Workaround for DVD access on openSUSE 11.1
medwinz note:
According to Marcus Meissner from SUSE this bug is already fixed. So first thing you should do if you as a normal user cannot get access write to your DVD writer is doing on-line update for your hal. See also information on openSUSE wiki.
openSUSE 11.1 just come out in December 18 2008. It brings the new experience for the communities who always fascinated by this distribution. One thing I feel really annoying is non-root user cannot access the DVD to make copy, burn an iso or anything using the tools like k3b. After searching the bugzilla and discussion in the openSUSE mailing list, at least we found the workaround for this problem.
Below are some workaround that maybe can help you solve the situation at least until the official update come out.
Check your access for the DVD drive. Run ‘getfacl /dev/sr0′ from the konsole. For the non root user before we insert the blank DVD-R it should be something like:
medwinz@slowhand:~> getfacl /dev/sr0
getfacl: Removing leading ‘/’ from absolute path names
# file: dev/sr0
# owner: root
# group: disk
user::rw-
user:medwinz:rw-
group::rw-
mask::rw-
other::—
After you insert blank DVD-R the same command gives
medwinz@slowhand:~> getfacl /dev/sr0
getfacl: Removing leading ‘/’ from absolute path names
# file: dev/sr0
# owner: root
# group: disk
user::rw-
group::rw-
mask::rw-
other::—
If your result is something like above which is a non root user is missing the permission to access the DVD (rw) then you have problem 
The easiest workaround is to change the content of /usr/share/PolicyKit/policy/org.freedesktop.hal.device-access.policy. In some ways openSUSE 11.1 looks DVD burner as removable block medium, and the access for this medium is prohibited for non-root users. Open that file (as su) and find the section that start with <action id="org.freedesktop.hal.device-access.removable-block">, then change the content below that becomes
<action id="org.freedesktop.hal.device-access.removable-block">
<description>Directly access removable block devices</description>
<message>System policy prevents access to removable block devices</message>
<defaults>
<allow_inactive>yes</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>yes</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>
Now restart your computer. It should be ok now to use k3b to burn your DVD.
Other workaround is set your user as member of "cdrom" groups. Then create /etc/udev/rules.d/99-my.rules file with the following entry:
KERNEL=="sr*[0-9]", GROUP="cdrom", MODE="0660"
Reboot your computer and it should be ok now. The rule is to make sure that /dev/sr0 is always owned by root:cdrom and that cdrom group has the permission to read and write to the DVD/CD
Have a lot of fun
Hi Medwinz
It’s probably quicker to just restart the HAL daemon after changing the policykit permissions. Just run ‘rchal restart’ and the permissions take effect straight away and I can access teh DVD
Comment by Pete — January 17, 2009 @ 4:59 pm
I’m confused. Your output for “getfacl /dev/sr0″ clearly shows that the device is owned by the “disk” group. So why not just add the user to the “disk” group instead? That’s what I did on my system and it worked. All I needed to do was log out and log back in for permission changes to take effect.
Comment by GoremanX — January 20, 2009 @ 4:41 am
@Pete,
You’re right, it maybe easier to just restart the HAL.
Comment by medwinz — January 20, 2009 @ 1:59 pm
@GoremanX,
I got your point, I try it in some PC but I don’t know why it doesn’t work all the time. Anyway, this is just workaround, and according to Marcus Meissner openSUSE will soon release the fix hopefully this week
Comment by medwinz — January 20, 2009 @ 2:03 pm
You shouldn’t put the user in the disk group, because the raw hard disk devices are in this group and you would gain access to the disks, which mean you could accidentally overwrite them.
Comment by greenpossum — January 22, 2009 @ 6:10 pm
@greenpossum,
Thanks for the explanation. Now it is clear, isn’t it
Comment by medwinz — January 22, 2009 @ 9:46 pm