[ltp] T30 2.6.17.8, Ububntu Dapper, /dev/hdc not created??

[kaens]

Hey everyone, I'm running kernel 2.6.17.8 on a Thinkpad T30 with
Ubuntu Dapper installed. Everything was working fine for awhile, but
the other day, /dev/hdc ceased to be created on boot. I've booted a
livecd with the drive since then, so it's not hardware, and dmesg |
grep CD outputs:

hdc: HL-DT-STCD-RW/DVD DRIVE GCC-4240N, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdc: ATAPI 24X DVD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache

so it is detected by the kernel, right?

So why wouldn't /dev/hdc create?

I've searched around, and I can't find anything like a solution to
this. Any help would be appreciated, and just mention it if you need
more info.