CDRTools2 and DVDDAO are two packagess that make it possible to use modern CD and DVD writer drives under OS/2 and eComStation. I created this page to make a collection of up-to-date documentation for the packages.
The tools can be found on Hobbes. Download them and unzip to their own directories.
CDRTools2Copy the file ASPINKK.SYS to the /OS2/BOOT directory on the boot drive.
The exact installation depends of hardware. I'll only cover the SATA CD and DVD writer drives here. Other drives are similar. Supporting the SATA devices, the following base OS/2 drivers are needed.
BASEDEV=DaniS506.ADD BASEDEV=DaniAtapi.FLT BASEDEV=OS2ASPI.DMD /ALL /SHARE
For newer SATA in AHCI mode, use the following drivers. Some older versions of the AHCI driver require a /S parameter, which is now the default.
BASEDEV=OS2AHCI.ADD BASEDEV=OS2ASPI.DMD /ALL /SHARE
In addtion to these, an ASPI router device driver is needed.
DEVICE=C:\OS2\BOOT\ASPINKK.SYS
To test the hardware and configuration, run cdrecord2 -scanbus from the directory in which you installed CDRTools2. The output will look something like this.
Cdrecord-Clone 2.01.01a04 (i386-pc-os2_emx) Copyright (C) 1995-2006 Jörg Schilling
Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'
scsibus0:
0,0,0 0) '' '' '' NON CCS Disk
0,1,0 1) 'ATAPI ' 'iHAS124 B ' 'AL0R' Removable CD-ROM
0,2,0 2) '*F?7ñw)#' '!' '' NON CCS Disk
0,3,0 3) '*F?7ñw)#' '!' '' NON CCS Disk
This shows that the DVD Writer drive is located on SCSI 0,1,0. The drive may be visible on more than one location. Any of the entries that show a removable CD-ROM will work.
CDRTools2 and DVDDAO work by copying ISO images to the physical disk. In order to conveniently create ISO images from a directory of files, MKISOFS2.EXE is provided with CDRTools2. To make a CD that is usable for most eCS and OS/2 systems, use the following command line as an example.
mkisofs2 -o dvd.iso -r -J d:\suntanv6\v63cd\DVDA file containing disk information can be provided. The file is always named .mkisofsrc and an example of the contents are provided here.
APPI=Suntan Special DVD Edition version 0.63 COPY=Copyright 2013, Blonde Guy ABST=ReadMe.Txt BIBL=http://www.blondeguy.com/suntan6.html PREP=Blonde Guy, 130 Serra Ct., Santa Cruz, CA 95060, (831) 427-1529, neil@blondeguy.com PUBL=Blonde Guy, 130 Serra Ct., Santa Cruz, CA 95060, (831) 427-1529, neil@blondeguy.com SYSI=Suntan Special, DVD Edition VOLI=Suntan VOLS=Suntan Special, DVD Edition version 0.63
The VOLI parameter specified the volume label and it is case sensitive, so if the OS/2 volume name compatibility is important, uppercase may be used.
This is the command to copy the iso file to the DVD disk.
dvddao.exe --aspidriver aspinkk$ -d 0,1,0 --lock s --priority 3,31 -b 128 -f 512k --eject n:\cdrtools2\dvd.iso
While DVDDAO is used for DVD media, CDRecord2 can be used for CD media. The command line for CDRecord2 is provided here.
cdrecord2 -v speed=2 dev=1,0 -eject iso\Broadband.iso
Creating a bootable disk depends on many things to complex for this webpage. To make a bootable disk, you need to have a bootable image file. The bootAble software creates such an image. Once you have this, you adjust the parameters to mkisofs as shown below.
-no-emul-boot -b BOOTIMGS/cdloader.bin
To blank a rewritable CD-RW media, use CDRecord2 with the blank=all parameter. Using blank=fast may work and be must faster, but not all drives support using it.
To blank a rewritable DVD-RW media, use DVDDAO with the --blank full parameter. The --blank fast parameter may work and be faster, but not all drives support using it.
I created this page when I began to see that RSJ CD-Writer software was not really working on modern SATA hardware. RSJ is an excellent package with great documentation. If you still use a PATA writer, consider using RSJ instead.
I first tried DVD Toys from eCoSoft, but I found the lack of command line tools to be too difficult to cope with. The installation program of DVD Toys breaks RSJ, so migration from RSJ is difficult at best with DVD Toys. The lack of documentation is daunting as well.
CDRTools and DVDDAO are not well documented, either, but users have left hints here and there. This page is an attempt to combine some of their hints into a single location.