How To Burn An ISO Image From The Terminal Under Ubuntu / Linux

In this tip we will see how to use the terminal under Ubuntu to burn ISO images. Burning ISO images via the terminal will also allow you to do this action remotely from another computer via SSH.

The command line tool we will use is "wodim", which allows to burn data into CD / DVD discs. To install wodim under Ubuntu, run the following command from the terminal:

sudo apt-get install wodim

To detect the name of your CD/DVD burner, run this command:

wodim --devices

The returned output for my system:

~$ wodim --devices
wodim: Overview of accessible drives (1 found) :
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 0  dev='/dev/sg1' rwrw-- : 'DVD-RW' 'DVR-216'

The burner name is marked in red. Insert a blank CD/DVD disc into your burner, then burn the iso image with this command:

wodim -v -dev='/dev/sg1' image.iso

Replace /dev/sg1 and image.iso with your own burner and iso image names respectively. If you want to burn to CD/DVD-RW disc, you can erase it first with this command:

wodim dev=/dev/cdrom blank=fast

Then use the command given above to burn the iso image.