Before starting, we have to make sure that the Linux kernel has all the necessary options enabled to use USB devices and media drives in particular. Most recent distributions such as SuSE 7.3, YDL 2.1 or MDK 8.0 should have all the options enabled by default, so you can skip the next few lines.
The kernel needs to have the following options enabled:
ATA/IDE/MFM/RLL support ---> ATA/IDE/MFM/RLL support
ATA/IDE/MFM/RLL support ---> IDE, ATA and ATAPI Block devices ---> Enhanced IDE/MFM/RLL disk/cdrom/tape/floppy support
ATA/IDE/MFM/RLL support ---> IDE, ATA and ATAPI Block devices ---> Include IDE/ATA-2 DISK support
ATA/IDE/MFM/RLL support ---> IDE, ATA and ATAPI Block devices ---> Include IDE/ATAPI CDROM support
ATA/IDE/MFM/RLL support ---> IDE, ATA and ATAPI Block devices ---> SCSI emulation support
SCSI support ---> SCSI support
SCSI support ---> SCSI disk support
SCSI support ---> SCSI CD-ROM support
USB support ---> Support for USB
USB support ---> Preliminary USB device filesystem
USB support ---> OHCI (Compaq, iMacs, OPTi, SiS, ALi, ...) support
All of the above options should be directly compiled in, not as modules.
USB support ---> USB Mass Storage support
This last option should be compiled as a module.
If you want to compile your own kernel, I suggest reading our kernel building guide before doing so.
Once we are sure the necessary options are given, we can get started :)
Connect your USB CDRW drive to the computer and power it on. Then, open a terminal window and use the "su" command (with your password) to become root. Then, in the terminal window, type "modprobe usb-storage" That will load the driver module that is needed to operate your CDRW.
To find out whether it worked, do a "cat /proc/scsi/scsi" It should display something like:
ibook:/home/doctomoe # cat /proc/scsi/scsi
Attached devices:
Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: MITSUMI Model: CR-4804TE Rev: 3.0D
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Also, if you do a "dmesg", the last few lines should look like:
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Vendor: MITSUMI Model: CR-4804TE Rev: 3.0D
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 5
USB Mass Storage support registered.
Note the line saying: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
This means that the CDRW drive will now be available like a standard SCSI CDRW drive under /dev/sr0 Some burning tools are also capable to automatically detect a burner, so you won't even need to look at "dmesg" where it got attached.
That way, you can use it with any standard CD burning software on Linux, such as cdrecord or one of the many GUI tools using cdrecord.
If the drive does not get recognized, try unplugging it and replugging it again. That should help in most cases.
To make sure you can get started, you should at least have cdrecord and mkisofs installed before trying to use the burner. Those programs should be included with most distributions.
Their source code is also available at:
If you are looking for a nice and comfortable GUI burning program, based on cdrecord, I can recommend , which is doing an excellent job for me.
If you want more detailed info on how to burn a CD under Linux (and without a GUI tool), you can take a look at the general on our .
Finally, one last tip:
I strongly suggest connecting the CDRW directly to the computer and not to a hub. This will most probably solve problems when your drive does not get recognized and also when your system blocks while burning a CD.
As always, if you have comments, questions or suggestions, or if you simply feel lonely, you can let me ...
