3. Usage
Well, there is not so much to say about this program...just
open kfm and drag files/dirs onto the right window. When dropping them
you can choose between some modes of how they should appear on the cd.
The best way is to try it, you see the result at once. What you drop is
put into the place of the tree which is selected in the left window.
That was the short form ;-)
If you can not use a kfm to drop files onto KisoCD you
can try a very simple "file manager" (view|simple file manager). Instead
of using drag'n'drop you select the file you want to drop and hit the button
"transfer highlighted". The rest is the same....
3.1 Adding files and directories
Drag them from kfm into the rightmost window of KisoCD.
When you drop them, you get a menu:
-
only the file(s)
-
in new directory
-
with directory (only when dropping directories)
Here you can choose where they should be included on the cd. Well, actually
it's hard for me to explain it....try all of them!
The item "CD" appears in the "directories"-box after the first drop.
Let's assume you dragged the file "kisocd-0.3pre2.tar.gz" into the right
window as your first action, choose "in new directory" and typed "linux/packages"
as directory. Then those directories are created and the file is put into
"/linux/packages".
Then you can, for example, choose "/linux" in the middle window and
do the next drop. Choosing "only the file(s)" on a file would put the file
into "/linux", on a directory it would put the files in the directory and
its subdirs into "/linux".
Well, there are some possibilities, as I already mentoined it's best
to try all of them so you get to know what you can do....
It is only important to know that the place at which the include starts
is selected in the "directories"-box.
There is a new feature which makes things easier: create new directories
without filling them at once using "virtual CD|new directory..".
The menu is slighty different when dropping several files/directories
at once.
3.2 Checking the size
At the bottom there is a progress-bar showing how much of the
cd (650MB) is used. The bar is green as long as your contents fit on the
CD...
But do not rely on this bar! It only counts the size of the files,
not the size of directories and additional entries due to some filesystem-options!
Before burning the CD you have to run "single step|simulate image creation", which
tells you the real size!!!!!!
Furthermore there is no limitation to 650MB-CDs, you can make your images
larger, if your cd-writer is able to do that--simply don't care --about
the red color of the progress-bar.
Underneath the progress-bar there are some labels telling you the size
of the selected directory, of the selected directory with subdirs included
and of the selected file.
3.3 Undo addings, excluding ("deleting") files and
directories
The "Edit..."-button on the main-window lets you delete assignments
you have made (in the left part of the window) and exclude files/directories
by using the right part. Here you can also drop files and directories.
3.4 Making traycards
There is a "cdDoc"-menu which lets you easily create a simple
traycard for your CD. Its not very pretty, but does its job...you need
to have LaTeX installed and some of its packages (now you also
get a file which contains the same output for kover. But this file is only
produced with "create from current view", it is not saved with the other
things!). At the moment it is not a good idea to view the output with kdvi,
as it does not display everything...however, xdvi is not able
to rotate text...but it will be printed the right way.
The traycard is a LaTeX-document which you can edit via "cdDoc|Edit...".
When you put your CD together simply run "cdDoc|create from current
view". Every toplevel-directory will be a "description-item" and
if it has subdirectories and you made them visible before calling the creation
the are automatically appended.
You can view the ouput with "cdDoc|view...", of course.
3.5 Saving and loading projects
You can save/load your project with "file|open.../save/save
as....", of course.
All the settings you made (files on the CD, options, cdDoc) are saved
in one file. When you first start KisoCD it creates a folder in
your home-directory where everything is stored.
3.6 ...and finally burning the CD....
Before you burn the cd you should check its size with
"single step|Simulate
image creation". After mkisofs is run (without writing an
image) you are shown its output, then you get a message with the size which
was computed from
mkisofs' output (when mkisofs finished,
it tells you "Total extents scheduled to be written = (a number)". Divide
this number by 512 and you have the size of your CD in megabytes...if it
differs a lot from what KisoCD told you, you have probably found
a bug...(I experienced differences of 1..2 MB using "Rockridge", I don't
know how it differs if you use other filesystem/extensions)).
To burn the cd you choose "single step|Create Shellscript" (and before that
"single step|Create Image" if you do not want to burn on-the-fly). The file cdScript.sh
is created in ~/KisoCD, you just have to execute it. I did it
as a "paranoia-option"...you do not need to have a window-manager running
to burn CDs....but you can also burn it at once with "single step|Burn CD now!"
(KisoCD will execute cdScript.sh for you and show you the
output).
Well, actually that was the difficult way to do it. Just hit
"File|Burn CD" if you want to do it somewhat easier.
3.7 Options
The option-dialogs are divided into four parts:
-
system: Options which concern your system (the device you burn
the cds with, buffer sizes, paths and so on).
-
cdDoc: The paths to certain programs you want to use for making
traycards.
-
cd: Here you set the options which only concern the one cd you
are currently editing.
-
user interface: Lets you configure KisoCDs behaviour in some parts
(whether you want to see some dialogs or not and things like that).
I think most of the options should be quite clear, so I'll explain only
some of them.
3.7.1 system
-
writing device (name of its special file; only for multisession):
when you write a multisession cd you need to read the cds contents, if
it is not the first session. Here you have to give the name of the special
file which corresponds to your writing device(like /dev/sr0 or /dev/scd0).
-
writing from imagefile: when you want to create an imagefile before
burning the cd (when writing multisession cds this is a must) KisoCD has
to know where to save the image. So please give a filename using the
browse...-button.
