hda: status timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }

Problem:

The following kernel messages are printed to the console: 

ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hda: drive not ready for command
hda: status timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }

Details:

Repeated polling of the CD-ROM drive seems to eventually cause the kernel to throw an error. The culprit seems to the hal daemon, which periodically checks the drive for new media.

Affected Platforms:

Solution:

The following can be added to /etc/rc.local to disable media polling: 

sleep 5
hal-set-property --udi /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/block_3_0 --key
storage.media_check_enabled --bool false

where block_3_0 corresponds to /dev/hda 

brw-rw----  1 root disk 3, 0 Oct  2 19:10 /dev/hda