no access to CDR disk or USB drive

English Hardware
#1

Hi, when I try to write to my USB drive (or my CDR drive) I get the error message “Could not write to /media/disk/filename” - even though I appear to have enough permissions (I checked in the Properties for the USB drive and in the root directory tree). The format of the USB drive is vfat.

The same problem sometimes occurs when I try to write to CDR using K3B.

Any ideas what may be happening?

Thanks,

OpenSuse 10.3

#2

which version of openSUSE ? if this is a fresh install of 11.1, then you need to run the online updater,which will resolve this.If you can’t update, a work-around is to add yourself to the disk &drives group

Andy

#3

Hi, Andy, thanks for helping with this - I remember you from before…

I’m using OpenSuse 10.3, it’s updated regularly and up-to-date now.

I am a member of ‘disk’, can’t see ‘drives’ on the list, should I add myself to ‘cdrom’? it’s the only other one that looks relevant, unless you know different, but it won’t help with the USB drive, will it?

Thanks, William

#4

Hmm, 10.3 ? don’t remember this problem in 10.3.Yes, add yourself to the cdrom group,also check you are a member of the wheel group,may help

Andy

#5

Hi,

added myself to groups ‘cdrom’ and ‘wheel’ but no change.

Just checked my permissions in the properties of the usb drive I’m trying to write to (ie by right-clicking on the desktop icon - it shows:

‘Properties for sdc1’
mount point: /media/disk
Owner can view and modify content

Ownership
User: my username
Group: root

#6

Still having this problem - and it’s getting increasingly worrying because it’s preventing regular backups.

Last night, I tried to burn a backup of some data files to CD-R using K3B, and the burn process started off fine, and looks like it’s going to work.

At some point in the process (last time it said “Writing: 11% done”), there’s a long wait while it does nothing, but the CD drive churns away, and then I get a message like:

cdrecord does not have permissions to write to this drive
or
cdrecord can’t get access (or similar)

If I can’t write to CD or a USB drive, I’ve got a real problem.

This is a slightly different message than the first one I posted, but I think they must be different symptoms of the same problem.

Any suggestions?

thanks,