-
Where to mount images: The mountpoint to be used for the image
if you use single step|mount and view image.
3.7.2 cdDoc
Here you only give the path or names of the executables to the programms
for translating/viewing/editing/printing latex-files. Usually the defaults
should be ok.
3.7.3 cd
-
basics|dummy write should be clear, but is VERY important. If
you try some new things (fifo-size, new hardware, writing-speed, ...) you
should "burn" one CD with dummy write enabled. This means
the burning process will only be a test. Everything is done like "in real
life" but the laser is not turned on. So you can see how your system performs
without loosing a CD.
-
bootable cd is maybe somewhat different to what you expect it
as you know other frontends. KisoCD only wants to know where the bootable
image currently is to be found on your harddisk. You don't have to copy
it somewhere, this is done automatically. Please also read the
next section.
If you want to know more about some of those options it would
be best to read the manpages for
mkisofs and cdrecord.
3.7.4 user interface
-
Show options|CD on startup should be clear...
-
Message when subprocess has finished: When a subprocess has
finished you are shown a window with all its messages if you haven't
already opened it. Here you can tell KisoCD to pop up an additional infomessage.
-
Show subprocess window on start: Determines whether a
window showing messages of a subprocess should be opened when one is
started. However, (1) you can always open it manually and (2) in any
case it pops up when the subprocess finishes.
-
Don't show options on Drag'n'Drop. If you check this box,
you're not shown different options when dropping files/dirs on
KisoCD. Instead the default option is used. Might be useful for not
getting confused...
3.8 Bootable CDs
BE WARNED: I have
not tested making bootable CDs thoroughly. The interaction between
KisoCD
and mkisofs seems to be ok as far as this is concerned, as well
as the tests I make in the shell scripts to prevent you from burning a
cd when something is not OK. BUT THERE IS NO GUARANTEE! Until now (22.7.1999)
I just tried to make one bootable CD which seems to fail because of a bad
CD or something. On some systems it starts booting and decompressing the
kernel before halting, on others nothing happens. I wanted to release this
version nevertheless, I think you don't have to wait until I make the next
try (which will possibly fail again as it's gonna be the same type of cd).
Making bootable CDs with KisoCD is easier than with
other programs: you don't have to care about paths for the bootimage and
the boot-catalogue, the only thing KisoCD wants to know is where
the bootimage can be found on your hard-disk. Before creating the image
it will copy the boot-image to a new directory, and delete those things
afterwards.
The most important point when making a bootable CD is the bootable image.
Here is what man mkisofs says about the image:
The boot image must be exactly the size of either a
1.2, 1.44, or a 2.88 meg floppy, and
mkisofs will use this size when creating the output iso9660 filesystem.
It is assumed that the first 512 byte sector should be
read from the boot image (it is essentially emulating a normal floppy
drive). This will work, for example, if the boot image is a LILO
based boot floppy.
The BootDisk-HOWTO tells you how to make a bootable CD. A very
good thing to use for bootable images is yard
.
Remember to call "single step|Simulate image creation" before you burn the
CD. This will also tell you if mkisofs has problems with the bootable
image you chose.
3.9 settings for multi-users-systems
If you have multiple users sharing the same hardware it might
be good to set some options which the users can't change, for example the
burning-device, paths, writing speed and so on.
Also it could be useful not to show the users every option and
possibility KisoCD has (hiding menus), for example if it would
confuse them or ..whatever.
I included one very special option, too (one user asked for it): using
it one can give the user a simpler drag'n'drop which is less powerful but
won't be confusing.
All that can be done by the super-user editing a global configuration
file called kisocdrc which has to reside in share/config/
in the kde-directory, /etc/defaults/ or /usr/local/etc/defaults/.
You find an example file in the source directory of the kisocd-distribution,
it also includes a description of the simple syntax.
You can have special settings for only one user and for a group of
users too. On startup the program first looks for a section which is called
like the users user-id. If that can't be found a section called like the
users group-id is looked up. If this does not exist, too, KisoCD
does not make restrictions.
I don't plan to write a GUI-dialog for editing this file. If someone
wants to do that, contact me, it will be included.
Also I will not set KisoCD to uid root or expect cdrecord
to be this way. If you are someone who administrates a system with multiple
users I'd like to hear your opinion about which way is best and if KisoCD
lacks functions concerning this.
3.10 Multisession CDs
For the creation of multisession cds you have to do some special
things:
-
Go to options|cd|type of cd and select multisession cd.
-
Tell KisoCD wether it is the first session on the cd, one in the middle
or the last.
-
Make sure you have given a vaild directory and filename at
options|system|devices, directories, ...|writing from
imagefile. There the imagefile (at least for all sessions but the
first) and and a temporary directory will be created. However, you
have to give a filename.
When you make one of the sessions after the first, the following
points are important:
-
You have to create an image. Burning on-the-fly is not possible.
-
When creating the image, the cd with the previous sessions has to be accesible
through your writing device named via its special file name at
options|system|writing
device (name of its special file; only for multisession).
-
You can't include symbolic links as symbolic links. Depending on the choice
you made at options|filesystem they are not included at all or they are
followed.
3.11 Burning CDs as normal user
You have to set cdrecord suid root (of course you need to be
root to do that):
chmod 4711 /usr/bin/cdrecord
If your cdrecord is not in /usr/bin, you can find its path
using which cdrecord.
|