To burn/print lightscribe media under Linux, you need two things:

• the LightScribe System Software
• a labelling program, such as LightScribe Simple Labeler or 4L LaCie LightScribe Labeler

Installing 4L

1. install the lightscribe library: gksu gdebi-gtk lightscribe-1.14.32.1-linux-2.6-intel.deb
2. convert the RPM to DEB (you need the packages fakeroot and alien to be installed!): fakeroot alien --fixperms -c -k 4L-1.0-r6.i586.rpm
3. on 64-bit systesm the previous step will abort with an error, if this is the case:
   • enter the 4L-1.0 directory
   • rename debian to DEBIAN
   • enter the DEBIAN directory
   • delete the directory 4L
   • edit the file control
     • remove the blank line between the Maintainer: and Package: lines
     • change the Depends: into Depends: lightscribe
     • add a line Version: 1.0-r6
   • now go back to the directory containing the 4L-1.0 directory
   • run dpkg --build --force-architecture 4L-1.0
4. install the newly generated DEB file: gksu gdebi-gtk 4l_1.0-r6_i386.deb (on 64-bit systems use dpkg -i --force-architecture 4L-1.0.deb)
5. create a menu shortcut to /usr/bin/4L-gui using the System → Preferences → Main Menu tool (as an icon I used the LightScribe-logo from WikiPedia)

No drive detected

If 4L-gui doesn’t detect any drive, try running it from a console window. If you see the following error message:

user@host:/usr/lib% 4L-gui
4L-cli: error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

The described library is missing (as with Karmic Koala). Either try finding it in aptitude or do the following:

1. create a file /etc/ld.so.conf/lightscribeApplications.conf with the following contents: /opt/lightscribeApplications/common/Qt
2. run sudo ldconfig

This will index the libraries in the given folder - where there is the libstdc++.so.5 found. If this breaks other programs for you, use this command:

sudo LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/lightscribeApplications/common/Qt /usr/bin/4L-gui

root privileges required

If you get the error Printing requires root privileges first check whether you called it with gksu or sudo and if yes, check, whether the files /usr/4L/4L-gui and /usr/4L/4L-cli have any setuid-bits set. If so, remove them.

Or do it the other way around and make sure, the setuid mode is set and make root the owner.

Installing Simple Labeler

1. install the lightscribe library: gksu gdebi-gtk lightscribe-1.14.32.1-linux-2.6-intel.deb
2. install the simple labeler: gksu gdebi-gtk lightscribeApplications-1.10.19.1-linux-2.6-intel.deb

3. on 64-bit systems you have to link the liblightscribe.so and liblightscribe.so.1 into the /usr/lib32 directory (moving might also work):

    ln -s /usr/lib/liblightscribe.so /usr/lib32/liblightscribe.so
    ln -s /usr/lib/liblightscribe.so.1 /usr/lib32/liblightscribe.so.1
   

4. create a menu shortcut to /opt/lightscribeApplication/SimpleLabeler/SimpleLabeler using the System → Preferences → Main Menu tool (as an icon I used the LightScribe-logo from WikiPedia)

Enabling enhanced Contrast

To make burned labels appear darker, you can activate the enhanced contrast feature which is present in the library since version 1.8.15.1. The procedure is described at the PSE site.

Darker contrast needs more time to burn!

To enable this feature, run the following command from a command-line:

sudo /usr/lib/lightscribe/elcu.sh

You will see something like this:

Current contrast setting: Default

MODIFY CONTRAST SETTINGS:
1 This will make your labels darker, but you will experience a longer label time
2 This will reset your LightScribe contrast to default factory settings
Select new setting: _

Type 1 and confirm with ENTER.