Welcome to webCDwriter

webCDwriter can be used to make the CD- and DVD-writer(s) connected to a Linux box available to all users in your network. It consists of the server CDWserver and the clients webCDcreator and rcdrecord. CDWserver stores the files transmitted by the clients, reserves the CD-writer and controls the CD-writer using cdrecord. webCDcreator is a Java applet that runs within your browser, assists you when putting together a CD and transmits the files. Try it!
Finally rcdrecord is a command line client that tries to offer the functionality of cdrecord over the network (not complete yet). In addition to this there are several extensions like using MP3s for audio CDs and adding files to a data CD made easy by the command files2cd.

News

• webCDwriter and CDWserver Pro 2.8.2 available (2008-04-08)
  This release was tested on Ubuntu Linux 8.04.
  Installation instructions for Ubuntu Linux 7.10 and 8.04
  ChangeLog
• webCDwriter and CDWserver Pro 2.8.1 available (2007-04-30)
  This release was tested on Ubuntu Linux 7.04. In addition there are instructions for an easy installation on Ubuntu Linux.
  ChangeLog
• webCDwriter and CDWserver Pro 2.8.0 available (2006-04-26)
  Less modal dialog boxes, some small enhancements and webCDcreator.jar is signed by a renewed certificate. CDWserver Pro now supports the read in of ISO images.
  This release was tested on Ubuntu Linux 5.10. In addition there are instructions for an easy installation on Ubuntu Linux.
  ChangeLog
• webCDwriter and CDWserver Pro 2.7.3 available (2005-11-10)
  New features of the "Pro edition": multi writer control, Drag and Drop to the CD/DVD description and embedded predefined projects in web-pages.
  This release was tested on Ubuntu Linux 5.10.
  ChangeLog    Try with KNOPPIX
• webCDwriter and CDWserver Pro 2.7.2 available (2005-08-31)
  This release was tested on Ubuntu Linux. In addition there are now instructions for an easy installation on Ubuntu Linux.
  ChangeLog    Try with KNOPPIX
• Gentoo Linux support (2005-08-16)

  emerge --sync echo "app-cdr/webcdwriter ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords emerge webcdwriter

• webCDwriter and CDWserver Pro 2.7.1 available (2005-06-23)
  This release was tested on Ubuntu Linux. In addition there are now instructions for an easy installation on Ubuntu Linux.
  ChangeLog    Try with KNOPPIX
• webCDwriter and CDWserver Pro 2.7.0 available (2005-05-24)
  ChangeLog    Try with KNOPPIX
• Installer for an unpatched cdrecord for webCDwriter (2004-01-17)
  Required for e.g. SuSE Linux 8.2, Mandrake Linux 9.2, ...

Highlights

• multi user support
• the client webCDcreator can run as a Java^TM Web Start application or as an applet within your browser
• fully web-based - no installation on the clients
• supports data CDs, audio CDs and multisession
• use the image of a bootable floppy to make a bootable CD for PCs
• the ISO image of data CDs is created while burning (saves time and disk space)
• MP3 decoding for audio CDs using mpg123
• multi writer support (connected to the same server) burning independent sessions
• export of server directories
• verifying the CD after writing it (optional)
• copying a data CD in a CD-ROM drive on the server "on the fly" to the CD-writer
• user accounts
• upload the files from one machine and burn them by another one
• command line client rcdrecord
• Internationalization:
  • Catalan, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Korean and Spanish web pages
  • Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish messages in webCDcreator
    If you get empty boxes instead of the characters, try to modify your font.properties file.
    Note: Chinese and Korean support is still experimental. I need feedback on this!
• RPM packages available for Red Hat Linux, SuSE Linux, and Mandrake Linux
• Slackware 8.1 package available (thanks to Eric Hameleers)

Highlights CDWserver Pro

• protection against writing files of different users to one medium
• status output while waiting for a writer
• link the files that are already on the server instead of copying them
• use all writers available to burn several copies of a project
• DVD+R/+RW/-R/-RW support by running Andy Polyakov's excellent dvd+rw-tools

Requirements

• the server was tested on Mandrake Linux 9.0
• at least 800 MB of free disk space on the server for one session
• one of
  • Java^TM Web Start 1.0.1 and above
  • Java^TM Plug-in 1.2 and above
  • Netscape Communicator 4.5x to 4.7x

Known Problems

• mkisofs sometimes fails to build an image
• Netscape fails to run webCDcreator on Mac OS
• webCDwriter requires cdrecord-1.10 if used on Linux kernel 2.4
• mpg321-0.1.5 (Red Hat Linux 7.2) runs into an endless loop

Future Plans

• perhaps a MD5 based backup system