Open Burning Suite — Burn, read, build, and verify CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray...
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Getting Started

This guide walks you through installing, building, and running Open Burning Suite on your platform.

Prerequisites

.NET 8.0 SDK

Open Burning Suite requires the .NET 8.0 SDK (or later). Download it from the official site:

Download .NET 8.0 SDK

Verify your installation:

dotnet --version
# Should output 8.0.x or later

Optical Drive

You’ll need a physical optical disc drive connected to your system for burning, reading, and verification operations. Image building works without a drive.

Optional External Tools

Open Burning Suite uses two optional external tools for advanced features. Neither is required for basic burning, reading, or disc operations.

FFmpeg

FFmpeg is required for video authoring (DVD-Video, Blu-ray, BDAV, Blu-ray 3D, VCD, SVCD, XSVCD).

Install FFmpeg and ensure ffmpeg is available on your system PATH.

chdman (MAME CHD Tools)

chdman is required for reading and extracting CHD (Compressed Hunks of Data) disc images, commonly used for game preservation. You need at least chdman v0.287 (included with MAME).

Detection Method Description
PATH If chdman (or chdman.exe on Windows) is on your system PATH, it is detected automatically.
Settings You can set a custom path in Settings → Paths & Locations → chdman Path. Use the Browse button to select the executable, then click Test to verify it works.
Common locations The application also searches standard install paths: C:\mame\chdman.exe (Windows), /opt/homebrew/bin/chdman (macOS), /usr/bin/chdman (Linux).

If chdman is not installed, the application will show a clear error message when you attempt to work with CHD files.

Platform-Specific Requirements

Windows

  • Administrator privileges are required for direct SCSI passthrough access to optical drives.
  • Windows 10 or later is recommended.
  • The application uses IOCTL_SCSI_PASS_THROUGH_DIRECT for hardware communication.

Linux

  • Root or sudo access is required for SCSI passthrough via SG_IO.
  • Your user needs read/write permissions on /dev/sg* and /dev/sr* device nodes.

  • Alternatively, add your user to the cdrom and optical groups:

    sudo usermod -aG cdrom,optical $USER
# Log out and back in for changes to take effect

  • Ensure the sg (SCSI generic) kernel module is loaded:

    sudo modprobe sg

macOS

  • Appropriate permissions for SCSI passthrough are required.
  • macOS may prompt you to allow direct hardware access.
  • The application uses the IOKit SCSI Architecture Model framework (SCSITaskDeviceInterface) for hardware communication.
  • On newer macOS versions (Sequoia and later), granting Full Disk Access may be required. See macOS.md for details.

Building from Source

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/SvenGDK/OpenBurningSuite.git
cd OpenBurningSuite

Restore Dependencies & Build

# Debug build (default)
dotnet build

# Release build (optimized)
dotnet build -c Release

The build process automatically restores the following NuGet packages:

Package Version Purpose
Avalonia 11.3.12 Cross-platform UI framework
Avalonia.Desktop 11.3.12 Desktop platform integration
Avalonia.Themes.Fluent 11.3.12 Fluent design theme
Avalonia.Fonts.Inter 11.3.12 Inter font family
Avalonia.Controls.DataGrid 11.3.12 DataGrid control
DiscUtils.Iso9660 0.16.13 ISO 9660 image creation
NAudio 2.2.1 Audio file processing

Publish as Self-Contained (Optional)

To create a self-contained executable that doesn’t require the .NET SDK on the target machine:

# Windows (x64)
dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained

# Windows (ARM64)
dotnet publish -c Release -r win-arm64 --self-contained

# Linux (x64)
dotnet publish -c Release -r linux-x64 --self-contained

# Linux (ARM64)
dotnet publish -c Release -r linux-arm64 --self-contained

# macOS (Intel)
dotnet publish -c Release -r osx-x64 --self-contained

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
dotnet publish -c Release -r osx-arm64 --self-contained

Running the Application

From Source

dotnet run --project OpenBurningSuite

From Build Output

# Debug
./OpenBurningSuite/bin/Debug/net8.0/OpenBurningSuite

# Release
./OpenBurningSuite/bin/Release/net8.0/OpenBurningSuite

On Linux with Elevated Permissions

sudo dotnet run --project OpenBurningSuite
# Or
sudo ./OpenBurningSuite/bin/Release/net8.0/OpenBurningSuite

First Run

When you launch Open Burning Suite for the first time:

  1. Discover drives — The application will automatically detect any connected optical drives and display their information (vendor, model, firmware revision, capabilities).

  2. Insert a disc — Insert a disc into your drive. The application will detect the media type and display disc information (capacity, used space, sessions, tracks).

  3. Choose an operation — Use the sidebar to navigate:

    • 🔍 Discover — list and inspect optical drives
    • 💿 Copy Disc — read/duplicate discs to image formats
    • 🏗 Build Image — create disc images from files/folders
    • 🔥 Burn / Write — burn a pre-built image or files directly to disc
    • ✅ Verify — verify disc integrity with checksums
    • ⚙️ Advanced — erase, format, finalize, and other disc operations
    • Quick Start Wizards — guided step-by-step workflows:
      • 🎵 Audio & Music — create audio CDs, copy music to disc, or rip audio CDs
      • 🎬 Video Disc — author DVD-Video, Blu-ray, VCD, SVCD, or XSVCD discs
      • 📁 Data Disc — create and burn data discs from files and folders
      • 🎮 Game Disc — use console-specific presets for gaming discs
      • 💿 Copy Disc — copy a disc to an image file with gaming presets and PS3 decryption
      • 🧹 Blank Disc — erase rewritable discs or format blank media

Troubleshooting

“No drives detected”

  • Ensure your optical drive is properly connected and recognized by the OS.
  • On Linux, check that device nodes exist: ls -la /dev/sr* /dev/sg*
  • On Linux, verify the sg module is loaded: lsmod | grep sg

“Permission denied” errors

  • Linux: Run with sudo or ensure your user is in the cdrom/optical groups.
  • Windows: Run the application as Administrator.
  • macOS: Grant hardware access when prompted. On macOS Sequoia and later, you may need to grant Full Disk Access (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access). See macOS.md for details.

Build errors

  • Ensure you have .NET 8.0 SDK installed: dotnet --version
  • Try cleaning and rebuilding: dotnet clean && dotnet build
  • Check your internet connection (NuGet packages need to be downloaded on first build).

Next: Burning Discs →