Peregrine

Yesterday, I decided to burn the openSUSE 10.2 DVD for x86-64 so that I can install it on the new system. Fedora Core 6 is having lots of trouble getting the graphics working correctly on the new box (we’ll have to see if it’s any better after I update the BIOS).

So, I used KTorrent to download the DVD ISO for the x86-64 version of openSUSE 10.2, which I let run overnight (3.7GB takes a little while on a T1 line). I verified the MD5SUM on the ISO file and tried to use cdrecord to burn the image to a blank DVD. 865MB in, ka-blooey. A write error meant I had a Frisbee (or coaster, if you prefer). “OK, well that could just be one bad disc,” so I tried again. Same thing. “OK, perhaps if I turn the burn speed down,” but I now have 3 discs with ~865MB burned on them.

So, I installed k3b and tried to burn from the DVD image with that. It worked like a charm.

I’m not sure what switches k3b used, but it did run growisofs before starting the burn process. I’m not sure whether that was important or not. The cool thing is, this is an example of a frontend that is done right. With k3b, all sorts of burning situations are just handled. It will work with all sorts of disc burning and image related tools, can use transcode when creating audio or “MP3″ CDs, has DVD aware support and so much more.