Tim:
This is a problem that I've not seen in a very long time (i.e. many
releases ago of Red Hat Linux, I think). I tried to burn a CD-ROM from
an ISO, and nothing would let me do it as myself (command line tools,
applications, etc.). As far as I could see, all the device permissions
were set in a way that should have let me do it. I had to resort to
using wodim as the root user to get the job done. Is this a personal
glitch, or do others find the same thing?
What was the problem/error?
I've experienced a similar headache from day 1 with linux (on SUSE 10.0,
and FC5, FC6, and now F7, with various hardware).
I use CD/DVD Creator; when I click 'Write', give the details, and click
OK, it comes back with "Please insert a disc with xxx MiB free." I'm
using blank discs!
Turns out that this has been noticed already -
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/hal/+bug/109763
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=12133
Is this your situation?
