Happy New Year, Everyone,

I'm sure that the answer to this is obvious, but I'm not sure what is 
done typically; any help would be great...

How is access granted to unprivileged users (i.e. not root) for the use 
of devices such as the cd-rom or dvd drive?

The standard install (1.6Zx, current) produces devices files owned by 
root and only readable by root and the group "operator". This is pretty 
restrictive and I understand that it's a reasonable default in general.

However, things like cd-roms and dvds or any other removable media are 
desirable to most users - they want to play a cd or dvd, or perhaps burn 
a cd.

If I leave the system unchanged (no permissions changes) the only way I 
can play a cd or watch a dvd is by logging in as root. This obviously is 
not the answer.

Is there not some suid or sgid mechanism that will allow users access to 
these devices?

Having to change the permissions may be no problem for me but for some 
this leaves the impression that things are "broken", so I don't think 
this is the answer either. Perhaps the install scripts could be modified 
to default to being more liberal with the devices.

Should there not be an out-of-box functionality for this stuff?

Thanks

Louis