The following people are credited, I gleaned most of this from their various READMEs and other docs, and simplified it for the masses of new Linux users.

Credits:
From xcdroast-0.96e docs - Thomas Niederreiter, and all those people HE credited for in his README.ATAPI. The authors of mkisofs, and cdrecord. The authors of the Linux kernel, "Use the Source Luke!" :) If I missed anyone, email me and let me know, I will fix it pronto! And last but not least, my fellow EFNet #Linux channel operators, and users, for whom I wrote this.

Kernel Modifications

If you've never compiled a kernel before, see the Kernel-HOWTO and/or /usr/src/linux/README

Under BLOCK DEVICES go with your usual defaults, NOTE the following: Image

Disable CDROM support, enable SCSI emulation support.

Under SCSI Support: See this image

Enable SCSI support, SCSI CDROM support, Enable vendor-specific extensions, and SCSI generic support. You can modularize these as I have, or add them in full (select y instead of m). Further down in the above menu is SCSI low-level drivers --->. Go in here and disable any and all SCSI controller card support (default unconfigured kernel has one of the NCR cards enabled, select n for it). Make sure no other cards are enabled. Exit the kernel configuration, saving the options. Compile and install kernel. Reboot. Watch boot messages for something like the following:

hdc: HP CD-Writer+ 7200, ATAPI CDROM drive
hdd: ACER CD-787E/JAS, ATAPI CDROM drive

scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices
scsi : 1 host.
  Vendor: HP        Model: CD-Writer+ 7200   Rev: 3.01
  Type:   CD-ROM                             ANSI SCSI revision: 02
  Vendor: ACER      Model: CD-787E/JAS       Rev: 22N 
  Type:   CD-ROM                             ANSI SCSI revision: 02
scsi : detected total.

The above shows my CDR and ACER IDE/ATAPI detected. If you missed the boot messages type the following at the prompt:

dmesg | less

On my system the following modules are autoloaded when an audio CD is played:

sr_mod                 17068   2  (autoclean)
cdrom                  11584   0  (autoclean) [sr_mod]

When I mount a data CD, additional file system support module(s) are loaded:

isofs                  17096   1  (autoclean)

Scroll through and look for similar to above. If you don't see the above, here are a couple things to check for:
Make SURE you disabled IDE CDROM support in the kernel configuration. If its still enabled, it will be the first support loaded for CDROM devices, and SCSI emulation won't work. If you chose to modularize, ensure kernel module autoload support is enabled and that the modules are loaded. Module autoload differs from kernel 2.0.x and 2.1.x/2.2.x. See /usr/src/linux/Documentation/modules.txt for more info on module loading.

CDROM usage

Here's where things may differ and I can only show my own setup as an example, your mileage may vary. My CDROM devices are on the secondary IDE interface, the CDR is /dev/scd0 and the ACER is /dev/scd1. I use the ACER for audio CD playback and have the /dev/cdrom link set to /dev/scd1. workman, workbone, and maybe others, look for /dev/cdrom to play.

ls -l /dev/cdrom
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root            9 Jan  1 16:55 /dev/cdrom -> /dev/scd1

The CDR is /dev/scd0. I can also use both to mount data CDs. Here's my /etc/fstab entries for them:

/dev/scd0       /cdrom    iso9660      noauto,ro 0 0
/dev/scd1       /cdrom2   iso9660      noauto,ro 0 0

This configuration is arbitrary. However, since only one /dev/cdrom link can be set, its recommended by this author that you link it to the device best suited for your CD audio playback needs.

I hope this has been helpful. This author can be found on IRC (EFNet) in #Linux.