K3b ruins blank DVDs by using "wodim" instead of "cdrecord"

[Marcos Mora]

Greetings.

After Brasero refused to burn an ISO image to a blank DVD, i installed K3b from Ubuntu software center.
K3b started the burning process but it yield an error midway resulting on a complete loss of the DVD.
I switched permissions using the k3bsetup tool, then I tried again an lost yet another blank DVD.
This time i looked on the web for information about "cdrecord returned error 254", the internet seems to populated with year 2012 threads about similar issues (in most cases it just refuses to burn).

As i researched the problem i found a thread that linked to http://cdrecord.berlios.de/private/linux-dist.html
and everything seems to fit the point of view and reasoning of the writer of that web page.

the issue is reduced to the fact that Ubuntu (at the very least for release 12.04) uses a broken, bug heavy to the point of uselessness package/collection called cdrkit, witch is a fork of the 'real deal' called cdrtools and in particular the tool wodim is the responsible of killing my DVDs.

wodim replaces cdrecord via a soft link:

$ file cdrecord
cdrecord: symbolic link to `wodim'

wodim and related tools from cdrkit are forked from the cdrtools 2006 version but with heavy bugs that makes them unreliable.

As Brasero and k3b are frontends to the correct cdrecrod binary expected to be present in Ubuntu, disaster is bound to happen:

$ wodim -version
Cdrecord-yelling-line-to-tell-frontends-to-use-it-like-version 2.01.01a03-dvd
Wodim 1.1.11
Copyright (C) 2006 Cdrkit suite contributors
Based on works from Joerg Schilling, Copyright (C) 1995-2006, J. Schilling

Furthermore the whole linking process seems to be illegal as it affects the reputation of the original cdrecord creator Joerg Schilling (detailed information in the link above)

My Ubuntu version:
$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
Release: 12.04

Finally, my recommendation to fix the problem is:

   don't use wodim and related broken cdrkit tools.
   use cdrecord and related cdrtools (can be found on the above link)
   release an update to correct this to all currently maintained Ubuntus

Many thanks.

[Oskar Wallgren (oskar.wallgren)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug #213215, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.

[Schily (schilling-fokus)]

Please note that "cdrkit" is not derived from a 2006 cdrtools original source but rather
from a version from September 2004 and that the working DVD support from the original
has been ripped off and replaced by something that may be called "experimental" but
not usable.

This makes it obvious that Ubuntu now is 9 years behind the time with their software
if you disregard that "cdrkit" added many intentional bugs that never have been in the
original software.

People who are forced to use cdrkit instead of the original software report more than
50% failure rate on DVDs....

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[testing123 (garf-schroedinger)]

In addition to the comments about the general issue in the other ticket,
I think you (@Schilly) should also notify the authors of CD burning front-ends to stop using the broken version, at least for the legal reason.

Not to mention that they should know by now that using wodim would break people's property (cds-->coasters) which would make it not only illegal but outright malicious.