a setting lower than the default Maximum. Once you've clicked Burn, Brasero will make all the tracks the same volume (normalisation), write the CD text information and then burn the tracks. When the process is complete, the disc should eject and be ready to play. How to... Burn an iSO image Often you'll want to burn a CD or DVD from an ISO image you've downloaded, perhaps when a newer version of Ubuntu becomes available or you want to install another Linux distribution. Brasero can handle this with the minimum of hassle. An ISO image is like a Zip archive of all the files on a CD or DVD. When you burn an ISO image, the files within it are written to the disc in the correct folder structure. Download the ISO image you want to burn, launch Brasero and click Burn image. 2 Insert a suitable disc for the size of the image to be burned into your CD or DVD writer. The size of the ISO file tells you the minimum disc size you'll need. As we're burning a Ubuntu 9.10 disc, we'll use a CD-R, as the ISO file is 698MB. The Image Burning Setup window will appear. You'll need to select the ISO image, so browse to the folder or drive where it's located. 3 Now click the Properties button. You can alter the burning speed here, but it's advisable to choose a speed less than the maximum rated speed of your disc only if you find there are errors when you burn the disc. You can choose to leave the disc open - so that more files can be added later - but as we're leaving just 3.9MB of free space, there's no point in this example. If your CD or DVD writer supports a 'burnproof' mode (which most do), ensure that this box is ticked. Finally, click the Close button. 4 All that's left to do is click the Burn button. Brasero will display a progress bar telling you how long is left and what is being written to the disc. When the disc is burned, it should automatically eject from the drive, unless you unticked that option. It's a good idea to write on the disc so you remember what's on it, but it's now ready to use. In this case, the disc is bootable, so it can be popped into the drive of the computer on which we want to install Ubuntu. If you do the same but find the computer doesn't boot from the CD, you may need to enter your PC's BIOS to change the order of boot devices, making sure the CD or DVD drive is the first, or at least comes before the hard disk. How to... Burn a data disc 1 Choose the type of disc you want to write to from the list at the bottom of the screen, next to the Burn button. By default you'll create a 7.9GB DVD. You can choose to make a 4.3GB DVD or a CD. 2 Select the files you want to include from any number of folders. You can select groups of them manually or use the automatic filtering system (pictured) to choose different types of files. When you've finished, click the Burn button. Technical telepathy: 09969636745 Saints are not always saints; sinners are not always sinners. Voice your thoughts in the blog to discuss the Rights of persons with disability bill at: http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/blog.htm To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
