what does this 'cdrom: open failed' message mean

[Bob Arendt]

Peter Boy wrote:
> Am Mo, den 10.05.2004 schrieb Alexander Volovics um 21:20:
> 
>>OK, I just now rebooted with a cd in the drive and the message
>>disappears. But why should I get the message in the first place.
>>
>>I have never seen it before.
> 
> I don't know. Maybe you updated the software and the developer decided
> to add some messages to syslog.
> 
> Peter
> 
I believe this expected behaviour, if the system tries to mount the
cdrom drive at boot.  This will happen if there's an entry for the
cd drive in /etc/fstab.  You can avoid this boot error by:

  1) adding a "noauto" option to the /etc/fstab entry (man 5 fstab)

or

  2) remove the /etc/fstab entry, and use autofs to mount it.
     - chkconfig autofs on
     - uncomment the "misc" entry in /etc/auto.master
     - uncomment and verify the "cd" entry in /etc/auto.misc
     accessing /misc/cd should automount the cd on demand, and
     unmount if it's been idle for over 60 seconds.

Hope this helps.
-Bob Arendt