CDemu is a
free and open-source
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
virtual drive
Virtual disk and virtual drive are software components that emulate an actual disk storage device.
Virtual disks and virtual drives are common components of virtual machines in hardware virtualization, but they are also widely used for various p ...
software, designed to emulate an
optical drive
In computing, an optical disc drive is a disc drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic waves within or near the visible light spectrum as part of the process of reading or writing data to or from optical discs. Some drives can only r ...
and
optical disc
In computing and optical disc recording technologies, an optical disc (OD) is a flat, usually circular disc that encodes binary data (bits) in the form of pits and lands on a special material, often aluminum, on one of its flat surfaces. ...
(including
CD-ROMs and
DVD-ROM
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any k ...
s) on the
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...
operating system.
, CDemu is not available in the official repositories of
Debian
Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of De ...
,
Ubuntu
Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', '' Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All th ...
and
Fedora Linux
Fedora Linux is a Linux distribution developed by the Fedora Project. Fedora contains software distributed under various free and open-source licenses and aims to be on the leading edge of open-source technologies. Fedora is the upstream (softwa ...
for any release, but it is available via official
PPA for Ubuntu and
COPR for
Fedora Linux
Fedora Linux is a Linux distribution developed by the Fedora Project. Fedora contains software distributed under various free and open-source licenses and aims to be on the leading edge of open-source technologies. Fedora is the upstream (softwa ...
.
Components
CDEmu consists of:
* a kernel module implementing a virtual
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...
host bus adapter
In computer hardware, a host controller, host adapter, or host bus adapter (HBA), connects a computer system bus, which acts as the host system, to other network and storage devices. The terms are primarily used to refer to devices for co ...
,
* libmirage which is a software library for interpreting
optical disc image
An optical disc image (or ISO image, from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media) is a disk image that contains everything that would be written to an optical disc, disk sector by disc sector, including the optical disc file system. ...
s,
* a daemon which emulates the functionality of a
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...
optical
drive
Drive or The Drive may refer to:
Motoring
* Driving, the act of controlling a vehicle
* Road trip, a journey on roads
Roadways
Roadways called "drives" may include:
* Driveway, a private road for local access to structures, abbreviated "drive"
* ...
+
disc
Disk or disc may refer to:
* Disk (mathematics), a geometric shape
* Disk storage
Music
* Disc (band), an American experimental music band
* ''Disk'' (album), a 1995 EP by Moby
Other uses
* Disk (functional analysis), a subset of a vector space ...
,
* textmode and GTK clients for controlling the emulator.

The software is portable to other operating systems supported by
GLib
GLib is a bundle of three (formerly five) low-level system libraries written in C and developed mainly by GNOME. GLib's code was separated from GTK, so it can be used by software other than GNOME and has been developed in parallel ever si ...
, with the exceptions of the kernel module and the clients which rely on
d-bus
In computing, D-Bus (short for "Desktop Bus")
is a message-oriented middleware mechanism that allows communication between multiple processes running concurrently on the same machine. D-Bus was developed as part of the freedesktop.org project, ...
communication.
History
CDemu was originally designed by Robert Penz and Justus Schwartz as a
patch
Patch or Patches may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Patch Johnson, a fictional character from ''Days of Our Lives''
* Patch (''My Little Pony''), a toy
* "Patches" (Dickey Lee song), 1962
* "Patches" (Chairmen of the Board song ...
for
MPlayer
MPlayer is a free and open-source media player software application. It is available for Linux, OS X and Microsoft Windows. Versions for OS/2, Syllable, AmigaOS, MorphOS and AROS Research Operating System are also available. A port for ...
that allowed mounting .CUE/.BIN files. After the patch was completed, they realized the simplicity, and wrote a module for
Linux kernel
The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ...
.
Originally, CDemu was named Virtual CD, but this name had been previously
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from oth ...
ed, and the owners of the trademark requested that they not use the name.
