Need a good burner

[oshunluvr]

According to what I read, that drive is finicky about media and will not r/w DVD-R DL at all. You'll have to either experiment with different brands and types or buy a better drive.

[anonprivate]

How are you arriving at these conclusions?

I read capability to include DVD-R.

What is/where is DL?

I am just looking at the end of the DVD drive. It has printed: DVD R/RW and DVD Rewritable

[dibl]

How are you arriving at these conclusions?

I read capability to include DVD-R.

Where is DL?

Google "dell optical drive GSA-H31N". See lots of hits, with useful information:

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/...iverId=R247002

http://www.dell.com/support/article/...1/SLN284172/EN

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/dell-x...view-2286.html (this one shows that it is +R -R capable)

Now google "dell optical drive GSA-H31N won't write", and see some Dell troubleshooting guidance:

http://www.dell.com/Support/Article/us/en/04/SLN284172

http://www.dell.com/support/article/...1/SLN116383/HE

[anonprivate]

How are you arriving at these conclusions?

I read capability to include DVD-R.

What is/where is DL?

I am just looking at the end of the DVD drive. It has printed: DVD R/RW and DVD Rewritable

From the E520 Manual

Blank DVD+/-Rs can be used to permanently store [FONT=serif]large amounts of information. After you create a [/FONT]
[FONT=serif]DVD+/-R disc, you may not be able to [/FONT]
[FONT=serif]write to that disc again if the disc[/FONT]
[FONT=serif] is "finalized" or "closed" during [/FONT]
[FONT=serif]the final stage of the disc creation process. Use bl[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]ank DVD+/-RWs if you plan to erase, rewrite, or [/FONT]
[FONT=serif]update information on that disc later.[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]CD-Writable Drives[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]DVD-Writable Drives[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]Helpful Tips[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]•  Use Microsoft[/FONT]
[FONT=monospace]®[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif] Windows[/FONT]
[FONT=monospace]®[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif] Explorer to drag and drop files to [/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]a CD-R or CD-RW only after you start [/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]Sonic DigitalMedia and open[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif] a DigitalMedia project.[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]•  Use CD-Rs to burn music CDs that you want to pl[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]ay in regular stereos. CD-RWs do not play in most [/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]home or car stereos.[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]•  You cannot create audio DVDs with Sonic DigitalMedia.[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]•  Music MP3 files can be played only on MP3 players [/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]or on computers that have MP3 software installed. [/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]•  Commercially available DVD players used in home [/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]theater systems may not support all available DVD [/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]formats. For a list of formats supported by your DV[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]D player, see the documentation provided with your [/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]DVD player or contact the manufacturer.[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]•  Do not burn a blank CD-R or CD-RW to its maxi[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]mum capacity; for example, do not copy a 650-MB [/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]file to a blank 650-MB CD. The CD-RW drive need[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]s 1–2 MB of the blank space to finalize the [/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]recording. 

[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]Media Type[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]Read[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]Write[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]Rewritable[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]CD-R[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]No[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]CD-RW[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]Media Type[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]Read[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]Write[/FONT]
[FONT=sans-serif]Rewritable[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]CD-R[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]No[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]CD-RW[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]DVD+R[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]No[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]DVD-R[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]No[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]DVD+RW[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]DVD-RW[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]DVD+R DL[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]Yes[/FONT]
[FONT=serif]No[/FONT]

This has not pasted well. But it looks like most DVD media are supported, but makes of media are not discussed. If I take the advice to ignore rewritable I have the choice of DVD +r, DVD-R, and DVD +R DL (never heard of the last option)

[Qqmike]

fwiw, I'm using Verbatim (brand): DVD+R
Seems to be kind of randomly chosen "generic" choice.

[Qqmike]

Seems like you can simply ignore (for now) dual layer disks (DL),
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-R_DL

Just play it safe, generic.

[anonprivate]

The DVD's tend to be branded, as an example, Verbatim, as you mention. What do you mean by generic (unbranded?)?

As for DL, according to the data I gave above, these should be fine for reading and writing, but not for re-writing. I have been advised to avoid the rewritable media.

I am not sure which of these (DVD +r, DVD-R,) would likely be the best choice for me, and the make?; although you advise generic. I don't think I have seen any unbranded DVD's. I tend to buy well know makes because they have a reputation to maintain.

It does appear that the media is an important factor in the burning (format and make)

I will have a look at your wikipedia link.

Happy New Year

[Qqmike]

Seems to be kind of randomly chosen "generic" choice.

Oops, bad choice of words there. I mean just go with a standard choice, like the +R format. I buy brand names, for some reason (what really counts is the factory they are made at). So, yes, Verbatim is a good choice. Then a simple format, like +R.

[Rod J]

@anonprivate:

OK, I'll throw a "spanner in the works" and suggest forgetting about trying to create bootable DVD's (as that seems to be what you have been trying to do) and just buy a cheap USB flash drive (at least 4Gb, you may already have one or two) and use Unetbootin or similar to 'burn' the ISO images onto that. I think most of us here use USB flash drives in preference to creating bootable CD/DVD's and they run faster than DVD's in a live boot session anyway. My

[Qqmike]

Rod J: OK, I'll throw a spanner in the works and suggest...

... and if so, you can also use the dd command to create a bootable USB flash drive, along the lines of my
Building a Kubuntu live USB flash drive installer using dd
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...712#post378712

(just be careful as noted in the Caution there)

[anonprivate]

I think your problem is more likely to be hardware related. How old is your CD/DVD burner? They are so cheap nowadays and they just aren't designed to last that long. Also, they can be quite "picky" about which disk brands they work best with.

.
I will experiment with some media. The debate seems to be concerned with DVD -r and DVD +r for non-rewritable media

Bearing in mind that the manual for my machine states that I should be able to burn to rewritable media. I am wondering how much weight I can ascribe to the official documentation! I know, experimentation is key. Regarding manufactures of media. I assumed that it is the format that is of importance, but some people have cautioned regarding different manufactures!

[Qqmike]

There's a lot sites like this, comparing +R to -R:

http://www.diffen.com/difference/DVD%2BR_vs_DVD-R

[jlittle]

'Memory: 634.4/998.2MB'

I know I have about 1GB of RAM, but what does 634.4 refer to?

Comparing the output of inxi -I and free -h on my system,

$ inxi -I
Info:      Processes: 295 Uptime: 4:54 Memory: 2411.8/15905.0MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.1 
$ free -m
          total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:          15904        2177       10100         218        3627       13175

the first figure (2411) is about what free says for used + shared, so I expect that "634" is your memory used figure. (Note that the rest, 998 less 634, will be used as cache, that doesn't count as "used".)

IME with only 1 GB Kubuntu struggles if you run something heavy, like a browser with several tabs. I did that for a while about 5 years ago after some hardware failures. OTOH, a lightweight distro like Lubuntu is fine, if not as functional and pretty as Kubuntu.