While this isn't a full-time solution, a good way to get CD-ROMs recognized
in order to get stuff installed is to just startup with a bootable CDROM in
the drive. A Norton's CDROM, TechTool, or even many system CDROMs are
designed to be bootable on a wide variety of CDROM players.You don't have
to actually boot FROM the CDROM, just boot with it in the drive. Since
those CDROMs are designed to be bootable from a wide variety of hardware,
they contain pretty universal drivers. The system initializes those drivers
on bootup when it boots, so the CDROM player will work for that boot, & you
can eject the ootable & insert any CDROM. I've used this with my Panasonic
8x portable (PeeCee version) and my Pioneer 32x main unit before I
downloaded the Mac drivers for that (bought OEM raw unit cheap).

Hope this helps,
Mike
Bikers don't *DO* taglines.