Frustrated: DVD burning / UDF?

Trying to get DVD+RW drive working with Linux. Mandrake 9.2.

Installed dvdtools ... ran dvd+rw-format on a disc ... three actually,
all did the same thing: runs for a minute, crashes, and then inserting
the disc in the drive (Even without accessing it) the 'busy' light stays
on forever while the drive (firmware) spins the disc up and down
endlessly, apparently i've made a stack of $5 coasters? Running
dvd+rw-format on the disc again says "unable to READ FORMAT CAPACITIES"
apparently the drive never is 'ready' ...

cdrecord ("Cdrecord-Clone 2.01a18-dvd") on a 'working' disc (drive busy
light goes out after disc inserted) says "...version with DVD support"
then says "DVD+R/DVD+RW support missing" ??? It's there but it's not?

Can't mount the disc... can't figure out how to format it or if I need
to... can mount UDF formatted CD-RW's but they say Read Only even if I
mount as Read-Write...

Has anyone got CD-RW UDF discs, and/or DVD+RW discs, working on Linux?
I can't believe I can't use this common peripheral, they've been out for
years now...

Yours in frustration,

\\/