Brasero hasn't worked, for years

[ddalley]

Why is it that I just can't ever get Brasero to write a disc without terminal errors, but I never have problems with other DVD writing programs?

This has been going on for years, over different distros and on more than one computer. Laptops, desktops, different LM distros, different other distros. It just doesn't matter.

Today, I tried again. Brasero wrote out the files, but the log says error, error, error after the beginning starts OK. The disc isn't even recognised in the drive, but when I use Xburn, it writes properly, first time.

Can someone explain this to me?

[bimsebasse]

Why keep using brasero wen it isn't working? Try k3b, it's in the Software Manager, it's widely praised whereas brasero is best known for being the weakest link in Gnome's stock applications.

[ddalley]

I keep on trying it every now and then thinking that maybe this problem has finally been resolved, but I keep on wasting discs. Xburn works without having to pull in KDE libraries.

Being the optimist that I am, I have to believe that Brasero is in so many distros because it actually works, which is why I am asking what is going on. I searched for questions here about this, but I didn't see any related to the same problems, so, again, it makes me wonder what is going on. If it is so unreliable (as it has been for me, for years), why is it still included?

[eanfrid]

Brasero is included in every Gnome-based distro. And yes it is broken (at least partially) since ages. Like you, I then keep using xfburn on Xfce and Gnome. And either cdw or cdrskin for the CLI.

[ddalley]

So, then it either should be fixed or dropped, right?

[kyphi]

I have never had any problem with Brasero - it works first time every time.

I use DVD-R 16x, DVD+R 16x and CD-R 52x. Brasero determines the burn speed.

[dagon]

So, then it either should be fixed or dropped, right?

Brasero depends on Wodim which is a broken fork of cdrecord. It's probably Wodim that should be dropped and not Brasero.
There is a ppa for cdrtools which contains the original cdrecord program and it can be installed from this ppa:
https://launchpad.net/~brandonsnider/+archive/cdrtools
I've tried this ppa and it works like a charm. Not sure it will take care of your problem though but it could be worth a try.

Here is a bug report concerning cdrecord/wodim.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cdrtools/+bug/213215

[eanfrid]

Well it depends on what you try to burn - either ISO images or a bunch of files and directories - and on which kind or brand of cd/dvd-writer or writing support. Not every combination can be tested even if you could afford to spend a lot of time and waste hundreds of writing supports. Then at last you pick whatever works reliably enough for you.

I mainly use CD-RW and DVR+RW. Brasero don't reliably blank RW supports if ever. You cannot choose a low burn speed either and checksum verifying always fail... But burning ISO images on CD-R or DVD+/-R used to work fine. I don't think it is clearly related to wodim since cdw uses wodim too and I never had the same issues as with Brasero. AFAIK K3b uses wodim too...

[Lolo Uila]

I've never had much luck with Brasero. It will usually work burn okay, then fail on verify. However the burned media is okay, in spite of the verify failure. Never could trust it because of that. My favourite Linux burning utility is, ironically, ImgBurn, which is a Windows application that works great under Wine. I have also had good luck with Xfburn.

[ddalley]

You cannot choose a low burn speed either

What do you call low speed? I usually choose the lowest one available.

[eanfrid]

Whichever burning speed I chose in brasero it wrote the media at the maximum available burning speed. Hence the underlying (?) wodim writing speed options were at least not correctly set. For example, I cannot burn either CDs at 4x-8x speeds or single-layer DVDs at 4x speed.

Edit: I just installed Brasero 3.4.1 on my Debian and at last it seems to work again, even with checksums. There is no wodim requirement (if ever this was the case) in this version either. But still no way to choose lower writing speed than max.

Edit2: brasero 3.4.1 still corrupts at least DVD+RW where xfburn works flawlessly
I tried with two non-blank working DVD+RW, burning an ISO image on the first one and a common bunch of directories/files on the other one => now ureadable supports and I guess that all will be ok after erasing and burning again the same data with xfburn.

Edit3: xfburn wins ! At least for me, brasero is definitely broken.

[defcronyke]

Haha, nice, I was just about to ask this same question but you beat me to it. In fact, ever since brasero was first included as the default burning program in Debian (I think I remember it coming new in either Lenny, or Squeeze), it has always ruined all my DVDs every time. I've tried with many different burners, Lite-on, LG, Sony, Samsung, etc. and I've tried with at least 4 different types of DVDs. Brasero also just ruined my latest data DVD burn attempt on Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon, and xfburn just got the job done first try, no problem. As far as I remember, I think brasero worked fine in all my test cases for CDRs, but failed for all DVD drive / media combinations I've tried. The previous default burning program on Debian I believe was called something like CD/DVD Record, and it worked perfectly for everything. So there is at least one free software to get the job done well (xfburn), and that's the main good thing, but I really can't fathom why brasero is still the default burning program in all the major Linux distros, including Mint. Someone somewhere is way too attached to that program, and they won't do the decent thing and let it die.

[MikeF90000]

I have never had any problem with Brasero - it works first time every time.
I use DVD-R 16x, DVD+R 16x and CD-R 52x. Brasero determines the burn speed.

I'm noticing that you don't mention CD-RWs or DVD-RWs. Very few distros seem to test this important capability. A Google search indicates this has been an issue for years on Ubuntu. Sheesh.

In the current LMDE, Brasero doesn't detect my CD-RWs in the Tools -> Blank function.
STILL BROKEN. Time for a bug report.

In the meantime, my old standby K3B will be installed. Only ~12MB more disk space required.
K3B also burns FLAC files to CD-DA, an obscure but usetul feature.

[ibm450]

K3B is one of the first things I install on any new fresh install. Brasero always failed on me also. K3B is the only one I trust even though I believe it pulls in KDE libs (no big deal) upon installation.

[ddalley]

Figures. Nothing is easy. I just tried to install k3b.

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 1_i386.deb
404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.92.184 80]

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 1_i386.deb
404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.92.184 80]

I really hope Brasero gets replaced with something that works.

[I do Mint]

K3b here too, got rid of Brasero in the first week!

[Relative]

Gnome shows 328 bug reports against Brasero.

I quit trying it several releases ago. K3B for me.

Mike Cebula

[richardsdma]

same issue here with brasero. i use xfburn instead.

[Geoff_P]

I had intermittent trouble with Brasero too, mainly with iso image burning.
Switched to XFBurn, works every time.
(Mint 13, Cinnamon 64 bit)

[ddalley]

So, again, why is Brasero still included in LM, if everyone still has problems with it?