couldnt burn cd when /tmp had 1GB instead of 3GB

[David Johnston]

Binary package hint: brasero

Hi,
further to details in question: #57949
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/brasero/+question/57949

brasero 0.8.2 on ubuntu intrepid 8.10 with kernal updated to 2.6.27-9-generic

There was no place for selecting a working directory other than /tmp (that I could readily find) in the burn project area

when I tried burning the cd with a separate /tmp partition of 1GB the burn failed.
I released some of the spare space I had set aside to balance the system when I found out which file systems were growing the most and created a /tmp partition of 3GB and restarted the system, the burn ran OK.
It had only a few dozen MB used when brasero failed to burn cd when /tmp was 1GB

(This suggests I may get problems burning a DVD if I dont have /tmp of 8GB or more, once I get past the excessive directory level problem, but thats another story / bug report)

there are a couple of things to deal with :
- the burn project option doesnt have a properties selection button or similar (whereas the copy disc option does)
- the process seems to need more than 30% above the 750 MB that the ISO image file is likely to occupy during disc burning.

this might not be a problem if I had done the intrepid install and set aside only a separate /boot and /swap and bundled the rest of the space under the root directory /.

there should be enough info in
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/brasero/+question/57949
to supplement the above.

also some system details below:

david@johnstonpc1:~$ lsb_release -src
8.10
intrepid
david@johnstonpc1:~$ uname -a
Linux johnstonpc1 2.6.27-9-generic #1 SMP Thu Nov 20 21:57:00 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
david@johnstonpc1:~$ dpkg -l brasero | grep ii
ii brasero 0.8.2-0ubuntu1 CD/DVD burning application for GNOME
david@johnstonpc1:~$

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Thank you for your report. You can change the location for storing temporary files by specifying it in the gconf key "/apps/brasero/drives/tmpdir". To edit gconf settings, launch "gconf-editor".

I'm going to close this, as there doesn't appear to be any bug.

[David Johnston (davedcj)]

Hi Chris,
Thanks for taking the time to help out.

your advice led to me being able to set the working directory for brasero so that I can scale temp back to normal size.
I also needed to tinker a bit to trick brasero into giving gnome the gconf key for drives. brasero was there under apps, but it only had display and a couple of other groups under /apps/brasero but not including drives.
I had to put a non-blank disc into the drive, open brasero from menu and click on the copy disc button. this enabled the properties tab next to the burn destination button, which had been disabled when I had a blank disc in the drive.
then I changed the location specified under the temporary files heading and changed it.
then when I went back to the gconf settings tool the drives group showed up and it had the tempdir key there for me to edit.

I suggest we not set this bug as invalid. it is at least a documentation weakness, but also the question of why a 1GB /tmp was inadequate but a 3GB /tmp allowed the cd to be burned.

Also it is a bug (or one of a set of bugs related to this one) because the copy has a properties button for setting the temporary files location, but that isnt available on the other buttons - data project, audio cd, etc.

If you still disagree, I suggest setting a status other than invalid, because this report has info that would help others who hit the same problem, which is very likely, as few who create a /tmp would make it bigger than 1GB if they are trying out a small setup and choose to tailor the partitioning slightly to have a /tmp separate from /.

To handle the problem with the audio cd burn project failing and just showing the burn log browse, and not indicating the cause of the problem, I suggest the following -
The app should look for the error message when it calls the utility which generates the iso image which I expect is where the more than 1GB space for a 750MB image is getting used up. Then it could report what is likely to be a fairly common error. Lack of that error checking and reporting detracts from the brasero objective of being a simple to use burner, and the functionality of the app failing rather than reporting the cause of the error is different to what I would expect, so I would class that as a bug.

I understand that there are many different errors that could occur during the burn process, and they cant all be catered to, but I think it would make the app simple to use if the more likely ones are handled specifically.

I said in my earlier report -
"there are a couple of things to deal with :
[ 1) ] - the burn project option doesnt have a properties selection button or similar (whereas the copy disc option does)
[ 2) ] - the process seems to need more than 30% above the 750 MB that the ISO image file is likely to occupy during disc burning."
I mentioned the first earlier. The second is also an issue that should be pursued (whether by same or separate problem report, or by a question to the dev team)
There are some other things now apparent -
3) the brasero install should put the drives key into the gconf database, rather than having to trick brasero into putting it in there by tinkering with ...

[David Johnston (davedcj)]

set status to incomplete because there was a workaround available but it didnt fix the underlying bug.
see my comprehensive (sorry - perhaps exhaustive) comments added recently.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

I still don't understand what problem this bug is trying to describe now. brasero allows you to configure the location of temporary storage, which you have managed to do. What doesn't work now? It isn't obvious from your description.

I don't understand what you mean by "putting the drives key in the gconf database". gconf is a configuration backend, and /apps/brasero is for specifying configuration options specific to brasero.

[David Johnston (davedcj)]

hi chris,
thanks again for taking time to help.

I guess I should lodge separate bug reports for each of items 1 - 4 in my earlier update, but they are all related, so I was initially hesitant to do that.

The title of this bug report is most closely related to item 2 (sorry that this isnt exactly what I said regarding item 1 and 2, and isnt obvious by the order I listed them).
the bug is that the burner requires more than 1GB temp space to burn a 750 MB CD. my /tmp was a separate file system of 1GB and was almost empty. Once I expanded it to 3GB, brasero was able to burn CD.

please refer to earlier update item 2 -
"2) - the process seems to need more than 30% above the 750 MB that the ISO image file is likely to occupy during disc burning."

if it takes so much temp space to make a cd, I am a bit nervous about how much space I will need to burn a dvd (I may have to use a different app, but would prefer to try to help improve the one installed with ubuntu if I can by at least reporting the problem).

the other points are info which should help anyone else who has the same problem to find out how to set the brasero preferences for audio cd project by using the preferences for copy cd project button.

for the second part of your request for other info about the problem, please reread what I wrote about putting the drives key in the gconf configuration backend (more specifically into the data store, or database, it uses to hold its info). The /apps/brasero/drives didnt exist when I first opened gconf-editor. I then went to the copy cd project button in brasero and used the properties there to set temporary location, becuase the audio cd project doesnt have that properties option on its panel or in its menus or dialogues (not that I could find). After I changed the temp location for copy cd project, I reopened gconf-editor and the /apps/brasero/drives keys were there. Apparently the brasero install didnt create the /apps/brasero/drives configuration keys, although it had created others such as /apps/brasero/display. If you still dont understand what I mean after rereading the earlier comments, and would like me to try to explain better, please let me know.

whats your advice about raising separate bugs for items 1, 3, and 4 ?

[David Johnston (davedcj)]

Hi,
I have made time to raise separate bugs for the 4 different items listed in my earlier comments in this bug report.
This bug is for item 2. Three other new bug reports have been lodged for brasero.
The full set of 4 related bugs in brasero are these :

1) Brasero Project options dont all have a properties selection button or similar
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/brasero/+bug/323461

2) couldnt burn cd when /tmp had 1GB instead of 3GB
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/brasero/+bug/319640

3) Gconf Keys for Brasero temp directory are not automatically set up
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/brasero/+bug/323467

4) brasero documentation lacks instructions for setting temp directory
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/brasero/+bug/323471

Is there any news about this bug, item 2 above, please ?

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Is this reproducible with Ubuntu 9.10 the Karmic Koala? Please test and provide us of feedback about it, Thanks in advance..

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for brasero (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]