I have been using Linux on my Dell Inspiron 3200 laptop for nearly three years. I'm currently using Slackware 9 and Xandros 1. Virtually every distribution I've tried installed with little problem. I have now discovered that all distributions built on Linux kernel 2.4.21 or newer will fail to read my generic cdrom (Toshiba XM-1702B). No one has been able to help. Linux kernel.org blew me off with my question. I'm getting really pissed now that I can no longer upgrade to newer kernels. Slackware was no help when I purchased and tried to install 9.1. Something changed in the kernel, and I wish I could get a patch. I can install newer distributions, but then I have no cdrom support. That's totally unsatisfactory. Has anyone else experienced this problem?

just checking...

It is an internal CDROM connected with an EIDE interface right?



And other options to install a distro would be to copy the cd to a directory in the hard drive, boot off of floppys and do a hard drive based install. This works with slackware. Then after you can troubleshoot your CD drive.

Yes. The cdrom is a bog standard IDE drive that works fine with all boot kernels prior to 2.4.21.

Then I have no clue why it would not work.