Brand new to Linux. Can get system sounds to work and can read files from CD, but cannot hear music. CD-player programs will eject the CD, light the LED, but not spin the disc. When I hit play in XMMS, I get a Load File(s) screen, but I don't know what to put here. Is it asking for the music file, or for a driver/system file? I've seen similar questions elsewhere, but never saw an answer that I understood. Any guidance is appreciated.

You should load the music file that you wish to play. Now if you dont specify the file (from the cd), it will never spin in the cdrom drive...(why would the system try to read the cd in drive if you dont ask it to ?)...which distro are u using? how do you mount the cdrom?

Thanks for reply. I'm using RH8-dot-something (just updated).

There are really two issues sited.
1) when I insert an audio CD, a player like kscd comes up and indicates its playing (counter runs, sees number of tracks, I can skip to next track, etc.) Can't hear anything and the CD is not spinning.

2) when I double click an .mp3 file, xmms comes up. At Load File screen, I type in the .mp3 file name, click OK. Load File screen disappears, but still no sound. If I click play button, Load File screen appears again.

How do I mount? - seem automatic. when I insert a CD, an icon appears on the desktop that let's me view the CD content or read files. With a data CD - the top of the Konqueror screen says: file:/mnt/cdrom - Kongueror

If I right click on the icon with audio CD in place, I get the following error message:
Could not mount device.
The reported error was:
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/cdrom,
or too many mounted file systems

Still lost. Does any of the above help?