Apparently, though unproven, at 12:10 on Monday 30 May 2011, Alan Mackenzie did opine thusly:
> > My money says you've been hit by the Gnome Borg - where you are only > > permitted to do things the way the gnome devs have deemed to be > > appropriate and TheOneTrueWay(tm). After all, you are just a user, what > > do you know? The devs know better, you must trust them! > > You're dashed right. I now understand what's happening: When a CD is > inserted and Gnome detects it as an audio CD, the CD drive is locked. At > the same time, a stupid icon "Audio Disc" appears on the screen. I don't understand why they lock it. If you can physically press the eject button the drive should open because you can just as easily put a paperclip in the little hole and force it open. A case can be made for locking the software controls - with software, open the drive using the matching command to what loads it. But not physical controls > Right clicking on "Audio Disc" gives an "eject" menu point. YUCK!!! If > I'd've wanted an Apple Macintosh, I know where to buy one. I just want > my drive's eject button to work. > > It gets worse. If you double click on "Audio Disc", it opens a window > with the "files" uselessly displayed. Right clicking gives a menu point > "unmount" (I kid you not), as though a filesystem were mounted. This > unlocks the drive. > > I feel like screaming. AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel your pain > > I can't be of much more help to you, I don't use Gnome at all (see above) > > Can't say I blame you. What's the choice, though? I appreciate the > spare uncluttered desktop of Gnome. Last time I tried KDE (about 7 years > ago) it was anything but uncluttered. I tried XFCE briefly, but couldn't > get it to run stably. Besides, it was missing an application to switch > between keyboard layouts, something I absolutely need. I hear good things about XFCE these days. If you haven't tried it lately, it might be worth a new look. And you can always write a small script to change your keyboard layout if there's no gui app. Not as convenient as a systray icon, but probably a small price to pay if everything else suits your needs There's also other DEs like *box and e17. e17 requires a huge mind shift in how you perceive the desktop but once you get your head around it, it becomes strangely addictive. -- alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com
