Wow, this is great help. Cuddles, you have the most questions so I'll get to yours last.

Baldyeti, here is the ls output:

knoppix@nickshp:~$ ls -al /dev/dvd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jun 10 10:13 /dev/dvd -> /dev/cdrom
knoppix@nickshp:~$

I'm running the 2.4 kernel