Creating and burning ISO files on Debian

Create ISO from CD / DVD drive:
IF is Input File, OF is Output File:

sudo dd if=/dev/sr0 of=./some\_descriptive\_name.iso

Burn ISO:

growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/sr0=XenCenter.iso

Alternative
If growisofs tells you “:-( /dev/sr0: media is not recognized as recordable DVD: 9”) it’s possible to use wodim instead:

wodim /home/jonas/Downloads/debian-7.8.0-amd64-CD-1.iso

It will pick up on your DVD / CD writer automagically.

Alternative 2: Make a bootable USB drive
Be a friend of nature – use USB rather than optical media:
IF is Input File (your ISO), OF is Output File (your USB memory). Make sure to just specify the device name – “/dev/sdc” for example and not the partition – “/dev/sdc1” (since we’re overwriting that anyway)

sudo dd if=/home/jonas/Downloads/debian-7.8.0-amd64-CD-1.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=4M  
[sudo] password for jonas:  
161+0 records in  
161+0 records out  
675282944 bytes (675 MB) copied, 92.1209 s, 7.3 MB/s