Introduction

I am a file horde. There, I said it. I have files on my main hard disk that have been lingering about since my days with the classic Macintosh. Hell, some of these files are frivolous, like 1024×768 wallpapers… Regardless, some of these files need to be archived to a move permanent format …with pretty little labels!

So, I finally got a Light-Scribe burner. It came inside of my new rig. I’ve had the machine for a couple of months but no media. Well, I got some today and now I’m ready to show you how to get it going!

Things change at an epic pace in the Ubuntu world, so my first Google search to get this working was “Light Scribe 11.10 Ubuntu”. It’s not exactly a trending topic. I just assumed that there would be some one-off utility hiding in the repos, just waiting to be “apt-got”, but there wasn’t.

These generic searches took me, finally, to this page in the Ubuntu Wiki. Quite dated, and I didn’t have much faith in it working. It is 32-bit only and needs to be forced, but the results were good! Here is how it happened.

The Tools

The tools that you will be using, surprisingly, come from Lacie.  Here are the three tools that you will need to download first.  All of them are prepackaged .debs.

LightScribe System Software Package

LightScribe Simple Application

LaCie 4L Labeler Utility

Installing 

32-Bit Installation

If you have a 32-bit system, you should be good to go!  Just install the debs, like so:

sudo dpkg -i lightscribe*.deb

sudo dpkg -i 4l*.deb

Now I haven’t tested this because I do not have a 32-bit system so if you have trouble, let us know in the comments!  I can always cook up a VM to test this in properly.

64-Bit Installation

If you are using a 64-bit operating system, which I would wager to guess that that is true, you will have to force the software onto your system.  This is never recommended, but i can’t imagine that the impact of the software is significant enough to cause any damage to your install.  The Ubuntu help page however, gives the following warning;

“This is an advanced command that can break your Ubuntu installation. Never force install a package unless you are prepared to restore the operating system from backup.”

So, that said, here are the commands!

sudo dpkg --install --force architecture lightscribe*.deb

sudo dpkg --install --force-architecture 4l*.deb

Now, let’s run it.

If you want to create a disc with an image covering the surface:

sudo 4L-gui

If all you need to do it print a little text on a disc:

/opt/lightscribeApplications/SimpleLabeler/SimpleLabeler

Something to get you started

I cooked up a little custom label in the Gimp.  Below is the .xcf, so that you can modify it to your liking.  Also, the label itself so that you can bring it into the LaCie labeler.

Gimp

Ubuntu 11.10 Light Scribe Label for Gimp

Label 

Ubuntu 11.10 Light Scribe Label Complete

The Result

This last step is optional.  You can set your burner to label the disc in high contrast mode.  Be prepared to wait.  My drive to 30-40 minutes to complete the job.  So if you are not in a hurry to burn 100 discs in a day, this will not be a big deal.  Here is the command to enable high contrast:

sudo /usr/lib/lightscribe/elcu.sh

Here is what I ended up with, using the custom label provided, and high contrast mode.

Good luck!