I replaced the cd-rom drive with Liteon 5232K Combo drive, jumpered as master, and re-installed the old cd-rom jumpered as slave.

I deleted /dev/cdrom (which was linked to /dev/hdc), and did the following:
a-made a new /dev/cdrom linked to /dev/sr0; created mount point /media/combo; edited fstab to point /dev/cdrom to /media/combo.
b-made a new /dev/cdrom2 linked to /dev/hdc for the old cd-rom; kept mount point /media/cdrom; edited fstab to add /dev/cdrom2 /media/cdrom auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0
c- did the same as 'a' for the other capabiliies of the combo drive; cd-r, cd-rw, and dvd-rom, with appropriate edits of fstab.

The only part of the re-installation of the old drive not completed was plugging in the analog audio cable. My sound card has only one place to plug in, and the new drive is there. The instructions for the new drive state that the analog cable is optional.

Now the new drive works like a charm; the old one doesn't. It whirs when a cd is inserted, but I get nothing from it.

CD playing software don't recognize the old drive.
YaST doesn't recognize is either. YaST only shows me the new drive.

Suggestions on how to proceed would be greately appreciated.

and re-installed the old cd-rom jumpered as slave.

b-made a new /dev/cdrom2 linked to /dev/hdc for the old cd-rom

Master on secondary IDE would be hdc
Salve on secondary IDE should be hdd

Or did I miss something?

info I found on a SuSE discussion forum said to link the new combo drive to sr0 instead of either hdc or hdd. As I said in the original, the combo drive works fine. It's the old drive that's a problem. The tray opens and closes; the drive spins up when a cd is inserted. SuSE doesn't recognize the presence of the drive; neither do the cd players.

excerpt from my fstab:
/dev/cdrom2 /media/cdrom auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0
/dev/cdrom /media/combo auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0
/dev/cdrw /media/combo auto rw,noauto,user,exec 0 0
/dev/dvd /media/combo auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0

cdrom, cdrw, dvd all linked to /dev/combo, which is linked to /dev/sr0.
cdrom2 (the old drive) is linked to /dev/cdrom, which is linked to /dev/hdc.

If you have the old cdrom jumpered as slave, and you have it on the secondary IDE controller and you have it linked to hdc, that would be a problem.

A slave drive on the secondary IDE is hdd not hdc. That would explain why the old cdrom does not work.

You are pointing the /dev/cdrom to hdc, it is not there. It is at hdd.

Take a look at your jumper settings again. Sorry if I did not help. Thats what I see could be wrong.

Good luck.

Ok, first off he has the master/slave jumpering _right_. The combo driver is on hdc using ide-scsi so it's at /dev/sr0 (aka /dev/scd0). The old cdrom is on hdd. So the second symlink is wrong. If it is using ide-scsi then it would be at /dev/sr1 (aka /dev/scd1). Otherwise it is on /dev/hdd. Also, if I understand correctly there is no analog audio cable between the cdrom and soundcard. This means you need a special plugin for most linux cd player programs. Depending on the exact player program and the kernel version, you may _need_ ide-scsi emulation on the cdrom.

Thanks to all who replied, especialy kevinalm. I won't be able to try to impliment your suggestions until this weekend, but I'll certainly give it a shot.