The message 20050221150017.GA4465@pitr from Brett Parker iDunno@sommitrealweird.co.uk contains these words:
/snip/
fuser -c -u /mountpoint/of/cdrom/drive
using ps and some grepping, you should be able to find out what has got hold of the cd drive and either kill or close it.
Hope that helps,
Ta - also saved. I shall have fun tonight.