[ILUG] why did KDE H/W(-plugin?) thingie start accessing my CD(-RW) drive?

[Brian Foster]

 strange happenings ....
 last night, mostly due to the loud clicks the drive was making,
 I noticed _something_ was accessing my (empty) CD(-RW) drive,
 about once a minute.  besides the clicking, the access LED lit
 up, and if I opened the tray, on the next access it closed.
 (the tray does not normally close; in the past I've accidently
 left it open for days.)

 lsof(8) didn't seem to show anything, albeit it's possible my
 snapshots were taken when the culprit wasn't trying an access
 (or that I was searching for the wrong things in the listing).
 and there does not seem to be anything in any of the logfiles.

 after some faffling around (e.g,, terminating the browser,
 unmounting the drive from subfs, etc.), I finally found that
 if I quit the KDE 3.2 H/W(-plugin?) thingie (SUSE 9.1), the
 accessing stopped.  (but I have not tried restarting it (I'm
 not even sure how?) to see if the accessing resumes.)

 it's reasonably certain this is a new phenomena, as I should
 have heard it before.  (however, I need not have noticed the
 access LED lighting up before due to the position of the kit;
 ergo, if the clicking wasn't very loud at first, it may have
 been drowned out by fan noise and so I wouldn't hear it?)
 what I don't know is exactly when it started, but would guess
 it was probably in the last c.24 hours.

 there have been _no_ updates for several weeks now.
 nor have I made any (intentional) changes.
 I also haven't used that drive for at least a month, and it
 is possible I've not used it at all for the last c.90 days
 (which is the current uptime).

 so what on Earth provoked that thingie into repeatedly trying
 to access the drive?  I _think_ that's the thingie which tries
 to guess what it is you put into the drive and (ask to) launch
 the wrong application; and the warning message I got when I
 quit it was I'd no longer be notified of new(?) hardware.

 the only things I can think of that are vaguely (very!) related
 are:
   • using the DVD+/-RW drive to burn/read DVDs (a week(?) ago).
   • I _may_ have accidently opened that drive try instead of
      the DVD?
   • using a USB key (again, about a week ago).
   • mounting a (nominally unmounted) HDD (also a week ago).
 all the drives, the CD-RW, DVD-RW, and (both) HDDs are internal
 ATA on the same bus.

 any ideas?  suggestions?
cheers!
	-blf-
-- 
Experienced (20+ yrs) kernel/software Eng: | Brian Foster   Montpellier,
 • Unix, embedded, &tc;  • Linux;  • doc;  | blf at utvinternet.ie   FRANCE
 • IDL, automated testing, process, &tc.   |  Stop E$$o (ExxonMobile)!
Résumé (CV) http://www.blf.utvinternet.ie  |     http://www.stopesso.com