I would think you need to mess with the kernel. You should just have to edit a couple files and you'll be all set. If you type "cdrecord -scanbus" from the shell, it should show you a list of scsi devices. You won't see anything yet but I just wanted you to be impressed when we get done.

The first file you will need to edit is /etc/modules.conf. Here is what you need to add. Just check for typos then copy and paste this into it.
options ide-cd ignore=hdb
alias scd0 sr_mod
pre-install sg modprobe ide-scsi
pre-install sr_mod modprobe ide-scsi
pre-install ide-scsi modprobe ide-cd
The first line tells ide-cd not to mess with out drive. I used hdb but you may have to use dmesg to see what your drives letter actually is. If you have more than one drive that you want this to work on, you can list them using a comma to seperate them i.e. hdc,hdd. You would do the same for alias.
The next thing you have to do is make a symlink to "cdrom" or what ever you want to call this drive. You would use this command:
cd /dev
ln -s scd0 cdrom
Now just create a mount point (create a dir called /mnt/cdrom). Then edit /etc/fstab to include the drive and you should be ready to go. It's been a while and I'm a self-inflickted windows sufferer again so It's a little hard for me to remember, but you may have to reboot. Run cdrecord -scanbus and see if your drive(s) are in there. Good Luck.