As of scdbackup version 0.8 this text is outdated ! Follow the instructions given by README, Installation, Step 2b . How i got scdbackup-0.7.1 running with a DVR+RW recorder There are several more or less incompatible versions of rewritable DVD. My experiments were made in March 2003 with a NEC DVD+RW (the "+" is important) DN1100A on "Platinum DVD+RW" media which are sold in germany. See also "Feedback so far" below for more writers which reportedly work. Especially i would like to hear from people who successfully burned DVD-RW. Getting and Installing growisofs The only writer program which worked with above recorder was growisofs by Andy Polyakov ( http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/ ). He also offers a kernel patch to make the recorder a full featured disk device but for scdbackup's purposes the user space utility is fully sufficient. Get the package from : http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/tools/ and install according to the instructions given. Alternatively a (probably outdated) version that was tested with scdbackup is provided under http://scdbackup.webframe.org/dvd+rw-tools-5.16.4.8.5.tar.gz To be installed as follows : Untar, enter the directory dvd+rw-tools-* (e.g. dvd+rw-tools-5.16.4.8.5) and execute make . Then copy growisofs and dvd+rw-format to a directory where they can be executed by all interested users (e.g. to /usr/bin). It is a good idea to read the tutorial of Andy Polyakov's DVD software : http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/ because growisofs is useful independendly from scdbackup. With Linux kernel version below 2.5 the EIDE DVD recorder has to be emulated as an SCSI device as described by Andy's tutorial (or by my README appendix IDE where an ATAPI CD-RW gets attached as an SCSI device). Find out the SCSI device address of your DVD recorder. In my case it was /dev/sr0 . You may count the entries of "Type: CD-ROM" in the output of cat /proc/scsi/scsi until you reach the entry with your recorder. The first entry will be /dev/sr0 , the next one /dev/sr1 and so on. With newer kernels and recent versions of growisofs it is possible to use IDE device addresses directly without SCSI emulation. Make sure that the device offers read+write permissions to all interested users. If it is not readable you will get slightely confusing messages from growisofs. With older versions of growisofs, a new DVD+RW disk first has to be formatted by dvd+rw-format. Like : dvd+rw-format /dev/sr0 Newer versions of growisofs detect this need and do this automatically. Nevertheless there is no harm done if you use dvd+rw-format . Enabling the DVD commands of scdbackup If there is a script CONFIGURE_DVD then run it and forget about the hack. If there is SUPERUSER_CONFIGURE_DVD run it, else SUPERUSER_CONFIGURE will be sufficient. Ok. You got a medium old tarball or want to try the hack anyway (please tell me why). Here we go : For the following you need scdbackup-0.7.1 downloaded after 3 Apr 2003. If this text is not included in the tarball then it is not recent enough. (Get a new one : http://scdbackup.webframe.org/scdbackup-0.7.1.tar.gz ) Install it, run ./CONFIGURE and ./SUPERUSER_CONFIGURE for your CD-RW as usual. Often DVD recorders are able to burn CD-RW too, so enter your DVD recorder's SCSI address (like "1,0,0") if you got no other CD-RW burner to use. DVD configuration is done next and will involve some manual work. The adjustable parameters are set in the shell code snippet set_dvd_hack which you will have to edit now. An important parameter is the address of the SCSI device (like /dev/sr1) which is set in variable growisofs_target . You need to check the variable's content and eventually change it. Look for : export growisofs_target=/dev/sr0 If you use file buffering for CDs and that buffer file may not grow up to 4 or 5 GB then you will have to set variable SCDBACKUP_BUFFER to "-". Just remove the comment mark "#" in # export SCDBACKUP_BUFFER=- If you have reason to slow down writing speed to the minimum (i.e. poor media) then you should uncomment the line # export growisofs_options="$growisofs_options -speed=1" Other settings replace the usage of cdrecord by usage of the shell script growisofs_wrapper, disable blanking, set the afio media size to 4480m (= 4,697,620,480 bytes). There usually is no need to change these settings. See README appendix CONFIGURATION for an explanation of the configuration override variables. Four shell scripts may be copied to command directories like /usr/bin resp. /usr/sbin : cp backup_example_dvd_hack /usr/bin/scdbackup_dvd cp backup_example_home_dvd_hack /usr/bin/scdbackup_home_dvd cp backup_example_afio_dvd_hack /usr/bin/scdbackup_afio_dvd cp backup_example_sys_dvd_hack /usr/sbin/scdbackup_sys_dvd They execute set_dvd_hack to employ growisofs_wrapper for writing to the DVD+RW recorder. Use them like the original versions for CD. E.g.: scdbackup_dvd /opt /home -not /home/guest* The volume size is set to 4250m but may be overridden by a program option like -max_size 4450m or the content of shell variable SCDBACKUP_MAX_SIZE like in export SCDBACKUP_MAX_SIZE=4450m (but exceed the number of 4.7e9 = 4482m only at your own risk) Use the device address of the DVD recorder for verifying. Like : scdbackup_verify /dev/sr0 -auto You may continue to use the orignal commands with the configured CD-RW recorder. Be so kind to inform me about your experiences. (mailto: scdbackup@gmx.net ) Thanks in advance. Feedback so far --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overview of successfully tested recorders (please report more) : LITE-ON LDW-411S , NEC DN1100A , Plextor PX-504A , Sony DRW510 , Sony U10A , Sony DRU-500A --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pieter J Voet reports success with a Sony DRW510 DVD+-RW . He used /dev/scd* rather than /dev/sr* as content of variable growisofs_target. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jason Stegman reports difficulties with files larger than 2 GB. This was specific to the system where cd_backup_planer.c gets compiled and depended on wether Large File Support (LFS) is enabled by default or not. See : http://ftp.sas.com/standards/large.file/x_open.20Mar96.html#1.1 Another text advises special compiler options to be applied : http://www.suse.de/~aj/linux_lfs.html From now on, scdbackup's C programs will be compiled with LFS and the shell scripts should be safe up to directory trees with 4 TB. Over 4 TB you will need to install program bc . But also your mkisofs and/or your afio have to be able to handle large files. Both are not ready for that on my own system (mkisofs 1.13 , afio 2.4.7 ). The state as of November 2003 : Jason reports that mkisofs-2.01a17 (cdrtools-2.01a17 , development branch) got Large File Support. The current version of cdrtools-2.00.3 (stable branch) does not. Links to development versions of cdrtools can be found at: http://freshmeat.net/projects/cdrecord/?branch_id=1139&topic_id=257%2C19%2C845%2C118%2C139 Koen Holtman, the maintainer of afio implemented Large File Support in a beta version. I roughly tested afio-2.4.7.9beta4 . Obtained from the afio page on Freshmeat : http://freshmeat.net/projects/afio/?topic_id=137%2C42 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dirk Lison reports success with a SONY U10A recorder. He also reports that options -resume (and -help) did not work with the *_dvd scripts. This should be solved now. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------