If the experimental CD or DVD writer support is enabled with an incorrect host or guest configuration, it is possible that any attempt to access the CD or DVD writer fails and simply results in guest kernel error messages for Linux guests or application error messages for Windows guests. Oracle VM VirtualBox performs the usual consistency checks when a VM is powered up. In particular, it aborts with an error message if the device for the CD or DVD writer is not writable by the user starting the VM. But Oracle VM VirtualBox cannot detect all misconfigurations. The necessary host and guest OS configuration is not specific for Oracle VM VirtualBox, but a few frequent problems are listed here which occurred in connection with Oracle VM VirtualBox.

Special care must be taken to use the correct device. The configured host CD or DVD device file name, in most cases /dev/cdrom, must point to the device that allows writing to the CD or DVD unit. For CD or DVD writer units connected to a SCSI controller or to a IDE controller that interfaces to the Linux SCSI subsystem, common for some SATA controllers, this must refer to the SCSI device node, such as /dev/scd0. Even for IDE CD or DVD writer units this must refer to the appropriate SCSI CD-ROM device node, such as /dev/scd0, if the ide-scsi kernel module is loaded. This module is required for CD or DVD writer support with some early 2.6 kernels. Many Linux distributions load this module whenever a CD or DVD writer is detected in the system, even if the kernel would support CD or DVD writers without the module. Oracle VM VirtualBox supports the use of IDE device files, such as /dev/hdc, provided the kernel supports this and the ide-scsi module is not loaded.

Similar rules, except that within the guest the CD or DVD writer is always an IDE device, apply to the guest configuration. Since this setup is very common, it is likely that the default configuration of the guest works as expected.