I am running Ubuntu 8.10 kernel 2.6.27-9 on a Sony Vaio VGN-NS11S laptop. My problem is the following:
CDs/DVDs are mounted only when a CD has been in the drive during boot
When a CD is in the drive during boot
  • boot stalls while the CD is accessed and several error messages appear, something about dev sr0 and then
    Buffered I/O error ...(or similar)
    boot then continues normally
  • CD is mounted, mount output:
    /dev/scd0 on /media/CDNAME type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,uid=1000,utf8)
  • on removal of CD: CD-RW-/DVD+-RW-Laufwerk is in nautilus device list
  • other CDs that are inserted are mounted alright

When no CD is in drive during boot and a CD is inserted
  • drive is active for a few seconds and then stops
  • CD is not mounted
  • /var/log/messages has nothing informative
  • mount /media/cdrom0
    results in
    mount: Gerätedatei /dev/scd0 existiert nicht
    (/dev/scd0 does not exist)
  • ls /dev/scd*
    is empty
  • CD drive does not show up in the nautilus device list


/etc/fstab has
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
commenting this out has no effect.

I'd be very grateful for any help.