Re: [linuxdc-dev]Burning bootable CD

[<edd...@wa...>]

M. R. Brown wrote:

[snip]

> I never said it was standard or that the bootstrap code couldn't be
> modified.  But what does the above have to do with the original discussion
> about pairing IP.BIN and 1ST_READ.BIN?


The code contained in 1ST_READ.BIN is dependant on the system state, as 
initialised by IP.BIN. That's why they're tied. As long as the 
1ST_READ.BIN only needs the standard stuff, it's fine. But you can't say 
they are fully independant for this reason.

> Right, because you're wrong.  WinCE games use the same bootstraps as
> non-WinCE games.  There is a replacement IP.BIN on www.boob.co.uk that
> replaces the Sega bootstraps with non-Sega (OSS) code, but since the
> license screen can't be removed it's pretty much moot (unless it does
> something spectacular that the Sega bootstraps don't).


Fine. That's something I didn't dig, just a mere thought.

> Any CD authoring software worth its salt doesn't care what tracks you burn
> to a CD, or what order you burn them in.  You burn track 1 as audio, and
> leave the session open.  You burn track 2 as mode 2 form 1 (CD-XA) and close
> the session.  What software is unable to do that?
> 
> The boot sector is irrelevant as it's inserted by a 3rd-party program (at
> least under Windows sans Cygwin it is, under Linux you can use cat and dd).
> The boot sector is embedded in the first 16 sectors of the CD image, and no
> CD authoring software that I'm aware of cares about or otherwise utilizes this
> data.
> 
> Furthermore, there have been countless tutorials, guides, and scripts that
> show you how to generate valid DC CD boot images.  Even if you are inept
> enough not to be able to follow those, do you mean to tell me that you
> can't burn the countless homebrew demos and games that are already provided
> in a burnable image?


You're interpreting what I said (or maybe it's my english). I did NOT 
say that is was not possible, but that is was not straightforward. Audio 
+ CD-XA with bootstrap code is not a *common* CD format, and those 
wizards thingies under Windows don't allow you to do so. You need to 
follow a procedure to obtain the correct CD. That's it.

If you increase the number of steps, you increase the possibilities of 
combinations between those steps, and (probably by a much larger factor 
:) the number of SCREWUPBIGTIME (c) results. That is the weakness of 
those procedures.

The burnable images have nothing to do with it, they're already made. 
Just dd'ing a CD under Linux gives you a correct image to burn. This is 
not a very complex task.

> Windows CD authoring programs were designed for non-literate people, as are
> the guides that demonstrate creating a bootable CD.  The only protection
> afforded by the GD-ROM media was that it was proprietary, and once that
> limitation was overcome there were no other protections.  Sega did a
> presentation on how hard it was to pirate via CDRs?  Or were you referring
> to the GD-ROM format?
> 
> M. R.
> 

Well spotted, my mistake. That was about the GD-ROM format. OK, I got 
this one wrong. :)

/Dantes