groisofs and "use-the-force-luke" option

[MMYoung]

I did a search on this forum for "use-the-force-luke" and it came back empty. So I wanted to post this to see if anyone out there, besides the folks at K3b, have ever heard of this option for growisofs.

Reason I'm asking is that I'm trying to get away from having to use K3b to burn DVD iso's. I burned one this morning and then looked at the debugging output and the command it used to burn it was:
/usr/bin/growisofs -Z /dev/hdc=/path/to/iso.iso -use-the-force-luke=notray
-use-the-force-luke=tty -speed=8 -overburn
All of the options in the command above are documented in the man page for growisofs EXCEPT -use-the-force-luke, or at least it's not documented in the version of growisofs on my box (Slackware 10.1).

growisofs -version reports the following:
growisofs -version
* growisofs by <appro@fy.chalmers.se>, version 5.21,
front-ending to mkisofs: mkisofs 2.01 (i686-pc-linux-gnu)

Thanks,
MMYoung

[cybertron]

Found this
undocumented -use-the-force-luke flag to overwrite the media
* none interactively;
here (http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/tools/growisofs.c). I assume that's supposed to be non-interactively.

Don't know that it helps, but apparently that's what it does. I'm intrigued by this so I'm going to keep Googling:)

[cybertron]

Ah, silly me for skipping this link. (http://lists.debian.org/cdwrite/2004/05/msg00007.html)

The relevant parts:
For reference.

+.BI \-use\-the\-force\-luke
+.BI \-use\-the\-force\-luke=tty

Suppress "FATAL: /dev/dvd already carries isofs!" condition.

+.BI \-use\-the\-force\-luke=dummy

Engage "Test Write" mode defined for DVD-R and DVD-RW Sequential.

+.BI \-use\-the\-force\-luke=notray

Don't reload tray on platforms which require reload. Recording may appear corrupt till the tray is reloaded by other means.

+.BI \-use\-the\-force\-luke=moi

Suppress mkisofs progress indicator and replace it with growisofs internal progress indicator. "moi" is French for "me."

+.BI \-use\-the\-force\-luke=dao[[:|=] daosize ]

Engage DAO mode defined for DVD-R and DVD-RW Sequential, optionally specify tracksize. The latter might be required for copying multi-format or bootable media mastered with program other than mkisofs.

+.BI \-use\-the\-force\-luke=tracksize[:|=]tracksize

Alternative way to specify tracksize for DAO recording, see above.

+.BI \-use\-the\-force\-luke=seek[:|=]next_session

Perform recording at seek offset. Effective in DVD+RW and DVD-RW Restricted Overwrite context and is suitable for performing unformatted real-time stream recordings. Try it with -dry-run and examine "builtin_dd command line." A.

[MMYoung]

Heck as it wasn't in the man page for growisofs, I never figured to look on the authors changelog.

Guess I need to do some "googling" myself.

Later and thanks for the info,
MMYoung

[davisfactor]

Here's an excellent article I found one that I always refer to for DVD authoring help:

http://applications.linux.com/article.pl?sid=04/11/16/1555246

It covers almost everything you need to know.

[MMYoung]

That is a good site, I bookmarked it.

Thanks!

[psi42]

To bad there isn't a -use-the-force-luke=tell-the-firmware-this-really-is-an-8x-disc option...

[MMYoung]

Originally posted by psi42
To bad there isn't a -use-the-force-luke=tell-the-firmware-this-really-is-an-8x-disc option...
I've never had one start out at 8x but with the setting -speed=8 it will get to around 7.8x to 8x fairly quickly.

Later,
MMYoung

[psi42]

Originally posted by MMYoung
I've never had one start out at 8x but with the setting -speed=8 it will get to around 7.8x to 8x fairly quickly.


The firmware for my drive detects some 8x discs as only 1x discs, and refuses to burn them at anything faster than 1x. I don't believe I can "force" it...

[MMYoung]

Originally posted by psi42
The firmware for my drive detects some 8x discs as only 1x discs, and refuses to burn them at anything faster than 1x. I don't believe I can "force" it...
Nope, doubt you can force that, but it sounds like it's more of a media thing rather than a firmware thing. I have found that some of the suppliers of CD/DVD's, especially some of the cheaper brands, use lesser quaility materials when making the disks. Regardless of what is on the box, some of the DVD's I buy will never record at their "suggested" rated speed.

On the other hand I've had some disks that would make coasters and others that would burn at their rated speed from the same pack. Memorex seems to be the worst offender in that regard, but then again that's been my experience. Maxell and Sony seem to work the best for me. I've found that trying to stick to the drive manufacturer recommendations for media types, as best I can at Wal-Mart anyway, has always provided me with the best results.

Another issue that you might be running into here is the - or + thing. I just recently replaced a Sony 530A DVD burner with a LITEON SOHW-1633S. The Sony DVD, although rated to burn DVD+R/RW's, delivered results using the + format media that were "all over the map". Using the DVD-R/RW, the results were very consistant. I acutally ran some tests, using K3b in Linux and Nero 6 in Windows, to document my "experiences". I downloaded a Slackware DVD iso and burned it in both OS's and the results were almost identical. Using 4x DVD-R media the total burn time was around 10 minutes. Using 8x DVD+R media (after the firmware update to support it) it took over 20 minutes to burn the same iso. Using 8x DVD-R media it took around 6 minutes. After replacing the Sony with the LITEON (which just recently was give the PCWorld "Best Buy" award) the results were consistant across media types and OS's. 4x DVDR's, - or +, burned the iso in around 10 minutes. 8X DVDR's, - or +, burned the iso in about 6 minutes.

I guess what it boils down to is no matter what your burner is "advertised" as being able to do, marketing and real world don't always sync. Of course you, like most here, already know that ;). Also, as far as my experiences have confirmed anyway, trying to stick with the drive manufacturer's suggested media suppliers will provide the best overall results.

Later,
MMYoung