CD-ROMs are configured into the kernel
like the other devices: through the make config. If you have a SCSI
CD-ROM, you obviously need to configure your
host adapter as well. You can do this at the same time if your host adapter is not installed already.

For the SCSI CD-ROMs, it’s just a matter of turning on the support. Non-SCSI CD-ROMs are different. There are options to turn on the support for several other specific types of CD-ROMs. Rather than listing them all here, I will point you to the CD-ROM HOWTO, which contains more up-to-date information.