[This is essentially a hardware question, but I thought it might better belong in this forum. My apologies if I was wrong]

I ditched Windows for Mandrake 9.1 a few months ago, and have decided to tackle a longstanding hardware problem. Long before I even considered switching to Linux, I installed a Sony CD-RW drive (model CRX175A, if it matters) in my computer. Trouble is, I think I goofed in either the cabling or the jumper settings and ended up crippling the machine's existing DVD-ROM drive (a Samsung SD-608; again, if it matters). Basically, the DVD-ROM drive will read CD-ROMs with no trouble, but won't do a thing with DVDs. It's been so long (and I've had no pressing need to read DVD-ROMs until now) that all I can remember from the installation is that there was a cable I was supposed to have plugged in somewhere, but that "somewhere" didn't exist. At present, Mandrake knows the drive is there and seems to treat it as a standard CD-ROM drive, but I have no DVD-ROM functionality (which was the problem under Windows, too).

Fixing the hardware isn't my question; I think I've figured that out. What I'm wondering is: if I'm able to get everything properly connected, will Mandrake detect the new functionality and configure itself accordingly the next time it boots? Or should I be prepared to manually configure some things? If so, I could use some pointers beforehand, as my skills as a system administrator are only a notch or two above "Linux for Dummies" level.

I don't know if it's relevant or not, but I don't plan on watching video DVDs on this machine; all I really need is to be able to read data from DVD-ROMs.

Thanks in advance.

The drive will actually do all the work of switching between DVD and CDRom. There should be nothing you need to do, just put a DVD in it and see if you can read the files.

Thanks, bash. I didn't actually get the chance to crack my case this weekend, but I'll let you know how it goes.


Take care.