1. In the function is_cdrom_linux(...) in the file lib/driver/gnu_linux.c, the CDROMREADTOCHDR ioctl gets called, which fails when the drive is empty. The CDROM_GET_CAPABILITY ioctl always succeeds for CDrom drives and fails for hard disks etc. 2. For some reason, at least my (GNU/Linux 2.6.10) Kernel fails to open empty drives, when only O_RDONLY is used. Changing the open flag to O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK, the call succeeds also for emtpy drives. By the way, the cdrom header file in the kernel says explicitely, that O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK should used whenever a cdrom is touched. rocky: also made a change to eject to continue even if we can't get the drive status -- which we can't with an empty CD-ROM drive.