CD/rw drive not detected on plugin

Plug it in, then boot the system, and see what happens

Thanks for the reply.
I tried what you suggested but still nothing.
I'm looking for a shortcut icon to the drive correct.
I get one for my usb samsung hard drive but not for the cdrw drive

Are you sure it is supported??

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

Where would I be looking to fidn that informatioin and if it wasn't supported is there anything I can do about it. . . . generic drivers etc??

you need a konsole working or use a terminal by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F1
log in as root
then type
tail -f /var/log/messages

now plug in the usb drive
wait for the new info to appear in the konsole and copy and paste back here

if you've used a terminal you might need pen and paper

You can see below that this is a Buffalo drive from Meloc inc. Under windows this is recognised as a Philips 241240 drive - confirmed as correct in manual.

farcusnet:~ # tail -f /var/log/messages
Jul 1 01:18:42 farcusnet kernel: sdc: assuming drive cache: write through
Jul 1 01:18:42 farcusnet kernel: SCSI device sdc: 28836 2048-byte hdwr sectors (59 MB)
Jul 1 01:18:42 farcusnet kernel: sdc: Write Protect is off
Jul 1 01:18:42 farcusnet kernel: sdc: Mode Sense: 00 8e 01 00
Jul 1 01:18:42 farcusnet kernel: sdc: assuming drive cache: write through
Jul 1 01:18:44 farcusnet kernel: sdc: [mac] sdc1 sdc2
Jul 1 01:20:25 farcusnet sudo: farcus : TTY=pts/2 ; PWD=/home/farcus ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/opt/kde3/bin/kdesu_stub -
Jul 1 01:20:26 farcusnet sudo: farcus : TTY=pts/2 ; PWD=/home/farcus ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/opt/kde3/bin/kdesu_stub -
Jul 1 01:20:46 farcusnet su: (to root) root on /dev/pts/3
Jul 1 01:21:18 farcusnet kernel: usb 5-1: USB disconnect, address 2
Jul 1 01:21:35 farcusnet kernel: usb 5-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
Jul 1 01:21:36 farcusnet kernel: usb 5-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
Jul 1 01:21:37 farcusnet kernel: usb 5-1: new device found, idVendor=0411, idProduct=001c
Jul 1 01:21:37 farcusnet kernel: usb 5-1: new device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=0
Jul 1 01:21:37 farcusnet kernel: usb 5-1: Product: MELCO INC. USB-IDE Bridge
Jul 1 01:21:37 farcusnet kernel: usb 5-1: Manufacturer: MELCO INC.
Jul 1 01:21:37 farcusnet kernel: usb 5-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Jul 1 01:21:37 farcusnet kernel: scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Jul 1 01:21:37 farcusnet kernel: usb-storage: device found at 3
Jul 1 01:21:37 farcusnet kernel: usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
Jul 1 01:21:38 farcusnet kernel: Vendor: Buffalo Model: DUB-P40G HDD Rev: 0113
Jul 1 01:21:38 farcusnet kernel: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Jul 1 01:21:38 farcusnet kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sdc
Jul 1 01:21:38 farcusnet kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
Jul 1 01:21:38 farcusnet kernel: usb-storage: device scan complete

It looks as though it has been recognized and given a device node at /dev/sdc.

Do you get the shortcut on the desktop if you put a disk in? Mepis doesn't pop up the shortcut unless there is media in the drive.

You would do your burning using K3B which is in the KMenu under Multimedia. Whether or not the icon pops up, see if K3B recognizes the drive.

Good Luck!

Thanks for your help to date.
With a disc in the drive it is recognised (in this instance a disc with photographs)
If I try to mount the drive I get this error message
"hal-storage-removable-mount-all-options refused uid 1000"

Is not detected in K3b although my standard cdrom drive is.

What's the next step i should take??