the EeePC does not have a built in optical drive (well, it is so tiny, that no wonder the CD/DVD drive did not fit in).

I very seldom need to read CDs or DVDs with a laptop, and even more rarely to write any, but still it is a nice option to have it at hand.

after a careful search I came to the conclusion (recommended by a few people at eeeuser.com forums), that the LG GSAE50L is the one I am looking for.

apart from the fact that it is a damn sexy piece of device, it also has all the features I might ever need on the road.

- DVD+R/RW, DVD+R DL, DVD-R/RW, DVD-R DL, DVD-RAM, CD-R/RW

- Double Layer DVD+R (8.5GB) and dual layer DVD-R (8.5GB) recording supported

- and… lightscribe…

well… lightscribe seems the most unnecessary feature for a CD/DVD burner, true, but it isn’t it nice to have a fancy picture on your freshly burnt DVD?

the device itself just work fine as expected under ubuntueee (EeePC) if you install the necessary packages for disk burning support.

sudo apt-get install brasero
sudo apt-get install gnomebaker

this will install two CD/DVD writer application, Brasero and GnomeBaker, whichever you prefer.

both of the programs work as expected, choosing between them is really just a matter of preference for the graphical interface.

so back to lighscribe…

Linux IS supported… nice… from the download page we need the system software and a program to create and “print” the labels to the CD/DVD.

searching a little bit more in depth for ubuntu support I found the files needed specifically for ubuntu (hence ubuntueee as well)…

everything is clearly explaned in the README file, so do not hesitate to read it…

the installation is very straightforward…

sudo dkpg -i lightscribe-1.10.13.1-linux-2.6-intel.deb
sudo dpkg -i lightscribeApplications-1.10.13.1-linux-2.6-intel.deb
sudo dpkg -i 4l_1.0-r6_i386.deb

the first one is the supporting system software, while the later two are different labeler programs (my personal preference goes to the 4L from Lacie).

UPDATE (19/10/2008). update for the system software from lightscribe.com

unfortunatelly you need to start the labeler software from a terminal (or create a desktop link or menu entry, if you wish)

sudo GL-gui

(this needs to be started as root)

works… that’s all…