Hi,
I have Slackware 9.1 installed on my machine. I have a Samsung CD/RW and I cant read CDs in linux. I have enable IDE-SCSI emulation in lilo. here's the lilo.conf file:


# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hda
append="hdd=ide-scsi"
prompt
timeout = 50
vga = 771
# End LILO global section
# DOS bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hda1
label = windows
table = /dev/hda
# DOS bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda9
label = Linux
read-only # Non-UMSDOS filesystems should be mounted read-only for checking
# Linux bootable partition config ends


And heres the /etc/fstab file:

/dev/hda8 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda9 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hdc1 /mnt/windows vfat users,owner,rw,umask=000 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

Everything seems to be normal to me. But that why cant I read any CDs??
Anyone can help??

With SCSI emulation your CDRW device is /dev/scd0. /dev/cdrom is a link to the actual device ID. So where is the link pointing?

ls -l /dev/cdrom

Try mounting the CD manually:
mount -t iso9660 /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom

Are you trying to read a data or audio CD?

I can read CDs by mounting the drive manually. Then I tried the eject command, but that didn't work. It was giving me an error. So I did "eject -v" and I got this output:

eject: using default device `cdrom'
eject: device name is `cdrom'
eject: expanded name is `/dev/cdrom'
eject: `/dev/cdrom' is a link to `/dev/hdd'
eject: `/dev/hdd' is not mounted
eject: `/dev/hdd' is not a mount point
eject: `/dev/hdd' is a multipartition device
eject: trying to eject `/dev/hdd' using CD-ROM eject command
eject: CD-ROM eject command failed
eject: trying to eject `/dev/hdd' using SCSI commands
eject: SCSI eject failed
eject: trying to eject `/dev/hdd' using floppy eject command
eject: floppy eject command failed
eject: trying to eject `/dev/hdd' using tape offline command
eject: tape offline command failed
eject: unable to eject, last error: Invalid argument

When I was in Gnome as root, then I could eject the drive using nautulis. What exactly is happening? Why cant I eject in the CLI?

Also, will I need to change my fstab file in any way? Will I always have to mount the drive manually?

The /dev/cdrom is a link that points to /dev/hdd. Since you are now using SCSI emulation your CDRW dev is /dev/scd0. This is also why eject failed.

Delete old link
rm /dev/cdrom
Create new link
ln -s /dev/scd0 /dev/cdrom

It seemed obvious to me that I should change the /dev/hdd in fstab to /dev/scd0.
Thanks for helping, michaelk. But there are a couple of problems that remain still unsolved.

Problem #1 - I always have to mount the CD manually. Earlier when I was using redhat, the CD was automatically mounted, even if I was not logged in as root. In slack, I have to mount it manually.

Problem #2 - The eject command is now working, but it works only as root. How can I let the eject command work for all users?