Very strange since with redhat all it took was:

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

Whenever i try that, i get this error:
debian:/home/ganni# mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /cdrom/
mount: block device /dev/cdrom is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/cdrom,
or too many mounted file systems


Moreover, i've checked out what dmesg produced:
hdb: command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hdb: command error: error=0x54
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:40 (hdb), sector 64
isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev=03:40, iso_blknum=16, block=32

This is my fstab:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
/dev/hda8 / ext2 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda7 none swap sw 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /floppy auto user,noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/pantera vfat auto,user 0 2


Strange thing is this:
When i do apt-get install <package> and is located on the DEBIAN CD, it will of course read from it..

Another thing:
My second CD ROM is not even detected!

What's up with my beloved new Debian?

For your other cdrom, add an entry for it in fstab. The entry will be the similar to the first, with different devices & mount points. You cdrom device is determined by where it's connected; hdc=secondary master, hdd=secondary slave, hdb=primary slave. /dev/cdrom is just a link to one of them.

What explains the error for my first cdrom though?

Make sure the symlink /dev/cdrom points to the right place. Try mounting it by specifying the actual device. In other words, type something like mount -t iso9660 /dev/hdc /cdrom. I've italicised the important part. Once you have the right one make sure the link points there. Then all you'll have to type to mount the cdrom is mount /cdrom (ie just specify the mount point and mount reads your fstab for all the other info).

Yes I did that.. Mind you, I've used to mount and unmount successfully on redhat, and I've read it's man page zillion times. Another thing I've noticed - MUSIC CD's cannot be mounted, whereas data CD's are sucessfully mounted (although for the last case, the eject doesn't work, but anyways). I'm trying to find out whether music CDs have a different filetype..

You can't mount music CDs. They're just played directly. Also, if you want to eject a CD you have to unmount (umount) it. If you want program to play a CD you just point the player to /dev/cdrom.

Plese look again at your /etc/fstab. your cdrom is located at "/cdrom" not "/mnt/cdrom"

This is the default for Debian 3.0. Use the command "mount /cdrom"

Regards, S.S.

root@tiger:~$ ls -l /dev/cdrom
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 Nov 8 09:37 /dev/cdrom -> hdb

is 'hdb' /dev/hdb or? How do I create a new link for my secondary cdrom? Do i only need to create a file /dev/cdrom2 and make it point to /dev/hdb2?

Your second CD would be /dev/hdc or /dev/hdd depending where it is on the second IDE channel. For your eject problem you may want to check and make sure that you have the eject program installed.

ok managed to do it... To find out which hd* it is, the trick is to check out the file size... If it is non-zero then that hd* contains the device - quite trivial anyways hehe... Then finding out which hd* reflects your cd rom (in my case hdd) create a symbolic link:

ln -s /dev/hdd /dev/cdrom2

Then create a mount point in the /etc/fstab file...