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+Frequently Asked Questions
+
+Status
+======
+
+
+Q: What is the copyright status of icedax?
+
+A: icedax is software copyrighted by Heiko Eissfeldt and others, and
+ released under the General Public License from the Free Software
+ Foundation (see file GPL).
+
+Compilation
+===========
+
+
+Q: What are the requirements to run icedax?
+
+A: All operating systems that are supported by wodim should also be able to
+ run icedax. Currently DOS and Windows are not covered.
+ Requirements of previous versions of icedax have been cut down for the
+ sake of portability. Features like fork(), realtime scheduling, or shared
+ memory are all optional now. You need Cmake and its dependencies, an
+ ANSI C compiler and a C library to build icedax
+ on a supported operating system. To run icedax, a SCSI transport
+ implementation for the os, a cdrom or cd burner device to read from, and
+ at least say 65K of memory for buffers are needed.
+
+
+Q: Why does it not compile under Linux, although I am using the newest kernel?
+
+A: There have been changes in the generic driver by Douglas Gilbert, that are
+ in its first release not compatible with the scsi library from Joerg
+ Schilling. We are working on this problem...
+ In the meantime better do not use this variant, use the older one instead.
+
+
+Q: Why does it not compile using standard make?
+
+A: Like wodim, icedax uses the cmake system, which requires a
+ sophisticated make program like GNU make.
+ Pure posix make functionality is not enough.
+
+Setting Up (for now Linux only)
+===============================
+
+
+Q: Should I use scsi emulation or the eide driver for my ATAPI cdrom drive?
+
+A: Scsi emulation is preferred, since it enables icedax to use more commands
+ and is often the only way to get special information like track titles with
+ cd-text. The emulation module is called ide-scsi, the eide module is called
+ ide-cd.
+
+
+Q: How can I use my parallel-port-connected cdrom with icedax?
+
+A: Under Linux there is a driver, that makes this device under SCSI
+ emulation available. For more information see the wodim documentation.
+
+
+Q: How do I check, if the current Linux kernel does support generic SCSI?
+
+A: run 'cat /proc/devices | grep "21 sg"' and see, if a line with 'sg' appears.
+ If it does not appear, the current kernel is not able to use the generic_scsi
+ interface. If you have generic SCSI support compiled as a module, see next
+ question, otherwise you need to recompile the kernel and enable generic SCSI.
+ You might try to use the 'cooked_ioctl' interface as a last resort, but then
+ you need to supply a cdrom device with -D (like -D/dev/cdrom). In this case
+ icedax completely relies on the cdda reading methods from the kernel
+ driver, so it might not work (due to unsupported).
+
+
+Q: How do I load the generic SCSI module by hand?
+
+A: run 'insmod sg' and check the result (see above).
+
+
+Q: How do I find the device setting for my drive?
+
+A: Under Linux use the script scan_scsi.Linux. It prints the available devices
+ and their respective device option to be used.
+ Be aware of the fact that the generic device naming may change whenever the
+ devices on the SCSI bus change (present or not present).
+
+General usage (sampling)
+========================
+
+
+Q: How do I record the whole cd, each track in a seperate file?
+
+A: Use the '-B' option. This will automagically create a file for each track.
+
+
+Q: How do I record the whole cd into one file?
+
+A: Just extend the default recording time from one track to a big enough
+ time in seconds to cover the whole cd (like -d99999).
+
+
+Q: How do I record successive tracks (a track range) into seperate files?
+
+A: Use the '-B' option and -t<first tracknumber>+<last track number>.
+
+
+Q: How do I record successive tracks (a track range) into one file?
+
+A: Use -t<first tracknumber>+<last track number>.
+
+
+Q: How do I record different tracks into seperate files with individual file
+ names?
+
+A: Use the supplied script 'readmult'. For usage see the comments at the
+ beginning of the script.
+
+
+Q: How can I get the highest speed out of icedax?
+
+A: See the file README. There is a section about performance and what is
+ influencing it.
+
+
+Q: How can I burn audio cds with icedax and wodim on-the-fly?
+
+A: This has not been tested very well, so caveat emptor. It is possible to
+ use icedax and wodim with pipes, _but_ there are several issues.
+ 1.: The cd drive may become too slow to keep wodim's buffer happy, when
+ a scratch on the audio cd is encountered, and several retries take place.
+ 2.: Currently there is no way to carry individual track information from
+ icedax to wodim. Several information bits are available very late
+ but are needed in advance from wodim.
+ 3.: Some operating systems have limitations in multiple SCSI accesses and
+ other resources (shared memory). icedax and wodim may block each
+ other, or might fight over limited resources.
+ For these reasons it is not recommended to burn on-the-fly with icedax.
+
+Frontends
+=========
+
+
+Q: Which frontends for icedax are available?
+
+A: See the file 'Frontends'. There are command line and graphical frontends.
