I'm trying to use my external dvd-r writer with the k3b program for copying cd's, dvd's and for backup purposes.
First, the relevant specs:
IBM thinkpad T21 laptop with 2.4.26-mp2 kernel (has supermount patched in kernel)
8x/24x DVD/CD-ROM builtin
4x/8x/48x DVD-R/DVD/CD-ROM external using usb 2.0 pcmcia card interface
XFree86 4.3.99.1-DRI
Enlightenment DR16, using konqueror for file management purposes, mozilla for web browsing and email.

Hdparm shows only /dev/hda and /dev/hdc are the only atapi devices available to tweak. When connecting usb dvd writer, I can't enable dma for the usb drive, since it's seen as a scsi device and not as atapi.

What I did:
mkdir /dvd-r in root, as well as /mnt/auto/dvd-r.
created symlink /mnt/dvd-r to /mnt/auto/dvd-r.
opened a console and typed k3b which opened the cd burner program. The program sees the drive fine, and I can write to cd-r/cd-rw/dvd-r/dvd-rw discs. But it hangs at the end of the write, and I am forced to kill the program to get the cd-r out. Just for good measure I look to see if I could mount the cd-r that was recently written to, and I can see the contents with no problem. So far so good, except for that one glitch. Next I look to see how it's being mounted so I mount the disc. It reports /dev/hdc being mounted as /mnt/dvd-r. HUH???????

How is this possible? I've always seen /dev/hdc is being mounted as /mnt/cdrom which is the builtin cd-rom. Yet, it's doing double duty somehow, on two different optical drives. I'm not too concerned about this, but I'd really like to solve the k3b glitch, which really is the problem, as when I kill the program, sometimes I end up having to reboot because the keyboard gets locked out, though the system still keeps on ticking and taking a licking.

Have any of you used k3b for cd-burning with a usb drive successfully? If so, what did you do to get it work right?

Durand