CD burner woes

[Ben Scott]

On 10/30/07, Drew Van Zandt <drew.vanzandt at gmail.com> wrote:
> I used to be able to burn CD's on this laptop, now I can't.

  So, um, like... what happens when you try to burn a CD?  :)

  What's your command line (or GUI clickstream)?  Do you get an error
message?  A program crash?  Does it go through the motions but not
actually run the burner?  Does it write *something*, but not a
readable CD?  If so, what's the diagnostic when you try to read the
CD?  Come on, throw us a bone here.  ;-)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

> Transport name:         sg
> Open via UNIX device:   not supported   *** DING DING DING looks
> suspiciously like my issue. ***

  I dunno.  There's all this semi-political crap involved with how
Linux and/or cdrecord handles opening devices for "generic SCSI"
access, so that might be a red herring.

  Longer version:

  Linux used to use a different device node for "generic SCSI" (the
/dev/sg* nodes), with no nice way to map to the "normal" device nodes
(/dev/s[srt]* and such).  At some point, it was decided that some king
of ioctl() on the "normal" device nodes would be a better way, and the
/dev/sg* nodes would be deprecated.

  On top of all that, there is long-standing friction between Jörg
Schilling (the principle cdrecord author) and the Linux kernel people.
 It started out as disagreement on design of the the Linux SCSI
subsystem (and generic SCSI in particular), and has since escalated.
They've been disagreeing for so long they've forgotten why and now
just hate everything the other side comes up with.

  So messages about this-or-that not being supported, or openable in
some fashion, may just be a political rant disguised as a diagnostic
message.

-- Ben