I am new to Linux and cannot find what steps are required to install a new DVD writer.
I am using: Mandrake 10.1 official and KDE 3.2

I have removed my CD writer and replaced it with a Samsung TS-H552B. When I booted my computer, it acted like the new hardware was being recognized (although I don't recall what the messages were). Then I looked at the /mnt directory and found that nothing had changed. It showed:
/mnt/cdrom
/mnt/cdrom2
This was what it had before I removed the CD writer (cdrom2). I thought it would create something like /mnt/dvd but it did not. I assumed that the DVD was recognized as cdrom2 and put a data DVD in, but Nautilus showed cdrom2 as empty. I tried putting a movie in it, but both Kaffeine and MPlayer responded with "The source can't be read. Maybe you don't have enough rights for this, or source doesn't contain data (e.g: no disc in drive). (/dev/dvd)". I checked the /dev directory. It showed /dev/cdroms that contained /dev/cdrom0 and /dev/cdrom1.

I then ran Harddrake and it found the DVD burner and displayed:

There were options about mount point, options and type, which I was not sure what to do at this stage and gave up. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.
-Bob

Try mounting it as root: mount /dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom2. The app KwikDisk (in your menu it's here: System-->Monitoring) shows you what is mounted. Check the entries in your /etc/fstab file. If you post the contents better help may be provided.

hello,

puzzling - i'm assuming that when you suggest the new hardware was recognised it was during Mandrake's boot sequence.

Could you post the contents of your /etc/fstab file?

Also, when you fitted the new drive, did you take care of the master / slave jumper position on the back of the drive?

i've swapped drives 'like-for-like' before and not run into trouble, but who knows.. as for mount point, it matters not - i've got a CD burner and a DVD-ROM on my system, and mandrake mounts them at /mnt/cdrom and /mnt/cdrom2 respectively..your /etc/fstab file should take care of that. the only dodgy possibility is in your /dev directory. now, i know for a fact that Mandrake 10.1 uses a new (different) way of working with the physical devices on your system than 10.0 (which I use). But I think the principle is the same. basically, your '/dev/dvd' device file is in reality just a symbolic link to the real device file (which from your post is actually /dev/ide/host0/bus1/target1/lun0/cd). it's possible that the link has been broken - go into konqueror, into the /dev directory, and hover your mouse over the /dev/dvd device file. in the bottom-left of the window, you should see where /dev/dvd points to - it should match the device file quoted above...

Thanks,
I checked and set the DVD writer to Slave and left the existing CD rom as is before installing. I may have gone out of sequence but I ran KwikDisk first and it set up a desktop icon for the DVD writer. I was then able to play a DVD movie with MPlayer! But I still can't seem to view the contents of a DVD data disk. I am assuming the disk is ok, but it did come with a Linux magazine (it's the only DVD data disk I have - maybe there's something wrong with it).

In the lower left corner: dvd/ Folder

[root@localhost etc]# mount /dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom2
mount: block device /dev/hdd is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: /dev/hdd already mounted or /mnt/cdrom2 busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/hdd is mounted on /dev/dvd

Here's the contents of /etc/fstab:
/dev/hdb7 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hdb5 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hdd /dev/dvd auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/memory_card auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,kudzu,codepage=850,noauto,exec,users 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-1,ro 0 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/win_d vfat umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hdb6 swap swap defaults 0 0

The only entry I can see that is different from my fstab dvd entry is the iocharset, mine is: iocharset=iso8859-15

Yesterday I was able to at least watch a DVD movie using MPlayer. Today though it doesn't work! When I try to open the movie in MPlayer now it gives the error: "Can't open VMG info!" . I guess I am back to square one.