Thanks very much to all who responded for helping me find a solution to my problem ! After adding the line "/sbin/modprobe ide-scsi" in /etc/init.d/boot.local, the ide-scsi module was loaded correctly on boot-up. Using xcdroast I was then able to get it configured and up and running quite fast. While not wishing to condemn other similiar packages, I must say I found xcdroast most user-friendly and therefore the ideal way for getting a CD-WRITER going from Linux. for the first time.