[D3B14N]

I recently bought a thinkpad laptop. I heard that they worked well w/ linux. I loaded slackware onto my laptop, and on setup: deleted the windows partition that was already installed, deleted ibm's recovery/help partition, and installed slackware's swap and primary/root partitions. After set up, i noticed that i could not open my cd drive physically (pressing the eject button on the laptop), but when I opened the drive virtually (command/programs asks for cd), the drive would open. The ONLY time I can physically open the drive is when the computer starts up. After about an hour and a half on the phone with tech support, he didnt know how to fix it. He showed me THIS
fix that dealt with the drives not opening. He then told me to go ahead and reinstall windows, download their auto-updator from their site and let it run. (the auto-updator works by scanning your computer and seeing what updates you already have, then connecting to the internet and downloading the updates that are not present). the problem is that after installing windows xp, it wont recognize my laptops built in ethernet (10/100), and i can not connect to the internet to download the updates I dont have. ALL I WANTED WAS TO INSTALL LINUX AND HAVE IT RUN CLEANLY, BUT EVERYTIME I TRY TO FIX THE PROBLEM THAT IS THERE, A NEW ONE POPS UP!!!!!!!!!

[lynch]

Have you ever used Linux before? Slackware would not be a good first choice as it's kinda hands on. Try another distro. Suse runs great on my Thinkpad R40.
The drive maybe did not open because it was mounted. If it's unmounted the drive should open.
lynch

[D3B14N]

Nope, i have never used linux before. The drive does not open in windows either, so I dont think its a question of mountin or un-mounting.

[CouchMaster]

Check your laptop with linux here
http://www.linux-laptop.net/

[D3B14N]

I have decided to try SuSe, but I would like to at least get my cd-drive working.It's so weird that I can open it on startup, but once the os starts, I cant unless its called for.

[CouchMaster]

Originally Posted by D3B14N

I have decided to try SuSe, but I would like to at least get my cd-drive working.It's so weird that I can open it on startup, but once the os starts, I cant unless its called for.

I personally think SuSE is the best of the best - it happens to be what I'm using right now!

[Whiteskin]

If the update wont load on Xp because of a lack of ethernet driver, then copy the update to floppy from linux.

[codejockey]

IMHO, you were given very bad advice from MS (hey, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys! -- which probably explains a lot ...). In general, Windoze drivers/DLLs/configuration files are irrelevant in LInux. Anyone who attempts to fix your Linux problem by downloading/replacing/updating Windoze files is confused, at best. Yes, there are exceptions -- but we're talking the last 5% here ... 'Nuff said.

First (and perhaps most importantly), you are having a problem with Linux, not Windoze (and, IMHO, it has nothing to do with the distribution of Linux you are using). If your CD drive will not open, it likely means that the drive is mounted as a filesystem (you can think of this as being "active"). If you opened the CD tray, the filesystem would no longer be available -- which could be a problem if someone (any user) attempted to access it (read, write, etc.). So Linux doesn't let you open the CD tray as long as it is (potentially) active.

That said, please post the output of the following command:

mount

and we'll go from there.

Hope this helps.

[Whiteskin]

It may be a firmware issue, however the fix given above is not firmware. Have you tried the linux 'eject' command?

[Whiteskin]

(eject /dev/cdrom)

[D3B14N]

Thanks for all of your help, I am exchanging my laptop in for the same one. I hope that it works when I get my new one, if it doesnt, i know where to come.

Codejocky, the drive would not open in windows either though, I dont think it has to do with mounting. Windows recognized the drive, but would not open by manually pressing the eject button.