Help File Library: X-CD-Roast and Your CD Burner

I have found from my own personal experience that ATAPI CD Recorders were not that difficult to get up and running, thanks to X-CD-Roast and Red Hat Linux. I thought X-CD-Roast was the easiest CD recording package to install on Red Hat Linux and have chosen to use it in my example. After recording my first CD in Red Hat Linux, I felt that it was necessary for me to revise some of the current documentation. I hope that I have created a concise document that will make the process of creating CDs via X-CD-Roast in Linux much easier. I am also in the process of testing other distributions of Linux and will be updating this how-to so that it will be more diverse in its nature.

In order to complete this task you are required to make several different modifications to your system, from the installation of the X-CD-Roast package to recompiling the kernel. Before beginning this task you must acquire the following:

The following steps that proceed must be followed exactly as they are written. If you miss or skip one you might as well not of read any of it. Most of the commands below will be issued from a terminal window in the X -Windows environment. These directions are directed toward Red Hat 6.0 and greater but they may work for other distributions, so email me if you get them to work in another distribution.

1. First you must become root, either by the "su" command or by logging in as root at a terminal in X-Windows. After this, change to the /usr/src/linux directory by issuing this command, "cd /usr/src/linux", and then type "make xconfig". This should bring up the kernel configuration menu for X-Windows. You can also make any other changes to the kernel that you would like to, for example printer support. If nothing happens or you receive an error message you probably do not have the kernel source installed. You will need to read some documentation on compiling the kernel before proceeding.

2. Choose the block devices button and check "y" (yes) for SCSI emulation support and "n" (no) for Include IDE/ATAPI CDROM support and exit. Now choose SCSI Devices button and enable generic SCSI device support then save and exit from this program.

3. Next you will need to return back to the terminal that you ran the previous commands in and type "make dep", and hit return. This will gather the dependencies for the source files.

4. Now you should type "make clean" and hit return, so that the old object file will be forced out and you will have a complete rebuild of the kernel.

5. This next step actually builds the kernel, so it will take a little longer than the steps before. You should now type "make bzImage" and hit return. You can now go take a smoke break, surf the net or better, do both while the kernel is being compiled. After this you will need to "make modules" and then "make modules_install, this will get any modules that you selected squared away and put into memory at boot-time.

6. Since you have now rebuilt the kernel to an image file named bzImage, you must tell Linux to boot this image next time you boot up. This involves the following:

• First you have to change to the directory /usr/src/linux-X.X.XX/arch/i386/boot/, by typing "cd /usr/src/linux-X.X.XX/arch/i386/boot/". This is where the image (bzImage) is located. The X?s stand for the version number of the kernel you have on your machine, every machine is different so you will have to fill the X?s in with the appropriate version number that is on your computer.
• Then you must copy the image to the directory /boot/, by typing "cp bzImage /boot/."
• Now you will need to rename the old System.map file to Systemold.map and move the new one into place. This can be done by typing "mv /boot/System.map /boot/Systemold.map".
• You should now move the new System.map file that was created during the compiling of the kernel to the /boot directory by issuing the following command "cp /usr/src/linux/System.map /boot".

7. Now with the image in the boot directory you should tell your boot manager (LILO) that you have a new image for it to boot to. The file that you will need to edit is the configuration file for the LILO boot manager, which lets you choose what image or partition to boot from. To do this you need to edit /etc/lilo.conf file, to do this you need to type "pico /etc/lilo.conf". This should bring up the lilo.conf file, here is an example of what it should look like.

-----------------------------------------------------
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
default=linux (the default kernel label that will start up, you can change it)

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12-20 (this is your old kernel image)
label=linux (old kernel label)
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.2.12-20.img
read-only
root=/dev/hda5

(-------------------Add the following to this file---------)

image=/boot/bzImage (this is your new kernel image)
label=newkernel (new kernel label, you can change this)
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.2.12-20.img
read-only
root=/dev/hda5
------------------------------------------------------

After you have added those lines you should save the file by typing "CTRL + W", answer yes to the question and save it as the same file name.

8. Since you now have your new kernel image inserted in the /etc/lilo.conf file you must type "/sbin/lilo",without this LILO will not know that a new image has be installed. This is done so that you can boot from it next time, for example by typing "newkernel" at the LILO boot prompt.

9. Now you must reboot your computer so that you can boot from your new kernel, this can be done by typing the label name you gave your new kernel in the lilo.conf file, or in my example "newkernel" at the LILO prompt.

10. After you have rebooted from your new kernel you can now install X-CD-Roast by becoming root and changing to the same directory of the rpm file. To start the installation process type "rpm -ivh xcdroast.X.XX.rpm" at a terminal in X-Windows and the package will be installed.

11. Now you can run the program by typing "xcdroast" at a terminal in X-Windows.

If by chance you receive an error when you start this program that informs you that you do not have SCSI emulation installed, you did not follow the directions, or I have failed at attempting to explain how to do this and you must start over. You should consult the manual pages at www.xcdroast.org for any addition help regarding the different ways and types of CD recording possibilities.

If all goes well you should be ready to record your first CD in Linux. I believe I have explained this clearly enough but if by chance I left out something or you feel that I have not given correct advice please let me know by emailing me at halljer@mail.auburn.edu.