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Media Basics

When you insert or connect a medium, such as a CD, DVD, hard drive, or flash drive, to your computer, Fedora automatically recognizes and makes it available for use. An icon is placed on your desktop and in the Places menu in GNOME. On the KDE desktop an icon is placed in the bottom panel next to the workspace switcher, and in the Kickoff Application Launcher > File Manager, the medium's icon is on the left of the file display window.

In GNOME you should unmount the medium before removing it from the computer. To do this, right-click on the device's icon and then select Unmount Volume or Eject, depending on what type of media you are using; during this process any remaining changes to the data on the media is written to the device, allowing safe removal without data loss. Removing the medium without unmounting it first could cause data to be corrupted; if this is the case, you will not be able to get your data back in the future.

There are several multi-media applications available for GNOME and KDE desktops. These applications will run in either Fedora desktop environment. To install software packages not already installed, please read the chapter on managing software. You can install applications by either using the PackageKit application or on the command line by using Yum. 

Content needs added:  burning data, ISOs, & USBs,

--Kirk Ziegler 20:27, 11 March 2009 (UTC)


Writing CDs or DVDs

Fedora includes support for writing to CDs and DVDs. This means that you can permanently burn files to the CD/DVD for backup, file transport, or any other reason.

Required Hardware
Not all optical drives (CD or DVD drives) are equipped to burn new media. An easy way to check whether that you can burn optical media is to look at the front of your disc drive. It should indicate the drive's capabilities. You can also look up the model of your drive online. An even easier way is to simply try burning a disc; chances are, if you can't select the option for burning discs, it's not a problem with Fedora; your drive simply does not support this operation.

To write to a CD or DVD:

Using CD/DVD Creator to Burn Media in GNOME

  1. To open Select Places > CD/DVD Creator.

To create a data disc:

  • Drag the files and folders, that you want to write to CD or DVD, to the CD/DVD Creator folder.
  • Insert a writeable CD or DVD into your writer device. Doing this step first usually opens the CD/DVD Creator automatically. You can configure the CD/DVD Creator to open automatically by going to System > Preferences > Hardware > Multimedia Systems Selector > and on the Audio and Video tabs select Autodetect from the drop-down menu.
  • Click the [Write to Disc] button, or choose File > Write to CD/DVD.
  • Here you can choose write to your CD/DVD or to a File Image. An image file (ISO) is a normal file that will be saved to your computer and you can write to a CD later.
  • To write a disc image to a CD/DVD, right-click on the Disc Image File, then choose Write to Disc from the popup menu.
  • You can type a name for your CD/DVD in the Disc name window and select a Write speed from the drop-down under Write Options. You will also see the size of your data that will be written to the disc.
  • Press the [Write] button to copy your data to the CD/DVD.

To make a copy of a CD or DVD:

  • Insert the disc you want to copy.
  • Choose Places > CD/DVD Creator from the top panel menu bar.
  • Right-click on the CD icon, and choose Copy Disc.
  • Follow the Write to Disc dialogue as above.

If you have only one write drive the program will first create a file on your computer. The original disk will be ejected, and ask you to change it for a blank disk to copy on.

The Help manual can be accessed by pressing the [F1] key or clicking Help > Contents on the top menu bar.

  1. Use the initial Nautilus window to navigate to the files you wish to burn, then drag and drop them into the empty CD/DVD Creator window.
  2. Click Write to Disc in the CD/DVD Creator window.
  3. In the dialog box, you can change the name of the disc and the write speed if they are incorrect. It is probably safe to leave the default options for the write speed.
  4. Click Write.

GNOMEBaker: * To burn a specific file to a CD click the Data CD action button, and then drag and drop the file from the top pane into the right hand side of the bottom pane. Entire folders can also be dragged and dropped. Click the burn button to burn the files or folders to the disc.

  • Burning an ISO image file such as the Fedora 9 DVD installation image is done through the Tools > Burn DVD Image menu. If the .iso file is for a CD, choose Burn CD Image. Navigate to the image, select it, and click the OK button. Click the Start button in the next window to confirm burning your disc image.

Using K3b to Burn Media in KDE

K3b is not installed by default from the Live-CD or the DVD. If you do not have access to the Internet, you can use the Fedora DVD to install K3b. After you install K3b using one of the methods described above, launch the program by clicking Applications > Sound and Video > K3b.

In K3b there are action buttons at the bottom of the window:

File:Docs Drafts DesktopUserGuide Media k3baudiocd.png To create a New Audio CD Project
File:Docs Drafts DesktopUserGuide Media k3bdatacd.png To create a New Data CD Project
File:Docs Drafts DesktopUserGuide Media k3bdatadvd.png To create a New Data DVD Project
File:Docs Drafts DesktopUserGuide Media k3bcopycd.png To Copy a CD
Adding Files
To add files to your K3b project, drag the files into the project pane at the bottom of the screen. Everything in this project pane will be burned to your optical medium.

When you are ready to burn the files or folders to disk click the Burn button. To burn an ISO image file such as the Fedora 8 DVD installation image, use the Tools > Burn DVD ISO Image. Navigate to and select the .iso image, then click the Start button.

Using GnomeBaker in Gnome

GnomeBaker is not installed by default from the Live-CD or the DVD. If you do not have access to the Internet, you can use the Fedora DVD to install GnomeBaker. After you install K3b using one of the methods described above, launch the program by clicking Applications > Sound and Video > CD/DVD Writer.

This is the default icon associated with GnomeBaker.

In GnomeBaker there are three primary 3 buttons in the bottom pane of the programs window:

File:Docs Drafts DesktopUserGuide Media gnomebaker-data-dvd.png Data DVD Use this to burn files and folders to a DVD .
File:Docs Drafts DesktopUserGuide Media gnomebaker-data-cd.png Data CD Use this to burn files and folders to a CD.
File:Docs Drafts DesktopUserGuide Media gnomebaker-audio-cd.png Audio CD Use this to create an audio CD.
  • To burn a specific file to a CD click the Data CD action button, and then drag and drop the file from the top pane into the right hand side of the bottom pane. Entire folders can also be dragged and dropped. Click the burn button to burn the files or folders to the disc.
  • Burning an ISO image file such as the Fedora 9 DVD installation image is done through the Tools > Burn DVD Image menu. If the .iso file is for a CD, choose Burn CD Image. Navigate to the image, select it, and click the OK button. Click the Start button in the next window to confirm burning your disc image.
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