Burning disks over a network with rscsi

This howto describes setting up a burner machine, in this case an xterminal, and an application server for burning disks over a network.

Introduction
It is possible to operate a disk burner over a network. For example, a disk burner in an xterminal can be operated from an application server. The diagram below is an illustration of the hardware and software that supports this. ++ ++
 * |Xterminal|`-.                                        |
 * `-.             |   Application    | |
 * `-.          |      Server      | |
 * |Xterminal|...............Network |No monitor        | |
 * +-+               / |  `-.|No keyboard       | |
 * .' |     |No burner         | |
 * +-+         /      |     |Cdrtools(Cdrecord)| |
 * |     Xterminal      |        .'       |     |Xcdroast          | |
 * |Monitor             |   .'            |                          |
 * |Keyboard            |  /              |                          |
 * |Burner(CD/DVD/BluRay)|.'              |                          |
 * |Cdrtools(RSCSI)     |             |Xterminal|                    |
 * |xinetd              |             +-+                    |
 * |Libata disks        |                                            |
 * |Monitor             |   .'            |                          |
 * |Keyboard            |  /              |                          |
 * |Burner(CD/DVD/BluRay)|.'              |                          |
 * |Cdrtools(RSCSI)     |             |Xterminal|                    |
 * |xinetd              |             +-+                    |
 * |Libata disks        |                                            |
 * |Libata disks        |                                            |

libata
Most of the work required to establish remote burning is done on the xterminal/burner box. We'll start off with disk access.

ide-scsi use to be required on the burner box. This has been removed. The component of  now works with libata.

The burner is accessed with libata if the burner device node is something like. If the node is, for example, then libata is not in use and will not work.

This is not a libata howto, however, the following is one instance of what was done to get the driver working.

kernel
The machine has an old Intel chipset:

00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)

The kernel, though, is brand spanking new:

2.6.29-gentoo-r5

That is, the libata driver is selected according to IDE hardware listed by. The old IDE driver is not selected, nor, in this instance, is Generic ATA support.

grub
Include a statement in the kernel line of.

fstab
needs to be changed to reflect the names of the new device nodes.

Cdrtools
Cdrtools is the burning software. It needs to be installed on both machines. Cdrkit is an alternative. This is a fork that stemmed from a licensing spat. on both machines.

cdrecord
On the burner box should return something like this:

Cdrecord-ProDVD-ProBD-Clone 2.01.01a34 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2007 JÃ¶rg Schilling Linux sg driver version: 3.5.34 Using libscg version 'schily-0.9'. scsibus0: 0,0,0    0) 'SONY    ' 'CD-RW  CRX230E  ' 'QYS1' Removable CD-ROM        0,1,0     1) * 0,2,0    2) *        0,3,0     3) *        0,4,0     4) *        0,5,0     5) *        0,6,0     6) *        0,7,0     7) *

rscsi
needs to be suid root. Don't worry, does this for you.

/etc/default/rscsi
USER=rscsi ACCESS=rscsi	FQDN	-1	-1	-1	-1 Hostnames don't work in and nor do CNAMEs - use a fully qualified address record. Make sure is tab delimited, not spaces. Later, if things go awry, you might need to uncomment:

xinetd
We need to setup on the burner machine:

Change disable in to no.

Comment out only_from:

Change:
 * 1) 	only_from	= localhost

auth      required	pam_securetty.so
 * 1) %PAM-1.0
 * 2) For root login to succeed here with pam_securetty, "rsh" must be
 * 3) listed in /etc/securetty.

auth      include	system-remote-login To:
 * 1) Uncomment this and comment the following to use rhosts_auth module
 * 2) auth      required pam_rhosts_auth.so

auth      required	pam_securetty.so
 * 1) %PAM-1.0
 * 2) For root login to succeed here with pam_securetty, "rsh" must be
 * 3) listed in /etc/securetty.

auth      required pam_rhosts.so
 * 1) Uncomment this and comment the following to use rhosts_auth module
 * 1) auth      required pam_rhosts_auth.so
 * 2) auth      include	system-remote-login

Add a file in that looks like this:

useradd
A user is needed on the burner machine. It may as well be called rscsi:

Then change the shell in to /usr/sbin/rscsi. For example:

Then change the rscsi line in from rscsi:!: to rscsi::. You don't want to require a password.

The moment of truth
You should now be able to the following on the application server:

If the burner is not listed you might have to back track a bit and make sure that is working. Start this process off by changing the shell of rscsi back to /bin/bash and see if returns anything sensible.

If you have reached this far, the rest is a piece of cake.

Xcdroast
is the burning GUI that supports remote burning.

Under and  enter REMOTE:rscsi@burner-machine. You should be able to right click and.