This message got displayed when i dragged a 4.2 gb file on a DataDVD K3B Project.

I "upgraded" my cdrtools wit cdrkit in the hope that i can write a 4+gb file on a dvd (it was possible to add it though).

Any advice about what is happening and how can i write a 4+gb file with k3b?

what filesystem are you trying to use?

This is k3b or mkisofs or growisofs bug, which was fixed. You'll need to upgrade your software (by the way - you didn't mention which versions you are using).
This problem doesn't exist on Slackware 12.1 + k3b 1.0.4 + cdrtools 2.01.01a38 + growisofs 7.1. cdrkit isn't installed on my system.
Try to upgrade k3b first. Also check cdrtools/growisofs version, because was a bug in previous version, where dvds with more than 4gb data were giving read errors on 4gb boundary after being successfully written.

About cdrkit:
so i thought that the cdrkit version would automatically be newer than cdrtools (the cdrkit package even creates simlinks for the cdrtools binaries).

Anyway,these are the versions installed on my system:
k3b: 1.0.4
cdrkit: 1.1.2 (i'm not sure how this version is related with the cdrtools versioning)
growisofs: not installed

Again, before switching from cdrtools to cdrkit was possible to add a 4.2 gb file to the dvd, yet it was not possible to write it, some warnings and were issued and the write essentially failed.
The cdrtools version (i don't remember it by heart) was the one installed by default with Slackware 12.1.

cdrkit is flawed in function and philosophy (IMO ).

I can write 4.31gb tar-balls with the default k3b/cdrtools installed with Slack 12.1. Perhaps you are not choosing the correct format?

Plain old iso9660 level 2 has a single file size limit of 4gb, try adding, or using UDF, or changing the iso level to 3.

The default iso level for K3B data projects is iso level 2.

AFAIK it conflicts with cdrtools. Try to remove it.
And try to install growisofs, it should be on slackware 12.1 dvd somewhere.

"mkisofs --version" or "ls /var/log/packages/cdrtools*"

the two packages do conflict with each other. i removed the existing version of cdrtools prior to installing cdrkit.

i'll install growisofs and get back to you with details

I used to get this problem when I ran Ubuntu, trying to transfer things to my external HDD which was in FAT32 format at the time (I was still quite unsure about completely letting go of Windows). When I formatted the disk to ext3 though, the problem ceased immediately.

As others have mentioned, check your software version and the format of the media.

@disturbed1: that message pops up when i drag a file to the compilation. So, if the only file i want to write is larger than 4 gb, i cannot even see the burn dialog, i get a " please add file to the compilation" message.

as for growisofs, i thought it to be a separate package. The growisofs binary is present on my system according to the k3b programs section.

the partition from which i attempt to put the file in the compilation is formatted with the reiserfs filesystem

Open K3B. Choose New Data DVD Project. Choose Project -> Properties, click on the file system tab. Change the file system. Or hit ctrl-> P to pull up the properties dialog. A default Slackware installation uses cdrtools, man mkisofs to read about the different iso levels. It's detailed in there the limits of each file system type.

CDRKit is not newer than cdrtools. CDRKit took 3-4 year old cdrtools code and hacked away on it. It's full of bugs. The reason some distros include cdrkit instead of cdrtools, is that cdrtools is no longer GPL, it is open source, just not a GPL license. Cdrtools uses the CDDL license. Though these same distros give you access to closed source projects (ATI, nVidia, Flash) they don't give you access to cdrtools.

http://cdrecord.berlios.de/private/linux-dist.html

I see. Thanks for the info.

I'll do a test an see if i choose the UDF format i can add that 4+gb file. And if i can write it.