4L and Lightscribe

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

If you have a DVD or CD writer that has Lightscribe capabilities, you may wish to take advantage of that under Linux. There is an Open Source Lightscribe program that enables you to do this, but in truth, it's rather restrictive. Much better is a free but proprietary program from Lacie called 4L. That enables you to design a bitmap graphic using GIMP or something like Scribus, and 4L simply enables you to print that graphic on your media. Of course in designing your graphic you should take into account that the corners will be rounded off and there will be a hole in the middle!

You download 4L from here:

http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/4L-18872.shtml

Before installing 4L, you should install the opensource lightscribe program, this will ensure that all the necessary drivers and libraries are installed. Just use Synaptic and install "lightscribe".

You should download the 4L rpm to your desktop. From the start menu, run Konsole to open a terminal, and then type

cd Desktop <ENTER>

Then enter the command:

su

and enter your root password when prompted. This will put the terminal into root mode. The next command you type should be:

rpm -Uvh 4L-1.0-r6.i586.rpm

(this may vary if there are later versions of 4L. Use the actual filename of the download.)

To add 4L to your menu, do the following from the Start/PC Menu:

PC > System > Archiving > CD Burning

Place the cursor over "Lightscribe" and Right-click. From the menu select "Edit this Item". Once you have the Menu Editor interface up, click on the icon for New Item, and in the Name box enter "4L" and in the command box enter '/usr/4L/4L-gui'. Find a suitable icon and clicking on the Save icon will have 4L ready to use on your menu.

EDIT: Forgot to clarify that it's the ROOT password you need to enter.

[chiefjim]

Agreed, works well.  Began using it with PCLOS 2007.

[travisN000]

..I've also been using it occaisionally with good success.

[mbmalone]

I searched lightscribe and found a package lightscribemenu
Lightscribe is now on my menu under CD Burning.

However, is there a command to find if you actually have a lightscribe drive?
I used to have one for sure, but sent my notebook to HP and they replaced the drive with a non-lightscribe drive, apparently?

You don't even want to know what I think about HP ....

[Neal ManBear]

I searched lightscribe and found a package lightscribemenu

Do you mean in Synaptic? If so, search for task-lightscribe. That will install all of the lightscribe rpms available.

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

If you run Lightscribe, on the second panel it lists the available lightscribe-enabled drives, whether or not a disk is inserted. This will tell you whether the drive you have is lightscribe or not.

[mbmalone]

I don't have one anymore, but I'm sure the HP Tech that changed my motherboard last year has a nice one in his own notebook  

If you run Lightscribe, on the second panel it lists the available lightscribe-enabled drives, whether or not a disk is inserted. This will tell you whether the drive you have is lightscribe or not.

[r1to]

Adding this, for users of E17 desktop - I installed it on my enlightenment desktop - a little different procedure for adding it to the menus at the end of my post

glad, cause it was the 1'st rpm I managed to install from a command line, thanks to the author's nice instructions here yipppy 

http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/4L-18872.shtml

You should download the 4L rpm to your desktop. From the start menu, run Console to open a terminal, and then type

cd Desktop <ENTER>

Here I have to add, that, if you enabled local folder names, like me for example to Slovenian language, use your local name for the Desktop directory, whatever it is - mine was cd /home/r1to/Namizje

Then enter the command:

su

and enter your root password when prompted. This will put the terminal into root mode. The next command you type should be:

rpm -Uvh 4L-1.0-r6.i586.rpm

I used a little trick, a shortened 4L*.*   and it worked fine

(this may vary if there are later versions of 4L. Use the actual filename of the download.)

To add 4L to your menu, do the following from the Start/PC Menu:

PC > System > Archiving > CD Burning

Place the cursor over "Lightscribe" and Right-click. From the menu select "Edit this Item". Once you have the Menu Editor interface up, click on the icon for New Item, and in the Name box enter "4L" and in the command box enter '/usr/4L/4L-gui'. Find a suitable icon and clicking on the Save icon will have 4L ready to use on your menu.

As I was in the E17 desktop, menus are working little differently. So I did the following:

# created a new icon on the iBar (it opens you the dialog "Desktop Entry Editor"to enter the data needed for it automatically)
# entered the name "Lightscribe_4L", comment "Advanced Lightscriber", Application "/usr/4L/4L-gui"
#In the next tab I used the icon from /usr/share/icons/cd_burning_section.png, if you don't have it or dont like that one, you can easily make another link to . . .
In the third tab (general) i copied the same name again - "Lightscribe_4L" and under 'Categories' I copied from the original Ligtscribe icon settings: KDE;Application;AudioVideo;DiscBurning;X-MandrivaLinux-System-Archiving-CDBurning; so that it can become visible in your menu also
#under options I ticked "Show in Menus"
and hit the Apply button.

If you want now you can get to this icon by RMB click on the iBar gadget, choose contents, select it from the menu of apps and add it to the iBar.
 Et-voila! Use it to write some nice pic on your DVD

Now in e17 I don't know if after a re-login it will be seen in the main menu, ..maybe it's not necessary to log-out and there is another way to make it visible immediately that I should learn... tell you after that 

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

We now have lacie-labeler in the repos, not need for this thread to be sticky.

[Neal ManBear]

Not stickied.