I used to be able to run either commands successfully on my Fedora 14 Thinkpad T410 laptop:
$ wodim --scanbus
$ wodim --devices
However since upgrading to Fedora 19 this no longer seems to work and I'm not sure why. Are there any alternative methods for getting the drives capabilities from wodim?
I wasn't able to confirm this is truly a bug or not but this Ubuntu bug would seem to lead credence to this assumption, titled: "wodim doesn't find my DVD writer".
This thread listed a workaround by including the dev= to wodim. This works so long as you know your CD/DVD devices handle.
--scanbus
$ wodim dev=/dev/sr0 --scanbus
scsibus1:
1,0,0 100) 'Optiarc ' 'DVD RW AD-7930H ' '1.D1' Removable CD-ROM
1,1,0 101) *
1,2,0 102) *
1,3,0 103) *
1,4,0 104) *
1,5,0 105) *
1,6,0 106) *
1,7,0 107) *
--devices
$ wodim dev=/dev/sr0 --devices
wodim: Overview of accessible drives (1 found) :
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 dev='/dev/sr0' rwrw-- : 'Optiarc' 'DVD RW AD-7930H'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
As an alternative you can also list the devices in wodim without having to know the device ahead of time by using the -prcap switch.
$ wodim -prcap
wodim: Operation not permitted. Warning: Cannot raise RLIMIT_MEMLOCK limits.
Device was not specified. Trying to find an appropriate drive...
Detected CD-R drive: /dev/sr0
Using /dev/cdrom of unknown capabilities
Device type : Removable CD-ROM
Version : 5
Response Format: 2
Capabilities :
Vendor_info : 'Optiarc '
Identification : 'DVD RW AD-7930H '
Revision : '1.D1'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc2 DVD-R/DVD-RW.
Drive capabilities, per MMC-3 page 2A:
Does read CD-R media
Does write CD-R media
Does read CD-RW media
Does write CD-RW media
Does read DVD-ROM media
Does read DVD-R media
Does write DVD-R media
Does read DVD-RAM media
Does write DVD-RAM media
Does support test writing
...
This 3rd method would seem to be the best option.