+
+Album and track titles
+======================
+
+
+Q: Does icedax support titles from cd extra (aka cd plus aka enhanced cd)?
+
+A: In general, yes. In order to get this information, icedax needs to read
+ a data sector from the second session of the cd. This requires multisession
+ support and the capability to read XA sectors. The titles are printed on the
+ screen and written into the inf files, then.
+
+
+Q: Does icedax support titles from cd-text?
+
+A: Newer versions support the most important features of cd-text like titles
+ and creators. Non-supported are currently 16-bit characters, so asian
+ titles etc. are currently not available.
+
+
+Q: Does icedax support CDDB ids?
+
+A: Yes, while it does not make CDDB lookups itself, it supplies an cddb file
+ with the table of contents and the cddb id. For cddb lookups see the
+ perl script tracknames.pl and tracknames.txt. If the titles are known to
+ icedax, it fills the titles itself in the cddb file.
+
+
+Q: What is the MCN?
+
+A: The media catalog number is an unique id for the audio cd release. It is
+ similar to the ISBN for books, but unfortunately it is included only on
+ some audio cds.
+
+
+Q: What is the ISRC?
+
+A: The International Standard Record Code is an unique id for a track. Like the
+ MCN (see above) it is an optional item.
+
+MP3 coding
+==========
+
+
+Q: Does icedax support on-the-fly mp3-coding?
+
+A: Yes. As of version 1.9alpha I integrated the LAME encoding engine as a new
+ output format.
+ To support external encoders, I added two scripts. The trick
+ is to avoid big temporary files. There are three versions (cdda2mp3.file,
+ cdda2mp3.pipe, and cdda2mp3.fifo), the first using files, the second uses
+ pipes, and the last uses a named pipe (also called fifo). The examples
+ use the Fraunhofer encoder 'l3enc', which is a commercial product and has
+ to be purchased seperately. Other encoders should be usable in a similar way.
+
+Conversions
+===========
+
+
+Q: How do I create a file suitable for cd burning?
+
+A: If you are using wodim, you can produce cdr or wav files. To select
+ cdr files, use -Ocdr, to select wav files use -Owav (the default).
+ Audio files that have been recorded with a length not a multiple of the
+ audio sector size 2352 bytes, should be used with wodim's -pad option.
+
+
+Q: How do I convert a wav file into a cdr file (my other cd burning program
+ does not accept wav format)?
+
+A: Use 'dd if=wavfile of=cdrfile conv=swab ibs=44 skip=1 obs=2352'
+
+
+Q: How to convert cdr to wav?
+
+A: Use sox, the sound utility. It supports other formats as well.
+
+Specials
+========
+
+
+Q: Does icedax support the pre-emphasis bit?
+
+A: If the table of contents marks a track as pre-emphasized, the corresponding
+ inf file will have this information, too. That enables a cd burning program
+ to retain the state of the track.
+
+
+Q: Can icedax undo the pre-emphasis effect in the samples?
+
+A: Yes, if the -T option is given (and cd quality is selected),
+ icedax filters the samples with the reverse emphasis on-the-fly. This has
+ been checked with a sine sweep from a pre-emphasized test cd.
+
+
+Q: My cdrom delivers the stereo channels swapped. How can I undo this?
+
+A: Use the -cs option.
+
+
+Q: Does icedax support indices?
+
+A: Yes, but since there are positioning problems with a lot of drives,
+ information might be inaccurate. A start index can be specified with the
+ -i option. To get all indices, use the -v7 option.
+
+
+Q: Can icedax avoid including the pre-gap region at the end of the track?
+
+A: Currently not. This might be added later, but is not easily done.
+
+
+Q: How can I get all information about the cd without writing files?
+
+A: Use the -J option, which switches analysis to the max, and aborts after
+ the report.
+
+
+Q: Can icedax display/save the graphics on my CD+graphics disc?
+
+A: No, this is not planned. A seperate X11 program could do that probably
+ better.
+
+
+Q: Can icedax read the audio portion from my CD-I/Video-CD/DVD mpeg streams?
+
+A: No, these are special formats, which require much more effort.
+
+User support/feedback
+=====================
+
+
+Q: icedax is great. How can I support you to encourage further development?
+
+A: Look into the file NEEDED. Also constructive criticism and feedback is
+ appreciated.
+
+
+Q: I want to port cdrkit (wodim/genisoimage/icedax) to a new platform (like
+ DJGPP,cygwin,os/2). How should I proceed?
+
+A: It would be convenient to have a unix like environment (like cygwin provides)
+ A shell, and a make program would be needed to first create smake (in order
+ to make the makefile system working). Another critical component is autoconf.
+ Once that is running, os dependent interfaces and the SCSI library should be
+ adjusted. For the makefile system and the scsi library please contact Joerg
+ Schilling.
+
+
+Q: icedax sucks. Are there other alternatives available?
+
+A: Yes, for Linux you might try 'cdparanoia' from Monty (see README file).