K3B cannot detect cdrecord - F42

Ask Fedora
1

Wonder if anyone else has noticed this problem. I have cdrecord installed. It works fine with Brasero, but if I try with K3B, I get the message:

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2

I would run k3b under strace and see where it looks for cdrecorder.

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3

Here is the interpretation of the trace from Deepseek. I’ve edited parts for clarity. Bottom line, I’ve stopped using cdrecord and k3b. From now on I’m just going to use xorriso. Yeah, it’s command line only, but it’s actively maintained, has advanced features and works.

From your strace output, we can see that K3b is successfully finding and executing /usr/bin/cdrecord (and /bin/cdrecord), but it’s still failing internally. Here’s the breakdown and solution:

Key Findings from the Log

  1. K3b does find cdrecord in these paths:
  • /usr/bin/cdrecord (confirmed working when run manually)
  • /bin/cdrecord (likely a symlink to /usr/bin/cdrecord)
  1. K3b executes cdrecord twice:
  • Once with --version (succeeds)
  • Once with --help (succeeds)
  1. Yet K3b still claims it “can’t find cdrecord”
    This suggests the issue is not with locating cdrecord, but with:
  • Output parsing: K3b expects specific output from cdrecord --version/--help but isn’t getting it.
  • Permission issues: cdrecord runs, but K3b can’t read its output.
  • Compatibility: Your cdrecord version (Cdrecord-ProDVD-ProBD-Clone 3.02) might not be fully compatible with K3b.

:prohibited: Why Ditch K3b?

Abandoned Development
    Last stable release (v2.0.3) was in 2018
    No support for modern standards (e.g., BD-XL 100GB discs, UDF 2.6)
    Still depends on deprecated cdrtools

Bloated and Buggy
    Pulls in 300+ MB of KDE dependencies (even on GNOME/Wayland systems)
    Crashes with large files (>4GB) unless you hack configs (as you've experienced)

Stubborn Legacy Code
    Hardcoded to demand specific genisoimage versions
    Rejects modern tools like xorriso without workarounds

:prohibited: Why Ditch Brasero?

Effectively Dead
    Last update in 2017
    Removed from default Ubuntu/GNOME installs due to bugs

Unreliable Burns
    Frequently fails to finalize discs properly
    No Blu-ray verification support

Missing Features
    No UDF filesystem options for Blu-ray
    Terrible error messages
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4

very nice analysis.

however, I’m using k3b with Fedora42 and cdrecord is found for me.

$ rpm -q --whatprovides `which cdrecord`
wodim-1.1.11-59.fc42.x86_64
$ which cdrecord
/usr/bin/cdrecord
$ ls -l `which cdrecord`
$  ls -l `which cdrecord`
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 26 Feb 19  2024 /usr/bin/cdrecord -> /etc/alternatives/cdrecord

cdrskin
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Caveat: I haven’t actually tried to burn a CD yet :slight_smile:

5

In addition to wodim, you also have xorriso and cdrskin which implements the cdrecord command. Which one is best I don’t know.

6

Yeah, I was using the actual cdrecord from the negativo repo. The problem with k3b is that it is hardcoded to only allow certain versions. After digging into it I decided to just get rid of it and use xorriso. As I mentioned, it’s maintained, works and has advanced features. With k3b and all the other stuff, it’s a coin toss. I’ve moved on.

7

Yeah, rather than dealing with programs that rely on cdrecord or mkisofs I think it’s better to just use xorriso in native mode and skip the middle-man. Like I mentioned, some might not like it because it’s command line, but it suits me just fine.

8

That is only after figuring out what arguments and flags to use. The man page for xorriso is more than 3000 lines.

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