I forgot to add in my first post that this problem of switching modes does not occur in RedHat 6.1 for Sparc. I have not looked at the source but I expect that they have a mode select call after initial boot from the floppy just encase it is needed as I get a seamless install even on my old SparcStation1. Perhaps someone in the know could add the couple of lines of code needed to put a cdrom in the correct mode. For cdrom's that don't respond to the mode select call it should not cause any problems and just be ignored.
Peter Myers
