Introduction to CD-R

Please be sure to see Andy McFadden's CD-Recordable FAQ before proceeding. This is an excellent source of general information with respect to CD-R and mastering CDs. It covers such topics as creating filesystems on disk (with and without long filename support, creating bootable CDs, etc.)

Sun compatible CD-R hardware

K. Raquel Sanborn reports the Plextor PlexWriter CD-R 412 burner/reader being 100% compatible with an SS20 and Solaris 2.5.1. Click here for a short review.

Gene Saunders writes in to report that the Plextor PLEXWRITER 8/20 (pricing info here), and PLEXWRITER RW 4/2/20 (pricing info here) could also work (based on the Plextor's track record of Sun compatibility). (Update: May 14th, 1999)

Kelsey Kennedy reports using the Smart & Friendly CD-R 2006 Plus (OEM'd JVC XR-W2020 according to Andy McFadden's CD-R faq) as a boot drive with Solaris 2.6.

Generally, it is the CD mastering software which dictates Sun compatible drives.

CD mastering software for SunOS & Solaris

The following CD mastering applications were reported as being readily available for SunOS and Solaris. (Thanks to a recent posting by Pierre Padovani < padovani@aaec.com> on the sun-managers mailing list).

• GEAR UNIX by Elektroson ( www.elektroson.com)
  • Platforms: Solaris 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, and SunOS 4.1.x
    (Also supported: HP UX, SGI IRIX, DEC OSF, IBM AIX)
  • Supported CD-R drives:
  • Price: not available

• Creative Digital Research HyCD Publisher (www.hycd.com)
  • Platforms: Solaris 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, and SunOS 4.1.x
    (Also supported: SGI, Windows)
  • Supported CD-R drives: see list of web site
  • Price: not available

• Young Minds CD Studio (www.ymi.com )
  • Platforms: SunOS (Sun3), SunOS (SPARC), Solaris (SPARC), Solaris (x86)
    (Also supported: MANY others)
  • Supported CD-R drives: Click here!
  • Price: not available

• cdrecord by Jörg Schilling ( ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/cdrecord/)
  • Platforms: SunOS 4.1.3 or later, Solaris 2.3 or later (x86 and SPARC)
  • Supported CD-R drives: Click here!
  • Price: Freeware

• CD-Record by Dataware Technologies, Inc.
  • Platforms: SunOS 4.1.x
  • Supported CD-R drives: Not Available
  • Price: Not Available
  • Contact Information:
    
    Dataware Technologies, Inc.
    222 3rd St Suite 3300
    Cambridge, MA 02142
    USA
    Phone: (617) 621-0820
    Toll-Free: (800) 344-5849
    Fax: (617) 621-0307
    

• CDcreation by K-par Systems Ltd.
  • Platforms: SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.x (SPARC & x86)
  • Supported CD-R drives: Not Available
  • Price: Not Available
  • Contact Information:
    
    K-par Systems Ltd.
    174 Cheltenham Road
    Bristol, BS6 5RE
    England
    Phone: 44 117 942 1141
    Fax: 44 117 942 0564
    

• JVC Personal ROMmaker/JVC Personal Archiver by JVC Information Products of America (No web site available)
  • Platforms: SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.x (SPARC)
  • Supported CD-R drives: JVC recordable CD-ROM drive
  • Price: Not Available
  • Contact Information:
    
    JVC Information Products of America
    17811 Mitchell Ave
    Irvine, CA 92714
    USA
    Phone: (714) 261-1292
    Fax: (714) 261-9690
    

CD-R Tips & Tricks

Nothing here yet!

CD-R Related Links

• Andy McFadden's CD-Recordable FAQ - Very highly recommended! Stop here first before proceeding with any purchase.

• USENET Newsgroups: (I didn't even know these existed :-)
  
  • comp.publish.cdrom.hardware
  • comp.publish.cdrom.software
  • comp.publish.cdrom.multimedia

• CD-Writing HOWTO by Winfried Trümper <winni@xpilot.org> - This one is intended for Linux users, but it may be useful as it mentions cdrecord which is also available for SunOS and Solaris