How do I get a USB CD-ROM working in Fedora Core 3?

[Paul Howarth]

John Sloan wrote:
>>john.sloan at rogers.com wrote:
>>
>>>I have googled and googled, and I just can't seem to get this to 
>>>work. I have a Thinkpad X23 with an external CD-ROM drive that 
>>>connects via USB. No matter what I do, it is not recognised in FC3. 
>>>There is no entry in /dev and I can't figure out what the problem is.
> 
> There are no /dev/scd* devices.
> 
>>>Anyone got any ideas??
>>
>>Try booting without the device connected. Log in, then connect the 
>>drive. Wait for a few seconds, then look at the end of the file 
>>/var/log/messages to see what kernel messages appeared when the drive 
>>was connected. We'll make sure first that the kernel recognises the drive.
>>
>>Paul.
> 
> 
> As requested, I have checked "/var/log/messages" and here are the lines
> added when the USB CD-ROM drive was plugged in.:
> 
> Mar 25 11:20:45 LinuxForensics kernel: usb 1-1: new full speed USB device
> using address 2 Mar 25 11:20:47 LinuxForensics kernel: SCSI subsystem
> initialized Mar 25 11:20:47 LinuxForensics kernel: Initializing USB Mass
> Storage driver...
> Mar 25 11:20:47 LinuxForensics kernel: scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass
> Storage devices
> 
> And here is the diff between the dmesg output before and after the CD was
> plugged in:
> 
> 261,269d260
> < usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using address 2 < SCSI subsystem
> initialized < Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
> < scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices < usb 1-1: reset full
> speed USB device using address 2 < scsi: Device offlined - not ready after
> error recovery: host 0 channel 0 id 0 lun 0 < USB Mass Storage device found
> at 2 < usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage < USB Mass Storage support
> registered.
> 
> Note: I just installed Fedora Core 3 by booting from this USB CD-ROM and
> then getting the packages from an FTP server, so I know this CD-ROM drive is
> working OK.
> 
> Anyone got any ideas?

Try unplugging and then plugging the device back in. Instead of using 
"dmesg", just post the last few minutes' worth of entries from 
/var/log/messages as there may be information there that does not appear 
from dmesg.

Paul.