What is a 'block device'
 

Can somebody tell me what a 'block device' is. The reason i would like to know is because I am trying to mount cdrom by typing the following:

mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

however I get the following message:

mount: the kernel does not recognize /dev/cdrom as a block device (maybe ! ' insmod driver' ?).

Thanks to all the members who posted a suggestion for this problem, however, none of them worked.
:(

your cdrom node is not present in /dev/cdrom
it might be something else..
use 'dmesg | more' to find out the name for the
partition representing ur cdrom.

also check ur /etc/fstab to see which directory and
partition is mounted as ur cdrom or which device
node is alloted to ur cdrom drive.

and the solution to ur problem is none of the above..
what i posted will help u understand where u can
get info about ur partitions..

just type 'mount /mnt/cdrom' whenever u have a cd inserted
and u want to mount it .. i am assuming /mnt/cdrom is the
directory in ur /etc/fstab.. that should work.. and that is
the proper way to mount stuff when u are not root... works even
when u are root...

thanx