Debian-installation ran into difficulties with old CDRW-drive

[Matthias Rappe <mrappe@flegelamme.de>]

 Dear Reader,

    I'd like to run linux on my old laptop. Since the native CD-drive
will not work anymore, I installed Debian 3.0 via floppies (20 pieces). 
I like to install some more software, but this old laptop does
not support usb, and I lack an ethernet-card.

However, I also have a CDRW-drive attached to a pcmcia card. But I don't
get it to be acknowledged by the pcmciautils. Is it possible that this
ipc5025 needs a special, maybe proprietary driver in order to work?

    Matthias