Hullo y'all I've been backing up stuff to CD for a few years with Windows, with no problem. I've also used xcdroast successfully in the past. So now I'm trying to do it from Linux command line. After reading what showed up in various Google searches, and then reading the man pages of "mkisofs" and "cdrecord", respectively, I thought I was doing the right thing with: mkisofs -U ./elefino | cdrecord -dao speed=4 dev=0,0,0 -eject What I get is: ---- begin cut'n'paste from xterm ---- Warning: creating filesystem that does not conform to ISO-9660. mkisofs: Symlink ./elefino/.kde/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/kmenu.png ignored - continuing. mkisofs: Symlink ./elefino/.kde/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/apps/kmenu.png ignored - continuing. Cdrecord 1.11a28 (i686-suse-linux) Copyright (C) 1995-2002 Jörg Schilling scsidev: '0,0,0' scsibus: 0 target: 0 lun: 0 Linux sg driver version: 3.1.22 Using libscg version 'schily-0.6' Device type : Removable CD-ROM Version : 0 Response Format: 1 Vendor_info : 'PLEXTOR ' Identifikation : 'CD-R PX-W1610A' Revision : '1.00' Device seems to be: Generic mmc CD-RW. mkisofs: Symlink ./elefino/.kde/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/kmenu.png ignored - continuing. Using generic SCSI-3/mmc CD-R driver (mmc_cdr). Driver flags : SWABAUDIO BURNFREE Supported modes: TAO PACKET SAO SAO/R96P SAO/R96R RAW/R16 RAW/R96P RAW/R96R ---- end cut'n'paste from xterm ---- This is followed by a few lines telling me that this'n'that symlink are being ignored, and that this'n'that long-ugly filespec is being truncated... and then the CD-writer tray slides out... but nothing is written. I'm ok with the warnings and ignorings because I expected that the "-U" would allow most, but not all of the long filenames to be included, and this is only a Linux backup, not for Windows. But I was kinda hoping for more action from the CD writer. :-) Um... help? Two questions: 1) what am I actually doing, above (as opposed to what I thought I was doing)? 2) what should I be doing, if all I want to do is to backup my home directories to CD-R before I re-arrange the hard-disk furniture? Thanks much, /kevin