Installing K3b on Ubuntu

Jan 3, 2025

K3b is a CD burning application. It is designed for KDE but works fine on Ubuntu/Gnome.

When looking for a CD burning application, I first tried Brasero as it is a Gnome application, however it would fail when verifying a burn. Rather than chasing down this problem, I tried K3b instead. K3b seemed lot better. However I also had problems getting it to work. After some investigation, this was my fix.

  1. Make sure your Linux user account has been added to the “cdrom” group.
  2. Do NOT install using snap. With this installation, you will not be able to carry out the next step. Instead, install with apt. If you are using Ubuntu App Center, make sure you set the filter to “Debian packages”.
  3. The first time you run K3b, you need to change some file permissions. Follow the instructions in Chapter 2, “Pre-setup”, in The K3b handbook.