CDROMs, CD Players and CD Recording
In Unix, a CDROM or floppy needs to be 'mounted' in order to be used. There is a mount command to do this. But in the graphic environment, there is a much easier way. Click on the CDROM icon and it will be mounted! Right-click and select 'unmount' to unmount! For music CDs, select Start (KDE or Gnome symbol) Multimedia | CD Player. For one-CD systems, that's all there is to it!

FOR SYSTEMS WITH MORE THAN ONE CDROM DRIVE
Example 1 - SCSI CDROM, SCSI changer plus SCSI CD recorder
For changers, only SCSI changers are supported under Linux. ATAPI changers will be recognized by the system, but Linux can only see the first drive bay. All the units within a changer bay can share the same mount point, but different drive bays need a new mount point. The default CDROM mount is /mnt/cdrom, so a second CDROM unit (in a different drive bay) needs another mount. Create a subdirectory off of /mnt (/mnt/cdrom2 for example).

The next thing you need to know is what label your system is giving the devices. Linux always translates the first device to "cdrom", but all subsequent devices are known only by their native names. To find out what they are, reboot linux and note what names flash across the screen in conjunction with the known CDROM drive unit names. Typically the names might be sr1, sr2, etc, or scd0, scd1, etc.

The next step is to edit the /etc/fstab file to permit the drives to be recognized. Here is a sample of my own fstab file:

/dev/hdb1 / ext2 defaults 1 1
/dev/hdb5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda1 /ntws ntfs defaults 0 2
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto sync,user,noauto,nosuid,nodev,unhide 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom auto user,noauto,nosuid,exec,nodev,ro 0 0
/dev/sr1 /mnt/cdch auto user,noauto,nosuid,exec,nodev,ro 0 0
/dev/sr2 /mnt/cdch auto user,noauto,nosuid,exec,nodev,ro 0 0
/dev/sr3 /mnt/cdch auto user,noauto,nosuid,exec,nodev,ro 0 0
/dev/sr4 /mnt/cdch auto user,noauto,nosuid,exec,nodev,ro 0 0
/dev/sr5 /mnt/cdch auto user,noauto,nosuid,exec,nodev,ro 0 0
/dev/sr6 /mnt/cdrec auto user,noauto,nosuid,exec,nodev,rw 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0622 0 0

Now here's the fun part. As root, right-click your desktop. Click on New | File System Device. Right Click on the existing CDROM icon. Click Properties. You will thus have the two properties boxes open next to each other. Just copy the information from the CDROM properties tabs to the new device's properties tabs, making the necessary changes for mount point and device name. Copy the new kdelnk to every user's desktop (/home/username/Desktop/). Do this for every device you have that occupies a drive bay. It is NOT necessary to do this for each CDROM in a changer unit, because the device can be selected later.

Example 2 (more common) IDE CDROM plus IDE CD Writer
In order to have a second IDE CD drive recognized, SCSI emulation must be enabled. It must be built into the kernel (it usually is). Before mounting the drive you have to issue the command
insmod ide-scsi
There is a way to have the system automatically enable ide-scsi emulation at boot, so you don't have to type this line. Just tack the line 'insmod ide-scsi' at the end of your /etc/rc.d/rc.local file.

The fstab file might look something like this:

/dev/hdb1 / ext2 defaults 1 1
/dev/hdb5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda1 /ntws ntfs defaults 0 2
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto sync,user,noauto,nosuid,nodev,unhide 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom auto user,noauto,nosuid,exec,nodev,ro 0 0
/dev/sr0 /mnt/cdrom2 auto user,noauto,nosuid,exec,nodev,rw 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0622 0 0

Don't forget this part. As root, right-click your desktop. Click on New | File System Device. Click OK. Right Click on the icon you just created on the desktop. Click Properties. Rename the device CDRecorder.kdelink or something similar. Now right-click your existing CDRom icon and click Properties.You will thus have the two properties boxes open next to each other. Just copy the information from the CDROM properties tabs to the new device's properties tabs, making the necessary changes for mount point and device name. In this example the device name is /dev/sr0 and the mount point is /mnt/cdrom2. Copy the new kdelnk to every user's desktop (/home/username/Desktop/)

For CD changer units
 To select the appropriate CD to be mounted right click its icon and click properties. Click the device tab and correct the entry to have it reflect the appropriate device. Click OK and then click the device icon to mount it.

To select the right audio CDROM launch the CD Player and (for the KDE player) click the Configure button. Select the options tab and fill in the name of the CDROM device you wish to use. Then stop the CD player (if playing) and restart playing, and it should play the correct CD!

In order to give non-root users access to any CDROM drives other than /dev/cdrom, you'll need to go to a command line and type the following

chmod 666 /dev/sr0 (or /dev/[devicename]) for each device you want to give them access to.

To burn CDs in Linux look for a program called "xcdroast" (under /usr/bin/) and drag it to the desktop as a shortcut. Click it. The first time it's run, you'll need to configure it. First create a subdirectory off of /mnt (/mnt/image for example) and then launch XCDroast. Select the appropriate drives on the CD Setup tab, and then select the hard drive partition (the linux one) and the mountpoint for the CD image (/mnt/image for example). If you're using an IDE writer, you'll also have to set the CD-read mode to ATAPI. Click Save and then Done, and you are ready to burn CDs! Note that there is a quick-copy option, but it is generally safer (and the usual method) to create an image of the CD on the HD first. If you are using an IDE writer, it is the ONLY recommended method (IDE devices on the same connector cannot be accessed simultaneously, unlike SCSI devices), and the program may force you to read and write from the same CD anyway. I recommend SCSI burners over IDE if you've got the cash. With SCSI, you can safely copy from CDROM drive 1 to drive 3 while simultaneously listening to a different audio CD on drive 2 (I previously ruined a CDR disk trying to do the same thing in NT4 with the same equipment). You can actually do things for burning CDs under Linux that you cannot do under Windows. Click here for more details.