As of June, 2007, development on CDemu 0.8 ceased and a
rewrite was developed instead. Most of this work was done by Rok Mandeljc. This new version of CDemu took another approach to the emulation by doing as much as possible in
userspace
A modern computer operating system usually segregates virtual memory into user space and kernel space. Primarily, this separation serves to provide memory protection and hardware protection from malicious or errant software behaviour.
Kernel ...
. As of June 2008 it is considered to be mostly stable.
Status
As of version 2.0.0 CDemu supports the following image formats:
*
.mds and .mdx format
*
.dmg DMG may refer to:
Organizations Entertainment
* Dames Making Games, a Canadian non-profit organization that encourages the participation of women, non-binary, femme and queer people in the creation of video games
* Davidson Media Group, an Americ ...
and .cdr format
*
Blindwrite
BlindWrite, the successor to BlindRead, is a computer program that writes to recordable CDs. The Blindread software, which reads CDs and writes CD image files, has been discontinued as a separately released product, but BlindRead's code is includ ...
.b5t/.b6t format
*
DiscJuggler
DiscJuggler was a professional CD/DVD recording software program, able to duplicate multiple CDs at once with its ability to simultaneously drive multiple CD recorders and replicate virtually any existing standard CD. It is widely used for burnin ...
's .cdi format
*
Easy CD Creator
Roxio is an American software company specializing in developing consumer digital media products. Its product line includes tools for setting up digital media projects, media conversion software and content distribution systems. The company forme ...
.cif format
*
Roxio / WinOnCD .c2d format
*Error Code Modeller .ecm container format
*gBurner .gbi format
*
.iso format and its compressed forms,
.cso and .isz
*
.nrg format
*PowerISO
.daa format
*
.udf format
*Raw images (
.img img or IMG is an abbreviation for image.
img or IMG may also refer to:
* IMG (company), global sports and media business headquartered in New York City but with its main offices in Cleveland, originally known as the "International Management Group ...
, .bin,
.ccd
A CloneCD Control File is a text descriptor with the extension .ccd used by CloneCD to mark the properties of a CD/DVD image. These files need to be combined with an image file (usually with .img extension) to be burned. It may also come with a ...
,
.cue
A cue sheet, or cue file, is a metadata file which describes how the tracks of a CD or DVD are laid out. Cue sheets are stored as plain text files and commonly have a filename extension. CDRWIN first introduced cue sheets, which are now supp ...
, .sub and .toc)
*
GZip
gzip is a file format and a software application used for file compression and decompression. The program was created by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler as a free software replacement for the compress program used in early Unix systems, and ...
and
Xz archives
The emulator endeavors to follow the
MMC-3 standard for
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...
optical drives as closely as possible, ensuring realistic and accurate emulation.
Optical media emulated by CDemu can be
mounted
Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest.
Mount or Mounts may also refer to:
Places
* Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England
* Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, ...
within Linux.
CDemu has the support for CD
subchannels,
CD-Text
CD-Text is an extension of the Red Book Compact Disc specifications standard for audio CDs. It allows storage of additional information (e.g. album name, song name, and artist name) on a standards-compliant audio CD.
The specification for CD- ...
,
ISRC
The International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) is an international standard code for uniquely identifying sound recordings and music video recordings. The code was developed by the recording industry in conjunction with the ISO technical commit ...
,
MCN and
ECC/EDC,
DPM/RMPS. There is also some support for a limited number of encrypted and compressed image formats.
The developers are working on supporting as many major formats as they can, and they encourage users to submit patches to this end.
See also
Alternative Linux programs that are available in the repositories of
Debian
Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of De ...
,
Ubuntu
Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', '' Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All th ...
and
Fedora Linux
Fedora Linux is a Linux distribution developed by the Fedora Project. Fedora contains software distributed under various free and open-source licenses and aims to be on the leading edge of open-source technologies. Fedora is the upstream (softwa ...
:
*
AcetoneISO
AcetoneISO is a free and open-source virtual drive software to mount and manage image files. Its goals are to be simple, intuitive and stable. Written in Qt, this software is meant for all those people looking for a " Daemon Tools for Linux". ...
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cdemu
Disk image emulators
Third-party Linux kernel modules
Optical disc-related software that uses GTK