How to clone DVD/CD in ubuntu

There are several steps to make a clone of data in your DVD/CDs to your PC, re-mount them in the future (without the physical discs), regardless of whether the disc is protected by css or not.
- Figure out the device bound by your CD/DVD:
df
. Sample output
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev 8011328 0 8011328 0% /dev
tmpfs 1607336 2208 1605128 1% /run
/dev/sda2 47799020 33128520 12212696 74% /
tmpfs 8036676 463680 7572996 6% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 8036676 0 8036676 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/loop1 15104 15104 0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/375
/dev/loop2 8832 8832 0 100% /snap/canonical-livepatch/90
/dev/loop3 3840 3840 0 100% /snap/gnome-system-monitor/123
/dev/loop4 96128 96128 0 100% /snap/core/8935
/dev/loop5 164096 164096 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/116
/dev/loop7 56064 56064 0 100% /snap/core18/1650
/dev/loop6 1024 1024 0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/81
/dev/loop0 4480 4480 0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/704
/dev/loop8 91264 91264 0 100% /snap/core/8268
/dev/loop10 56320 56320 0 100% /snap/core18/1705
/dev/loop9 15104 15104 0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/495
/dev/loop11 4352 4352 0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/544
/dev/loop12 9344 9344 0 100% /snap/canonical-livepatch/95
/dev/loop13 56192 56192 0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1502
/dev/loop14 160512 160512 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/110
/dev/loop15 49536 49536 0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1474
/dev/loop16 1024 1024 0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/93
/dev/loop17 3840 3840 0 100% /snap/gnome-system-monitor/135
/dev/sda1 944120 123332 755612 15% /boot
/dev/sda4 167223824 128534400 30125200 82% /home
/dev/sdb2 523248 6152 517096 2% /boot/efi
tmpfs 1607332 20 1607312 1% /run/user/121
tmpfs 1607332 52 1607280 1% /run/user/1000
/dev/sr0 7823484 7823484 0 100% /media/transang/my-disc
The last line /dev/sr0 7823484 7823484 0 100% /media/transang/my-disc
indicates that your DVD is bound to /dev/sr0
.
- Now, determine the device's logic block size and size with
isoinfo -d -i /dev/sr0
. Sample output
CD-ROM is in ISO 9660 format
System id:
Volume id: MY_DISC
Volume set id: UNDEFINED
Publisher id:
Data preparer id:
Application id:
Copyright File id:
Abstract File id:
Bibliographic File id:
Volume set size is: 1
Volume set sequence number is: 1
Logical block size is: 2048
Volume size is: 3912007
NO Joliet present
**BAD RRVERSION (0)
NO Rock Ridge present
Remember block size of 2048 via the line Logical block size is: 2048
.
- Now, clone your disc to a file on your local PC. For example, the output file name is my-disc.iso
dd if=/dev/sr0 of=my-disc.iso bs=2048
This command usually takes a long time to run. After that, the disc.iso
file will contain your disc content. And you can safely remove the physical DVD/CD.
Sample output
3912007+0 records in
3912007+0 records out
8011790336 bytes (8.0 GB, 7.5 GiB) copied, 717.571 s, 11.2 MB/s
If there is an error in this step, skip and navigate to part 2 of this post.
- To replicate the DVD/CD's content (without the physical DVD/CD).
If you want to read raw data of the disc: Open the Disks application in ubuntu (gnome-disk-utility). Select menu -> Attach Disk Image... -> Navigate to and select disc.iso
.
If you want to play the content of the disc (like autoplay feature when disc inserted): install VLC. Right-click to the iso file, select Open with, choose VLC.
Done.
Part 2: css protected disc
If your disc is protected (with css: Content Scramble System), there would be the following error
dd: error reading '/dev/sr0': Input/output error
9550+0 records in
9550+0 records out
19558400 bytes (20 MB, 19 MiB) copied, 1.43275 s, 13.7 MB/s
Disc integrated css requires a handshake protocol before start data transfer. In order to make dd work. You should first open the disc, read any of its content by any program which supports css handshake (usually via the libdvdcss library). My recommendation is the popular VLC player.
Start VLC, from the File menu, select Open Disc...


Choose your disc and click Play.
Usually, VLC automatically detects your disc and sets the default configuration.
If the Play button is disabled, try selectting another radio box (e.g. Blu-ray), then select back to the original selection (DVD).
After VLC opens your disc, re-run the dd command. Once dd starts running, your can pause VLC to avoid simultaneous reading and improve the copy speed.
