CD/DVD drive not recognized.

[Jacques B.]

On 10/7/07, Simon Slater <pyevet at aapt.net.au> wrote:
>         I have an Acer Extensa 5220 with a Slimtype DVD A DS8A1P CD/DVD drive.
> After installing Fedora 7 this drive is not found by any application.
> Will it be one of the /dev/sda devices?  I'm not sure where to start
> with this one, googling didn't come up with anything useful.
>
> --
> Regards
> Simon

If it's an IDE device (typically CD/DVD drives are) it will be a
/dev/hd? device.  Where it sits on the IDE chain will dictate if it's
hda, hdb, hdc, or hdd.  The primary/master drive on the first IDE
chain is hda.  The secondary/slave drive is hdb.  The primary/master
on the second IDE chain (assuming your motherboard has 2 because some
newer ones don't) is hdc, and the secondary/slave on the 2nd IDE chain
is hdd.

If it's an external USB/firewire drive then it will be /dev/sd?.

Type the following to find out:

dmesg | grep dvd
(you could also try dmesg | grep cd
or dmesg | grep hd[a-z]
or dmesg | grep sd[a-z]
or other possible grep expressions such as the manufacturer of your device).

It should show up in there.  If it doesn't, it likely wasn't
recognized by Fedora.

If it comes up, have a look to see how it was recognized.

There are other ways to look for it.  lspci if a pci device.  lsusb if
a USB device.  And others probably have yet other suggestions.  I was
first taught dmesg and have found it invaluable for such
troubleshooting issues.

You could also check your BIOS to make sure it is picking it up.
Although I'm gathering it is seeing you were likely able to boot your
Fedora install DVD from it to install it to your hard drive in the
first place.

Jacques B.