similar problem here....it detects my CDROM (TEAC 24x on a Thinkpad laptop)fine, but doesn't detect the CD at all sometimes and when it does, it doesn't install properly (can't uncompress 2nd stage something)....even then it can't detect packages correctly
I haven't tried LM8 on my desktop yet, but it does take longer to detect the CD (vs. LM7.2)
what the heck? Is there a fix for this?