7. References

I have already mentioned the documentation files, typically installed in /usr/src/linux/Documentation/cdrom. These can be a gold mine of useful information.

The following Usenet FAQs are posted periodically to news.answers and archived at Internet FTP sites such as ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/.

• alt.cd-rom FAQ

• comp.periphs.scsi FAQ

• Enhanced IDE/Fast-ATA/ATA-2 FAQ

Several other Linux HOWTOs have useful information relevant to CD-ROM:

• Linux SCSI HOWTO

• Hardware Compatibility HOWTO

• Sound HOWTO

• Kernel HOWTO

• Distribution HOWTO

• CD Writing HOWTO

At least a dozen companies sell Linux distributions on CD-ROM; most of them are listed in the Distribution HOWTO.

The following Usenet news groups cover CD-ROM related topics:

• comp.publish.cdrom.hardware

• comp.publish.cdrom.multimedia

• comp.publish.cdrom.software

• comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.cd-rom

• alt.cd-rom

• alt.cd-rom.reviews

The comp.os.linux newsgroups are also good sources of Linux specific information.

A FAQ document on IDE and ATA devices can be found at ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/pc-hardware-faq/enhanced-IDE/ and at http://www.seagate.com/techsuppt/faq/faqlist.html.

A web site dedicated to multimedia can be found at http://www.scala.com/multimedia/. Creative Labs has a web site at http://www.creaf.com/.

The Linux Software Map (LSM) is an invaluable reference for locating Linux software. The LSM home page is at http://www.ExecPC.com/lsm/. and there is an on-line browsable version at http://www.boutell.com/lsm/.

Another great site for finding Linux applications is http://www.freshmeat.net/.

The Linux mailing list has a number of "channels" dedicated to different topics. To find out how to join, send a mail message with the word "help" as the message body to majordomo at vger.kernel.org.

The Linux Documentation Project has produced several books on Linux, including Linux Installation and Getting Started. These are freely available by anonymous FTP from major Linux archive sites or can be purchased in hardcopy format.

Finally, a shameless plug: If you want to learn a lot more about multimedia under Linux (especially CD-ROM and sound card applications and programming), check out my book Linux Multimedia Guide, ISBN 1-56592-219-0, published by O'Reilly and Associates. As well as the original English version, French and Japanese translations are now in print. For details, call 800-998-9938 in North America or check the web page http://www.ora.com/catalog/multilinux/noframes.html.