Synaptic Package Manager fails to access the CD

I have a new notebook from Dell (ubuntu 8.04) and I am moving from SUSE 10.2.
I have a large build application (LTIB from Freescale) which requires the full dev environment, i.e. i'm missing
libstdc++ 0 not installed
gcc-c++ 2.96 not installed
zlib-devel 0 not installed
rpm 0 not installed
rpm-build 0 not installed
ncurses-devel 0 not installed
m4 0 not installed
bison 0 not installed
patch 0 not installed

No problem, right? just load it!... well no problem in SUSE. But here with Ubuntu I have two "show stopper" issues
[1] the Synaptic package manager gets stuck in a loop asking me to load the disk:
"....Please insert the disk labeled:
Ubuntu 8.04 _Hardy Heron_ - Release i386 (20080423)
in drive /cdrom/...."
which I have dutifully inserted. (in fact it worked once and not since in many many tries)
Is this a hardware problem with my new machine? Seems odd because I can browse the CD just fine.!!

I have this directory structure
root@dell-desktop:~# cd /media
root@dell-desktop:/media# ls
cdrom cdrom0 cdrom1 disk
root@dell-desktop:/media# cd cdrom
root@dell-desktop:/media/cdrom# ls
root@dell-desktop:/media/cdrom# cd /cdrom0
-bash: cd: /cdrom0: No such file or directory
root@dell-desktop:/media/cdrom# cd ../cdrom0
root@dell-desktop:/media/cdrom0# ls
root@dell-desktop:/media/cdrom0# cd ../cdrom1
root@dell-desktop:/media/cdrom1# ls
autorun.inf dists isolinux pool ubuntu
casper doc md5sum.txt preseed umenu.exe
cdromupgrade install pics README.diskdefines

cdrom is empty, is this the problem? how do i get the package manager to go look at /media/cdrom1. ?

I don't mind using dpkg... but i'm getting nowhere there either:

[2] If you look at the list of missing packages they don't have an exact match in the list of available packages displayed, How do I find the equivalent in the ubuntu list, other by hours and hours of trial and error?

[3] furthermore, when I install in command mode, there is also a failure to proceed which I can't understand
I get

"...root@dell-desktop:/g4apps# apt-get install nfs-kernel-server nfs-common
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libevent1 libgssglue1 libnfsidmap2 librpcsecgss3 portmap
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libevent1 libgssglue1 libnfsidmap2 librpcsecgss3 nfs-common
  nfs-kernel-server portmap
0 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 0 to remove and 962 not upgraded.
Need to get 371kB/493kB of archives.
After this operation, 1495kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
Media change: please insert the disc labeled
 'Ubuntu 8.04 _Hardy Heron_ - Release i386 (20080423)'
in the drive '/cdrom/' and press enter

Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/main librpcsecgss3 0.17-1ubuntu2 [30.4kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/main nfs-common 1:1.1.2-2ubuntu2.1 [190kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/main nfs-kernel-server 1:1.1.2-2ubuntu2.1 [150kB]
Media change: please insert the disc labeled
 'Ubuntu 8.04 _Hardy Heron_ - Release i386 (20080423)'
in the drive '/cdrom/' and press enter

Media change: please insert the disc labeled
 'Ubuntu 8.04 _Hardy Heron_ - Release i386 (20080423)'
in the drive '/cdrom/' and press enter

so basically I'm stuck in an infinite loop.....

what's the Ubuntu/ Debian secret to get out of it?
... or again, as unlikely as it seems to me, is there a hardware problem?