accessing usb connected cd/dvd burners

[kanenas@hawaii.rr.com]

I have tried just about everything I could in both 32 and 64 bit suse, in all 
versions since 10.2, still my externally mounted dvd writer is unavailable as 
far as k3b/wodim goes. The very same device has always been successfully used 
by nerolinux in all verions of linux that k3b fails.
It seems that there is a major detection bug as scanbus first detects the 
drive, then it says that there are no valid scsi drivers. detection is much 
more consistent when a regular dvd is inserted, but a rewriteable is 
impossible to access thru anything using wodim. Everything is very smoothh 
with nerolinux and it used to be smooth with k3b and write quality has always 
been great, the only time i made a coaster was when i tried the "verify" 
option.
If you can resolve this problem, it would be greatly appreciated.
thnks,
dimitris