After having issued the mount /mnt/cdrom as the root, I got a message saying :

"/mnt/cdrom not a valid block device"

Contents of the /etc/fstab
---------------------------------

LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
/dev/sda3 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0


Contents of the /etc/mtab
----------------------------------

/dev/sda2 / ext3 rw 0 0
none /proc proc rw 0 0
none /sys sysfs rw 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts rw gid=5, mode = 120 0 0
usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs rw 0 0
/dev/sda1 /boot ext3 rw 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
sunrpc /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs rpc_pipefs rw 0 0
nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd nfsd rw 0 0

And I got a similar message when I tried mounting the floppy drive too.

What would happen if I installed two CD drives into a single PC running on linux, the second one being installed at a later point in time? How will the notations change? I may face a similar situation very soon.

I don't see the cdrom being listed in my /dev folder. What do I do?

I'm going to assume that right now you have /dev/hda as your hard drive, and /dev/hdc as your CDrom drive.

If you add the second cd-rom you the same IDE channel as the hard drive, it should come up as /dev/hdb
If you add it as the second device to the CDrom's IDE channell, it should show up as /dev/hdd

Do you have a /dev/hdc ?

Hey Ace...

If that is the case, then do I have to manually enter anything into the /etc/fstab file indicating the modification? And how does the system differentiate between the two drives when I give the command mount /mnt/cdrom?

Yes siree... /dev/hdc is there for sure.

yeah, just copy the line for your previous CD/DVD drive and change its /dev/hd* and the mount point.

Probably have to create the new mount directory, so mkdir /mnt/cd2 or something

In that case, type this:

ln -s /dev/hdc /dev/cdrom
and
ln -s /dev/hdc /dev/dvd if you want DVD playback too.

Then change the permissions : chgrp users /dev/cdrom etc etc etc

L

If you use sysfs, then for floppy, try issuing first
as root. For cdrom, try
I know it is only a quick fix, but it works for me.

Please do not post the same thread in more than one forum. Picking the most relevant forum and posting it once there makes it easier for other members to help you and keeps the discussion all in one place.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/rules.php

Mod Note: mufy -- please keep a single discussion in a single thread. It isn't necessary and in fact is not helpful to create a new thread for every question you may have that is related to a single topic. Instead, please just post any followup questions to the existing thread. I have therefore merged your 3 threads into one, since they are all related to the same topic (mounting a CD ROM device) and were all created within a few minutes of one another. -- J.W.

Sorry about that. Posted all those in a haste and didn't realize what I was doing.