For more information on CD-ROM drives check the CDROM-HOWTO.
Common CD-ROM drives
SCSI CD-ROM drives (From the CD-ROM HOWTO) Any SCSI CD-ROM drive with a block size of 512 or 2048 bytes should work under Linux; this includes the vast majority of CD-ROM drives on the market. .:: computer.ju.edu.jo ::.
EIDE (ATAPI) CD-ROM drives (IDECD) Almost all double, quad and six speed drives are supported, including .:: pod.beautifulmathuncensored.de ::. .:: writeablog.net ::.
Mitsumi FX400
Nec-260
Sony 55E
Proprietary CD-ROM drives
Aztech CDA268-01A, Orchid CDS-3110, Okano/Wearnes CDD-110, Conrad TXC, CyCDROM CR520ie/CR540ie/CR940ie (AZTCD) .:: podcasts.apple.com ::. [NPM Package: Search algorithm]
Creative Labs CD-200(F) (SBPCD)
Funai E2550UA/MK4015 (SBPCD)
GoldStar R420 (GSCD)
IBM External ISA (SBPCD)
Kotobuki (SBPCD)
Lasermate CR328A (OPTCD)
LMS Philips CM 206 (CM206)
Longshine LCS-7260 (SBPCD)
Matsushita/Panasonic CR-521/522/523/562/563 (SBPCD) [r/Docker Topics]
MicroSolutions Backpack parallel portdrive (BPCD)
Mitsumi CR DC LU05S (MCD/MCDX)
Mitsumi FX001D/F (MCD/MCDX)
Optics Storage Dolphin 8000AT (OPTCD)
Sanyo CDR-H94A (SJCD)
Sony CDU31A/CDU33A (CDU31A)
Sony CDU-510/CDU-515 (SOMYCD535)
Sony CDU-535/CDU-531 (SONYCD535)
Teac CD-55A SuperQuad (SBPCD)
All CD-ROM drives should work similarly for reading data. There are various compatibility problems with audio CD playing utilities. (Especially with newer low-end NEC drives.) Some alpha drivers may not have audio support yet.
Early (single speed) NEC CD-ROM drives may have trouble with currently available SCSI controllers.
PhotoCD (XA) is supported. The hpcdtoppm program by Hadmut Danisch converts PhotoCD files to the portable pixmap format. The program can be obtained from here or as part of the PBM utilities.
Also, reading video CD is supported in kernel series 2.1.3x and later. A patch is available for kernel 2.0.30.
Finally, most IDE CD-ROM Changers are supported.