For some reason my DVD-RW lost all abilities to burn discs of all sorts, it doesnt even show up on a cdrecord -scanbus. If I remove the SCSI emulation from Lilo I can mount and play both DVDs and CDs fine. Is there something that I am missing? Maybe a module I need to load?

hdparm -I /dev/hdb

/dev/hdb:

ATAPI CD-ROM, with removable media
Model Number: _NEC DVD_RW ND-2500A
Serial Number:
Firmware Revision: 1.06
Standards:
Likely used CD-ROM ATAPI-1
Configuration:
DRQ response: 3ms.
Packet size: 12 bytes
Capabilities:
LBA, IORDY(cannot be disabled)
DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 *udma2
Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
Cycle time: no flow control=120ns IORDY flow control=120ns

lilo.conf:
append="hdb=ide-scsi"

lsmod
Module Size Used by Not tainted
joydev 6080 2
fusion 19648 1
i2c-matroxfb 2740 0 (unused)
matroxfb_base 21668 64 [i2c-matroxfb]
matroxfb_Ti3026 6552 0 [matroxfb_base]
matroxfb_g450 4932 0 [matroxfb_base]
matroxfb_DAC1064 10448 0 [matroxfb_base]
g450_pll 3792 0 [matroxfb_g450 matroxfb_DAC1064]
matroxfb_accel 10216 0 [matroxfb_base matroxfb_Ti3026 matroxfb_DAC1064]
fbcon-cfb4 2184 0 [matroxfb_accel]
matroxfb_misc 8864 0 [i2c-matroxfb matroxfb_base matroxfb_Ti3026 matroxfb_g450 matroxfb_DAC1064 g450_pll matroxfb_accel]
snd-pcm-oss 39204 0 (unused)
snd-mixer-oss 14040 1 [snd-pcm-oss]
nfsd 72720 8
ftdi_sio 13276 1
usbserial 19612 0 [ftdi_sio]
parport_pc 15972 0
parport 25600 0 [parport_pc]
uhci 25968 0 (unused)
snd-via82xx 13984 1
snd-mpu401-uart 3616 0 [snd-via82xx]
snd-cs4281 11424 0
gameport 1484 0 [snd-via82xx snd-cs4281]
snd-pcm 61536 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-via82xx snd-cs4281]
snd-page-alloc 6580 0 [snd-via82xx snd-pcm]
snd-opl3-lib 6628 0 [snd-cs4281]
snd-hwdep 5376 0 [snd-opl3-lib]
snd-timer 14884 0 [snd-pcm snd-opl3-lib]
snd-rawmidi 13536 0 [snd-mpu401-uart snd-cs4281]
snd-seq-device 4288 0 [snd-opl3-lib snd-rawmidi]
snd-ac97-codec 49884 0 [snd-via82xx snd-cs4281]
snd 32676 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-via82xx snd-mpu401-uart snd-cs4281 snd-pcm snd-opl3-lib snd-hwdep snd-timer snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd-ac97-codec]
tuner 10880 1 (autoclean)
tvaudio 14268 0 (autoclean) (unused)
bttv 96480 0 (unused)
i2c-algo-bit 7624 4 [i2c-matroxfb bttv]
i2c-core 13092 0 [tuner tvaudio bttv i2c-algo-bit]
soundcore 3588 11 [snd bttv]
videodev 6432 2 [bttv]
8139too 14152 1
mii 2496 0 [8139too]
crc32 2880 0 [8139too]
pcmcia_core 43104 0
evdev 4672 0 (unused)
keybdev 2112 0 (unused)
mousedev 4404 1
hid 21860 0 (unused)
input 3328 0 [joydev evdev keybdev mousedev hid]
usbcore 62976 1 [ftdi_sio usbserial uhci hid]

cdrecord -scanbus
Cdrecord 2.00.3 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2002 Jörg Schilling
cdrecord: No such file or directory. Cannot open '/dev/pg*'. Cannot open SCSI driver.
cdrecord: For possible targets try 'cdrecord -scanbus'. Make sure you are root.
cdrecord: For possible transport specifiers try 'cdrecord dev=help'.

what kernel are you using? if you're on 2.4 then you DO need the ide-scsi option, if you're on 2.6 then you don't. this might be a nice time to think about upgrading to 2.6.10 or similar, if you are still on 2.4, as you'll get much better support and faster write speeds.

I am very scared about upgrading to a newer Kernel, I have alot of devices living in Harmony right now (Freevo box using a Matrox card [DirectFB] with an LCD [serial to usb driver ftdi_sio]). They took me such a long time to finally get working all together in the same box that I dont want to lose them all.

Well, I found the problem. For some reason ide-scsi wasnt being loaded at boot time. I found it on the blacklist and also added it to the /etc/rc.d/rc.modules and everything seems to be running fine.