Dell Latitude D410 can not find CDROM

The D410, like many notebooks, does not have the CD integrated in
the motherboard, but, in this case uses a "mediabase" (not the PCMCIA slot).
From poking around the XP control panel, the CDROM appears to
connects via a USB port, but I'm not certain of this. Using Knoppix 3.9,
I am receiving the familiar diagnostic:
"Looking for CDROM at /dev/hda1... etc" and after a while I am deposited into the
dreaded "Limited Shell".

Does anyone know any magic for this situation?