Hi Nightflier, thanks for responding.
Below are my results, the fstab section regarding the cd rom is identical to the fstab on my spare laptop (IBM Thinkopad T22 running the same VL SOHO 5.9 configuration) where HAL detects when new cd is inserted.
Further info on hardware: the cdrom/dvdwriter is attached to the only IDE connectroe on the motherboard.
I ran the commands you suggested as root:
probedisk:
/dev/sda|Direct-Access|ATA ST3160211AS
cat/proc/scsi/scsi:
bash: cat/proc/scsi/scsi: No such file or directory
cat var/log/messages | grep CD-ROM:
cat: var/log/messages: No such file or directory
contents of my /etc/fstab:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# The following is an example. Please see fstab(5) for further details.
# Please refer to mount(1) for a complete description of mount options.
#
# Format:
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
#
# dump(
uses the <dump> field to determine which file systems need
# to be dumped. fsck(
uses the <pass> column to determine which file
# systems need to be checked--the root file system should have a 1 in
# this field, other file systems a 2, and any file systems that should
# not be checked (such as MS-initrd/mnt or NFS file systems) a 0.
# The Linux partitions
/dev/sda1 / reiserfs noatime 0 1
/dev/sda6 /home reiserfs noatime 0 2
# Shared Windows/Linux partition
#/dev/hda1 /mnt/dos msdos umask=0 0 0
#/dev/hda1 /mnt/win vfat fmask=111,dmask=0,quiet,shortname=mixed,user 0 0
#/dev/hda1 /mnt/win ntfs umask=0 0 0
# Floppy disks
# The 'noauto' option indicates that the file system should not be mounted
# with 'mount -a' 'user' indicates that normal users are allowed to mount
# the file system.
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto defaults,noauto,user 0 0
#/dev/fd1 /mnt/floppy auto defaults,noauto,user 0 0
# If you have a ls-120 floppy drive, it could be on /dev/hda b c d etc.
#/dev/hdd /mnt/ls120 auto defaults,noauto,user 0 0
# CDROM, CDWRITER, DVD
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 defaults,noauto,ro,user 0 0
#/dev/cdwriter /mnt/cdwriter iso9660 defaults,noauto,rw,user 0 0
#/dev/dvd /mnt/dvd auto defaults,noauto,ro,user 0 0
# NFS file systems:
#linux01.gwdg.de:/suse/6.3/i386.de /mnt/nfs nfs defaults 0 0
# proc file system:
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# Unix98 devpts filesystem:
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=666 0 0
# Shared memory filesystem:
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
# Basic USB filesystem
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs rw,devmode=0666 0 0
# example of a VFAT USB pendrive
#/dev/sda1 /mnt/pendrive vfat fmask=111,dmask=0,noauto,user,quiet,shortname=mixed 0 0
# Swap partitions
# The 'sw' option means auto activating with 'swapon -a'.
/dev/sda5 none swap sw 0 0
