How do I burn a DVD ISO using the terminal?

There are several ways to do this, but here are just two ways that I use regularly. Please replace /dev/sr1 with the device identifier of your target drive (find out what it is with inxi -d), and replace myiso with your iso and its disk location if necessary.

  • wodim -eject -tao speed=2 dev=/dev/sr1 -v -data myiso.iso

  • growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/sr1=myiso.iso

More information about the read and write capabilities of your drive can be found with the following command, again substututing my example /dev with your device identifier:

wodim -prcap dev=/dev/sr1

For more options relating to wodim and growisofs, see their respective manpages, by entering man wodim and man growisofs. (Note: wodim is a fork of the original cdrecord program)


Use the following command to locate your DVD drive:

wodim --devices

It will list an output like below (bold emphasis mine):


    wodim: Overview of accessible drives (1 found) :
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
     0  dev='/dev/sg1' rwrw-- : 'TSSTcorp' 'CDDVDW SH-S223F'
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------

From the above output, we can determine the drive location. In this case, /dev/sg1 is the drive location.

Now, to burn the ISO, you can use the following command:

wodim -v dev=/dev/sg1 speed=10 -eject /home/$USER/file.iso

Replace /home/$USER/file.iso with your preferred path.


bashburn is your friend.

sudo apt-add-repository universe
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bashburn

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Currently BashBurn can:

  • Burn data CDs/DVDs (Including CDRWs)
  • Burn music CDs
  • Burn CD/DVD-images
  • Rip data/music CDs
  • Manipulate ISO-files
  • and probably more…

Source