CDEmu

Linux · Self-hosted

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Freedom report

Two barsScore 6.4

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely1 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

CDEmu is ranked #7 of 23 in virtual drive software on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, Self-hosted. There is a free plan.

CDEmu plans and pricing

All plans

CDEmu Free GPL v2 or later · Linux optical drive and disc emulator cdemu.sourceforge.io · 5 Oct 2026

Compared on virtual drive software

Free plan: Yes
Image formats: MDS, MDX, B5T, B6T, CCD, SUB, IMG, CUE, BIN, TOC, CDI, CIF, C2D, ISO, NRG, UDF, DMG, CDR, CSO, ECM, GZ, GBI, WAV, FLAC, DAA, ISZ, XZ
Optical image mounting: Yes
Supported platforms: Linux

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The record

Purpose: CDEmu is a software suite designed to emulate an optical drive and disc, including CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs, on Linux.
Virtual drive: The suite includes a kernel module that provides a virtual SCSI host adapter linking the userspace daemon with the Linux kernel.
Image library: libMirage provides uniform access to data in optical disc image formats and supports both CD-ROM and DVD-ROM images.
Virtual media: Optical media emulated by CDEmu can be mounted within Linux, and automounting is allowed.
Disc recording: The project says its daemon has experimental emulation of CD-R and DVD+R recording, allowing blank virtual discs to be written with CD/DVD burning software.
Clients: CDEmu provides a command-line client and a GTK client for loading and unloading devices, viewing device status and managing debug masks.
Daemon interface: The daemon exposes methods over D-BUS and can register on either the session bus or system bus.
Integrations: The GTK client can send daemon and device status change notifications via libnotify when its Python bindings are installed.
Security and permissions: The project documents that system-bus use requires special permissions and its installed D-BUS configuration allows root by default; session-bus use requires read and write access to the VHBA control device.
License: CDEmu is licensed under the GNU GPL version 2 or later.
Downloads: The project lists official source tarballs for its core software, client applications and image analyzer, along with packages from several Linux distribution repositories.
Third-party packages: The project says third-party distribution packages are not verified by its maintainers and are not formally supported.
Support: The project directs users to its support request tracker and mailing list for issues, suggestions and other feedback.
Founded: 2003
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Virtual Drive Software in 2026#7 of 23

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Sources

cdemu.sourceforge.io/about/· checked 5 Oct 2026
cdemu.sourceforge.io/about/vhba/· checked 5 Oct 2026
cdemu.sourceforge.io/about/libmirage/· checked 5 Oct 2026
cdemu.sourceforge.io· checked 5 Oct 2026
cdemu.sourceforge.io/about/client/· checked 5 Oct 2026
cdemu.sourceforge.io/about/daemon/· checked 5 Oct 2026
cdemu.sourceforge.io/about/gcdemu/· checked 5 Oct 2026
cdemu.sourceforge.io/project/· checked 5 Oct 2026
cdemu.sourceforge.io/contact/· checked 5 Oct 2026