Virtual CDROM for Unix?

[Florian G. Pflug]

> Has anyone implemented a "virtual cdrom" facility as offered
> on
> windows?  That is CD images are cached & compressed on hard
> disk and shared across a network. See:
> 
> 	 http://www.winmag.com/library/1996/1196/11r24a.htm
> 
> I have not found any news of a Unix solution.  I would
> like to offer one on a Linux server to Windows clients.
> 
> It should not be hard to implement with Samba...
> 
> Thanks in advance.
Hi

I assume you are using Linux:

.) To create an cd-image:
dd if=/dev/scd0 of=/where/ever/cd.img (/dev/scd0 for 1st scsi-cdrom) 

.) To mount that "virtual" cd 
mount /where/ever/cd.img /my/virtual/cd -t iso9660 -o loop

Then just share /my/virtual/cd via samba, mars_new, netatalk....

If your apps complains that it can't find the cd use one of the pc/windows
bases "cd-emulators" that "convert" any directory to a cdrom.

                                            Greetings, Florian Pflug