How to edit files on a Blu-ray disc?

[HyperBear]

Windows can edit files on a Blu-ray disc, but on Linux Mint, nothing can be changed. How to fix this?

[nachlese]

recently there was this thread - it looks like it could be helpful to you (second to last post esp.):
viewtopic.php?t=396212

[HyperBear]

recently there was this thread - it looks like it could be helpful to you (second to last post esp.):
viewtopic.php?t=396212

Thanks for the link. It is an interesting thread, however, it is not the same. On Windows, files on the Blu-ray disc can be directly opened in the file manager, formerly known as Windows Explorer, and edited with the associated program, such as Notepad for text files and Paint for drawings. Those are exactly the same steps as on USB storage.

[Hoser Rob]

Linux isn't a free version of Windows, and you don't get all the same features. This is a bit of a longer read but will explain much: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Blu-ray

[HyperBear]

Linux isn't a free version of Windows, and you don't get all the same features. This is a bit of a longer read but will explain much: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Blu-ray

I don't expect it to be the same, however, the ability to directly edit files on Blu-ray discs and other optical media is essential. And I mean BD-R and BD-RE, not factory-pressed Blu-ray discs.

That article is about BDMV, Blu-ray movies out of the factory. Their contents obviously can not be modified. However, my question is about BD-R and BD-RE as data storage for documents and other stuff made by oneself.

In Windows, files on BD-R and BD-RE discs can be opened and edited immediately.

Is there any option in Linux to make files on BD-R and BD-RE discs editable?

[ajgreeny]

I have no wish for, nor a reason to use blu-ray on my machines, but nonetheless a search suggests that it is a system that at present is in its infancy and that you are very unlikely to be able to do anything other than, if you're lucky, play the disks in a good blu-ray disk drive. Even that is a bit unlikely.

It seems to me from what I have read in many places, many times, that blu-ray is almost totally broken ànd will not work properly in Linux.

For your sake I hope I'm wrong.

[rene]

Is there any option in Linux to make files on BD-R and BD-RE discs editable?

Not conveniently.

CD/DVD/BD-R are writable but not "random-writable" such as HDD/SSD/USB-stick etc. Specifically they can be written once only and therefore clearly not "edited". The RW variants add erasability but only in a bulk sense; not "random writing" in that above one. The way Windows allows for the appearance of random writes, edits, is by a process called "packet writing": changed data is not in fact changed but written anew with incorporated changes, and with the former, still physically present data merely marked invalid/superseded in the discs' table of content.

Packet writing does exist on Linux but never got to be a thing really, and also because optical media are basically dead and buried now, you have to jump through hoops. Last time I checked on things I found that in essence things work -- see viewtopic.php?p=2103787#p2103787 -- but as to e.g. integration of things into a graphical file-manager I've at best no idea and realistically... yeah, no.

I.e., as that linked post concludes and if you're after more than some playing around, "please buy a USB-stick instead". If you disagree: "packet writing" then is the thing to google around for.

[HyperBear]

Is there any option in Linux to make files on BD-R and BD-RE discs editable?

Not conveniently.

CD/DVD/BD-R are writable but not "random-writable" such as HDD/SSD/USB-stick etc. Specifically they can be written once only and therefore clearly not "edited". The RW variants add erasability but only in a bulk sense; not "random writing" in that above one. The way Windows allows for the appearance of random writes, edits, is by a process called "packet writing": changed data is not in fact changed but written anew with incorporated changes, and with the former, still physically present data merely marked invalid/superseded in the discs' table of content.

That's clever indeed.

I have done some web searching, and as I have found out, Windows already had this ability since… (drum rolls) Vista!

It is unfortunate that this needs to be brought up in 2023. This was already requested in an era when some of us were in primary school and the newest Windows version was Vista, and as unpopular as it was (Linus Tech Tips video), it already fully supported UDF 2.60 writing out of the box, whereas we still don't, a decade and a half later.

Granted, we had workspaces ("multiple desktops") a decade earlier and a superior and more stable implementation of MTP (Media Transfer Protocol, used for smartphone file transferring) than the creator of MTP, which is Microsoft, on its own operating system. Nonetheless, it would be wonderful if someone could finally end the times where Linux lags behind Windows in packet writing to optical discs.

optical media are basically dead and buried now

No, but let him do the explaining: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbxaPc2Xf5M&t=3m12s

I.e., as that linked post concludes and if you're after more than some playing around, "please buy a USB-stick instead". If you disagree: "packet writing" then is the thing to google around for.

I am after storing data reliably for a long time but with the same convenient workflow as on USB sticks. Windows can do just that, since a decade and a half. Perhaps it is time for us to catch up.

I unfortunately can no longer trust USB sticks for anything beyond short-term storage because several of my USB sticks spontaneously stopped working. They could no longer be recognized. Some other USB sticks that I accessed for the first time after years had corrupted data such as glitches in pictures. Those USB sticks mostly stored data that was already elsewhere, but this shows that flash storage is unreliable for anything long-term. Besides, only optical discs are water-resistant, which protects the data if ones basement is flooded.

[rene]

[ ... ] whereas we still don't, a decade and a half later.

Linux as said and linked does support packet writing, and has since kernel 2.6.8 of 2004. It's just that hardly any Linux user ever cared for it: it's the type of hide-the-technology feature that's more or less antithetic to certainly the more technical Linux user of old, and now that -- whether you like it and/or agree to it or not -- optical media are in the computer context dead even for non-technical users, chances of this ever being other are not exactly high. Also see how e.g. in this thread and on this forum it takes a few posts until someone even realizes what you are talking about in the first place...

In my link is an example of formating a DVD-RW with UDF and using it in your described sense; note that once formatted/mounted you can of course use whatever file-manager you care to, and that "mounting" is something that a graphical file-manager does/can do in the background in some other cases, but still does: that it's not "Linux" as such that doesn't work with packet writing but that it's just missing high-level / convenience software, due to again hardly anyone caring one way or the other.

As far as I'm aware there's currently no convenient way to use packet writing from e.g. the standard graphical file-managers but "as far as I'm aware" since just about the only thing I care for less than graphical file-managers would be packet writing to optical media. If you do, you will need to be all Linux about things and dive into e.g. GVFS and KIO and FUSE and...

Good luck with that, and be sure to report back anything interesting you find