In alt.os.linux.debian, Andreas Janssen uttered these immortal words:

>> I recently had a problem with kernel 2.6.8 where by my CD writer
>> wasn't recognised by *any* burning software. Downgrading to 2.6.7
>> sorted this out.
>
> Kernel 2.8 had some changes to the permissions for accessing the drives.
> I think the developers wanted to disallow users to overwrite the
> firmware and the like, but they went a little too far, and with 2.6.8
> normal users can't even write CDs anymore. Installing cdrecord suid
> root doesn't help, because cdrecord throws away the root privileges as
> soon as possible. Running cdrecord as root should however work.

You're right. I forgot to mention that K3B and cdrecord worked as root. :-)

--
Andy.