Generally speaking: is this issue only for k3b or also for other burning application (as XCDroast)?? because here XCDroast seems to properly setup the burner as normal user...but not K3b
Other users report that xcdroast does work for non-root users in 2.6.8.x -- but it didn't work for me. Nor did cdrecord work. In my case, no cd burning utility would work under 2.6.8.x for *any* user, including root.
Here is a copy of the output from cdrecord that I was getting as a root user:
http://penguinsolutions.org/errors
All of the problems associated with cd burning evaporated when I downgraded to the 2.6.7.x kernel.
Clint