The drive works "out of the box" for reading CDROMs.
For writing CDR/CDRW media, 3 different GUI-based applications come with RH8.0: gtoaster, koncd and xcdroast. I suggest you try all of them before making any decision.
In my view, the first two have some limitations, and therefore my personal preference remains xcdroast.
Unfortunately, Red Hat have used an old version of xcdroast (0.98alpha9) making it unusable by non-root users.
On the other hand, if you use the latest version (0.98alpha13) you will need versions of mkisofs, cdrecord and cdda2wav that are incompatible with gtoaster and koncd!
So I am afraid you are going to have to choose which application(s) remain useable on your PC.
The following procedure will "break" gtoaster and koncd, but should give you a fully functional xcdroast....
If this is not what you want, please stop right here.
First, as root, add localhost to your access list:
$ xhost +localhost
Then download xcdroast and all the associated cdrtools from this page.
cd to the directory you downloaded the files to, then:
$ rpm --erase xcdroast $ rpm --erase --nodeps mkisofs $ rpm --erase --nodeps cdrecord $ rpm --erase --nodeps cdda2wav $ rpm --erase --nodeps cdrecord-devel $ rpm -ivh cdrtools-* $ rpm -ivh xcdroast-0.98alpha13-1.i386.rpm
Assuming all went well, you can then start XCDroast by typing xcdroast <Enter> in your console. After that, you will need to follow the simple instructions for allowing non-root users and the general setup options.
The DVD function requires a symbolic link before any application will recognise it. As root, create a link as follows:
$ ln -s /dev/cdrom /dev/dvd
There are various applications for playing DVDs but most seem to support only unencrypted formats. A version of XINE with integrated CSS decryption has been packaged by Matthias Saou:
You will need (for RH8.0):
1. xine-0.9.13-fr6.i386.rpm
2. xine-libs-0.9.13-fr6.i386.rpm
3. lirc-0.6.5-fr3.i386.rpm
and
4. aalib-1.2-3.i386.rpm - this is available from
http://www.dlhoffman.com/publiclibrary/RPM/freshmeat/aalib/aalib-1.2-3.i386.html
Uninstall the existing XINE package as provided with RH8.0 and install the 4 packages listed above, in reverse order. Run xine and check that your DVD is playable (for CSS-encrypted disks, select the xine control panel button labelled "d4d").
Two final "tweaks":
1. To direct the sound output to the KDE aRTs sound server, start xine as follows:
$ xine -A arts
The sound may not work otherwise.
2. To enable DMA access for the DVD drive (prevents video frame loss and gaps in the sound), add the following line to /etc/modules.conf:
options ide-cd dma=1
You may also need to reduce the display colour depth: 16-bit is the maximum I can currently play DVDs with using the NVidia version 4191 driver.