Andreas Janssen wrote:

>>> You appear to be using cdrecord from testing or unstable. However I
>>> do not know what kernel you use.
>>
>> I am using a custom compiled kernel 2.6.8.1.
>
> AHA! Currently, writing only works as root with that kernel. You /can/
> make it work by uncommenting one or two lines in the sources and
> recompiling the kernel. That will omit the new security checks and act
> like 2.6.7 did. In my opinion better that using 2.6.7, because that one
> had several security problems that have been fices with 2.6.8. There
> was a small patch posted to LKML, but I cannot find it right now. Maybe
> you google around a little under the groups search in linux.kernel.
>

That would probably explain all those root related setup questions with
xcdroast and why it works with that tool.

Is fixing this problem (security but no ability for users to burn their own
CDs - ok if you have a small network but imagine how this would affect a
university setup ) on a TODO list for the next kernel release ?

>>>> And I do have hdc=ide-scsi in my /boot/grub/menu.lst (appended to
>>>> the kernel line).
>>>
>>> If you use kernel 2.6, you should stop using ide-scsi emulation
>>> completely, because there is absolutely no need for it. Using the ide
>>> cd driver for writing and reading works just fine for me.
>>
>> Is the speed affected ? (There were big warnings when I was using
>> 2.4.26 about this.).
>
> No. In fact, using ide-cd and the new system is the only way I know to
> get DMA working both for reading /and/ writing CDs with blocksizes
> other than 2048, e.g. Audio CDs.

Well, I just burnt a data CD with scsi emulation and rarely if ever burn
audio CDs so maybe I can live with this for now.

Thanks for your response.