To burn cd images from the command line in Debian squeeze you need two packages:

(1) genisoimage
(2) wodim

To make an ISO image of a directory simply type:

genisoimage -o outfile_name some_directory

To burn the image use wodim. First figure out which optical drive to use by asking wodim for a list:


tom@osmium:~$ wodim -devices
tom@osmium:~$ wodim -devices
wodim: Overview of accessible drives (1 found) :
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 dev='/dev/scd0' rwrw-- : 'HP' 'CD-Writer+ 8000'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


We need the device as in the /dev device so we can use it to tell wodim which device to use:

wodim dev=/dev/scd0 -v -data path_to_iso_file

Configuration options for wodim are in /etc/wodim.conf.

To see list of options for the drive:

wodim dev=/dev/scd0 driveropts=help -checkdrive