I have sought information on this in the past.
I have a decTOP that I can install DSL on with no trouble from my USB DVD/CDRW drive.
Centos won't. Neither 4.4 or 5.0
The boot starts, the CD is being read. After I respond to language, it stops saying it can't find the CD.
If I go the linux askmethod approach, I can 'see' it loading the install image from the CD, it goes through the language part. Then when I select Local CD it can't find the CD.
So I was thinking. Is there a driver I should be loading? Afterall, this is a DVD/CDRW and MAYBE there is an intrepretation problem? Although I have used this SAME DVD/CDRW to install on other systems....
So it might not be a drive type issue, but rather a USB driver issue? I know from past attempts, if I go the network approach, and select a USB ethernet dongle (the last on the list) it finds my USB ethernet dongle. But that might mean that in this case the install followed a path of first loading a USB driver, and then proceeding.
Why not go the Network route? This is a Trixbox install and it is a Trixbox CD.