Hello freinds
I installed debian etch testing recently. I cannot mount cdrom or rather install any packages from my repository cd.

when i enter mount /media/cdrom
the system returns

special device hda does not exist.

I checked the /dev directory my partitions are named /sd**

i checked the /etc/fstab also

there i found cdrom mounted as sda

I tried setting a symbolic link /hda for /sda.

But even that is not working. Please help

Thankyou

Is your cdrom an IDE drive or a SATA drive? If it's IDE it will be something like /dev/hd*. If it's a SATA cdrom it will probably be something like /dev/sd*.

Assuming that your drive is an IDE drive, first determine whether it is a primary/secondary master/slave.

hda = primary master
hdb = primary slave
hdc = secondary master
hdd = secondary slave

When you mount a device, you can mount it wherever you want. So try this out: If the following directory doesn't exist, issue the command:
mkdir /mnt/cdrom

Now try the following command:
mount -t auto /dev/hdX /mnt/cdrom #where hdX is based upon the chart above

If that fails, try:
mount -t iso9660 /dev/hdX /mnt/cdrom

--Shaun

Ya
my cdrom is SATA.

But how do I determine wheter that it is primary/secondary master/slave

I tried the commands and again tried mounting cdrom. But the system returned
/dev/cdrom already mounted or too busy. But i cannot unmount the drive, the system says cdrom not mounted

I checked the /etc/fstab. There is an entry
/dev/sda /media/cdrom udf iso9660 user, noauto 00

Perhaps this would give some clues

There is no primary/secondary master/slave with SATA.

Note that fstab does not tell you what is mounted--it is the mounting instructions that a) get used at startup, or b) get used when you issue a "mount" command without specifying all parameters.
mtab tells you what is already mounted.

In your case, the "noauto" entry means that the CD won't be mounted automatically, and that you you can mount it by entering either the device name or mount point in the "mount" command.

Note that most modern distros will automatically mount a CD or DVD whenever media is inserted. When you get the "already mounted" message, that could mean it is....already mounted.

Re-boot the machine (no CD in the drive), look in /media and see what entries are there. Then, what happens when you simply insert a CD? For example, an icon might appear on your desktop.

finally, "dmesg|grep CD" (or grep DVD) should confirm what device names are assigned to your optical drives

I tried that but still i cannot access my cdrom. Also dmesg|grep CD did not return anything.
I am screwed up please help

A couple questions for you:
1. Are you trying to mount a CD or a DVD?
2. If it's a CD, is it an audio CD or a data CD?
3. Have you tried another CD yet? Maybe the particular CD that you are trying to read is bad, or maybe the drive is bad.

--Shaun

It looks more like that your CD-ROM works but when you try to isntall anything from it apt is looking in the wrong place. Try just putting a normal data CD in there and open /media/cdrom

Have Fun!
Krassi

If dmesg has no entry for the CD reader, then you have a fundamental hardware issue. Things to try:

1. Try "lshw" (you might have to install this package using your package manager.)
2. Reboot
3. Shut down, disconnect and reconnect the cables to the CD reader, and restart
4. Try a different CD reader, or try yours in a different computer

I don't think that there is something wrong with my hardware(cd drive). I have windows and ubuntu 7.04 installed and the cd drive is workingn very well with them.

Is there any thing wrong with the kernel. The kernel i am using is
2.6.16k smp


Please help

How about my suggestion to try lshw?