CD burner won't allow burn to start

I am running Gutsy if that makes a difference.

Can you provide us with the output of the following?

$ ls -l /dev/cd*
$ ls -l /dev/scd*
$ ls -l /dev/hd*
$ ls -l /dev/sd*

It may be related to skewed permissions.

lance@lance-desktop:~$ ls -l /dev/cd*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2007-12-31 14:53 /dev/cdrom -> hdc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2007-12-31 14:53 /dev/cdrw -> hdc

lance@lance-desktop:~$ ls -l /dev/scd*
ls: /dev/scd*: No such file or directory

lance@lance-desktop:~$ ls -l /dev/hd*
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 0 2007-12-31 14:53 /dev/hda
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 1 2007-12-31 14:53 /dev/hda1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 2 2007-12-31 14:53 /dev/hda2
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 5 2007-12-31 14:53 /dev/hda5
brw-rw---- 1 root cdrom 22, 0 2007-12-31 14:53 /dev/hdc

lance@lance-desktop:~$ $ ls -l /dev/sd*
bash: $: command not found

also provide

$ ls -l /dev/sd*
$ ls -l /dev/sg*

lance@lance-desktop:~$ ls -l /dev/sd*
ls: /dev/sd*: No such file or directory
lance@lance-desktop:~$ ls -l /dev/sg*
ls: /dev/sg*: No such file or directory

There are quite a few forum postsings, bug reports, and such regarding this error.
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/k3b/+bug/149076
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/k3b/+bug/178808
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4004380

Some non-Ubuntu specific...
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-633218-highlight-.html
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/k3b-and-slack-12-no-no-568041/

Your /dev/hdc (cd/rw drive) has the appropriate permissions. Just make sure your user is a member of the cdrom group:

$ groups
myuser adm dialout fax cdrom floppy tape audio dip plugdev scanner admin fuse

If you do not see cdrom in the list, you can add yourself to the group with the following:
$ sudo -a -G cdrom yourusername

Also, from the links, make sure k3b is pointing to the correct device for writing. i.e. /dev/hdc

I still can't get it. I'm pretty sure that k3b is pointing to /dev/hdc. I can see cdrom in the $ groups. I've followed the links and I can't figure out how to set the file permissions in k3b. I have no 'options - setup system permissions' anywhere that I can find. Setting up the permissions may solve my problem, but I can't seem to figure out how to do that. I've checked through the cdrecord site that I have a original program.

also, in one of the links the suggestion was made to change the permission by doing the following:

lance@lance-desktop:~$ chown root:lance /usr/bin/cdrecord
chown: changing ownership of `/usr/bin/cdrecord': Operation not permitted
lance@lance-desktop:~$ chmod 4755 /usr/bin/cdrecord
chmod: changing permissions of `/usr/bin/cdrecord': Operation not permitted

As you can see, it didn't work for me. I am stumped.

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

it works if you type in:

sudo chown root:username /usr/bin/cdrecord
sudo chmod 4755 /usr/bin/cdrecord

replacing "username" with your user-name of course