[--Formal Message--] [plug] can't write to cdrom (or flash drive)

[John McCabe-Dansted]

On Sun, Sep 02, 2007 at 12:08:01AM +0800, Dem Nisbet wrote:
> I have a newish PC (bought early 2005), 512MB ram, 60GB hard drive, DVD
> reader, CD burner. I'm using Red Hat Fedora Core 3 (ie. the free
> version). I have never been able to save to CD (it reads CDs and DVDs
> without trouble, including my old Windows CDs). When I try to copy, it
> tells me I have a SCSI drive, and then it shuts up shop and won't go any
> further. 

The following information will be useful:

What software/command do you use to attempt to copy the CD? What is the exact text of the error message.

> My actions so far, in the grand hunt for a solution: I tried fiddling
> with the menus when copying, then eventually went to Wikipedia. They
> sent me to try K3b, which looked ok, but I couldn't manage to download
> it somehow (I couldn't even find the download page). Then I tried the
> plug archives, and spent a while searching, but eventually I gave up (I
> have a dial up connection, so please be sympathetic with my lack of
> persistence).

I don't admin FC3, but I suspect that you can install k3b by typing something like

sudo yum install k3b 

at a konsole

> I would really appreciate any help anyone can provide. An alternative
> solution would be to use my flash drive, but I can't work out how to use
> that either (the computer doesn't even so much as sniffle when I insert
> it, and I've checked the instructions (model: Sandisk Cruzer), and it
> says it is Linux compatible). If anyone can solve the flash drive
> situation and not the cdrom one, that would be fine also - then I can
> save my files, and upgrade.
> 
> Speaking of which, if you can't solve either flash drive or cdrom
> issues, does anyone at least know of a distro that I could use that
> doesn't have this most irksome problem? I prefer Red Hat, on the grounds
> of familiarity, so I'm hoping some later version might have fixed this
> kink.

I use FC4 at university. It doesn't seem to have any such problems, but I suspect FC3 doesn't either on normal hardware.
Upgrading might help.

I use Ubuntu at home which does a fairly good job of "just working". It is possible that Ubuntu might not have this problem (but it might have other annoying problems).