Ok, solved - reaction to #26 #27 - the optical drive stopped working also under higher kernels (i.e. 2.6.39, 3.0). For some unknown reason, the optical drive was disabled in BIOS. Why??? Have no idea, I haven't touched bios for more than a half a year. There is also no automatic bios update as to my knowledge. Now it' s back to normal. Hopefully this helps to someone.
Ok, solved - reaction to #26 #27 - the optical drive stopped working also under higher kernels (i.e. 2.6.39, 3.0). For some unknown reason, the optical drive was disabled in BIOS. Why??? Have no idea, I haven't touched bios for more than a half a year. There is also no automatic bios update as to my knowledge. Now it' s back to normal. Hopefully this helps to someone.