XFCE (no gnome) = CDROM badness

["somethin2cool@yahoo.com" <somethin2cool@yahoo.com>]

Since installing XFCE exclusively (ie debain xfce binary1 cd), my 
computer struggles to read CDs. I can mount them ok, but:

1) when I open any folder (with Thunar) it will take me to the directory
that the folder itself was in. So the url would read for example:

/home/me/floberfolder/floberfolder/floberfolder/floberfolder....

no matter which folder I open, i just end up back at floberfolder (which
is a made-up folder name).

2) the cd drive sounds really unhealthy. REALLY unhealthy. With the same
disc, the drive works well in Gnome under a seperate instalation. The
same goes for the bootloader (grub) and windows. What is the xfce distro 
missing that causes this change in behaviour?

Thanks