CDROM problems

[Cameron Mura]

Hello,
 
I just started developing problems with the CD-ROM drive on my Dell RH9 
(2.4.20-31.9smp #1 SMP kernel) workstation and was wondering if anyone 
has seen seomthing similar or has any advice (I briefly trawled through 
the list archive but didn't find a solution).  The problem is the 
following output from a simple "eject /mnt/cdrom/":

> [cmura at chemcca35 ~]$ eject /mnt/cdrom/
> eject: unable to eject, last error: Invalid argument


The drive is mounted in fstab on /dev/cdrom, which links to scsi drive 
/dev/scd0.  The confusing issue is that this problem arose apparently 
randomly (i.e., I didn't screw around with anything).  Also confusing is 
that it seems to work after the first reboot (for any user), but then 
seems to work sporadically for other user accounts and not at all for 
mine.  dmesg includes ~250(!) of the following lines (is sr0 a kernel 
module for CDROM?):

> sr0: CDROM not ready.  Make sure there is a disc in the drive.


...And /var/log/messages fills-up with similar crap:

> Apr 18 04:02:01 chemcca35 kernel: sr0: CDROM not ready.  Make sure 
> there is a disc in the drive.
> Apr 18 04:02:32 chemcca35 last message repeated 31 times
> Apr 18 04:03:33 chemcca35 last message repeated 61 times


The hardware device seems to be recognized fine ("kudzu -p")

> class: CDROM
> bus: SCSI
> ... .... ...


If anyone has any hints or pointers in the right direction I'd be 
greatly appreciative!...

   -Cameron