Can't mount cdrom in Linux??

[EHobaX]

Hey everyone. I just installed RH 7.2 at a computer @ work.
Everything was going fine and dandy until after I installed the Fluxbox window manager.

For some reason I'm not able to mount the cdrom anymore.
(BTW, it did work before on RH 7.2. I narced it and reinstalled.)
It gives some message to the like of: not a mountable block device.
I don't have the exact message b/c I just got home from work.

Ok. I just want to know if I screwed up something and need to reinstall.
I created a new $HOME/.xinitrc, and modified the $HOME/.bash_profile by a few lines.
I really don't know if that would be the problem, since I logged in as root and am still not
able to mount it.

I'll post the exact error message tomorrow as soon as I get to work. If you have any ideas
before then, I'm game.

 

[Elledan]

What were the exact lines you changed in .bash_profile ?

 

[EHobaX]

They were 2 lines:

export LC_ALL=pl_PL
export LC_LANG=pl

I put them in b/c I was installing Artwiz_fonts.
The documentation said they might not be necessary, but I put them in as a precaution.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

i have artwiz's fonts installed, but i dont have those environment variables set, they're probably unnecessary (dont take my word for it though).

you sure you're not doing something else, like mistyping one of the paths (ex. hdc instead of hdb or something) or something else? the problems seem unrelated, to me at least.

 

[EHobaX]

It's probably something stupid like that on my part.
It was a loooong day of meetings, Configuration Management, and getting ready for a firewall course.

I'll let you guys know how it goes tomorrow.
Thanks.

 

[EHobaX]

Jeez! What's up w/ my Linux?
I've tried to mount everything in existence.

mount /mnt/cdrom
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
mount /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom
mount -t iso9660 /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom
mount mount mount -t msdos whatever!

I replaced the CD Rom and even replaced the IDE cable.
I'm at a loss.

The error message I get is:

mount: /dev/cdrom is not a valid block device

There is a CD-Rom in the CD drive. I'll try another CD after I finish lunch.
Hopefully my Star Office CD isn't screwed.

 

[LNXman]

First, check you fstab and see whether your cdrom's mount point is defined

example:

/dev/<cdrom_dev> <mount_point> iso9660 defaults 0 0


Then mount it like this:

# mount <mount_point> <--------mount will read the information it needs from fstab

IF NOT defined in your fstab, then you can define it and try to mount it again.

Or, just leave it and. . .

check where your cdrom's device is defined under /dev.

There are two possibilities:
If the RedHat distro is not using devfs, then your device should be /dev/hdX (Where X denotes the IDE letter [from a-d] assigned to it according to which channel you connnected it to), with a link of /dev/cdrom to it.
NOTE: if the /dev/cdrom link is NOT in /dev, then something wiped it out, and you should re-create the link, because a few apps have that link as the default device to use for mounting the cdrom.

If the RedHad distro is using devfs, then your cdrom device's link will be located under /dev/cdroms/cdromY (Where Y denotes the number assigned to it according to the channel connected to). I am not sure about the actual physical location of the cdrom's device under devfs, but I do know the link is guaranteed.
NOTE: The only thing that would prevent devfs from creating the link would be if devfsd is not running during boot. But I doubt it. . .

Try this and let us know. . .

/edit: fixed typo

 

[EHobaX]

Okay. I've just reinstalled RH, so everything should work, right? Nope.

It's still giving me the same error.

In the fstab file I've got the line:

/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0$,ro 0 0

The sym link /dev/cdrom does point to hdc which is where the cdrom resides.
I've also tried mounting manaully by typing /dev/hdc

I do not think that my RH is using devfs. I've ran the same install at home and have never encountered this problem.
I'm wondering if the IDE channel is going out. It's strange b/c I can install from the cdrom, Linux does recognize it in the boot, but I can't access it when I log in.

It is a major inconvenience. I want to run Star Office or Open Office, and they're waaaay too big for disks.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

try hooking it up to your primary channel as a slave drive, see if that works. then you'll know whether it's your IDE controller. (hopefully )