unable to mount cdrom

[Nathan Buck]

Have you checked your boot log `dmesg` to see whats going on?  

I had that problem on a x86 box once.  Couldn't figure out exactly what 
was happening.  I suspected it was due to the kernel not having the 
proper drivers and rather than spend hours recompiling and testing, I 
just decided to change the driver to use the scsi emulation driver ide-scsi.

First off, figure out what device your cdrom is.  You can probably find 
this out easily by going doing `ls -l /dev/cdrom` and seeing where the 
link points to.  Its likely /dev/hdc.

Once you know your device, edit your /etc/yaboot.conf file, find the 
section for your default boot up kernel.  Add a line that reads:
    append=" hdc=ide-scsi "

Reboot, and watch your boot messages.  Once you're up, your cdrom will 
be /dev/scd0 (unless you've got some scsi cdroms.. watch your messages). 
 You'll want to change the symbolic link /dev/cdrom to point to your new 
device.  Works like a charm.