How to get DVD and CD-burner
 

devices probed and recognized and edited correctly in /etc/fstab????

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

the right direction for what? please ask slightly more detailed questions in future....

ok, no problem, I'm just trying to understand how linux recognizes drives, ie: DVD, CD-burner , CD-rom. I think my DVD player is hdc, or is it sr0? the specific problem I'm having is, I have sound working and my dvd drive is listed in my /etc/fstab file as:

/dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt/cdrom

If I insert a cd in this drive it plays just fine, but when I open up mplayer and insert a DVD I get this error message:

Couldn't open DVD device: /dev/dvd

Do I need to somehow link /dev/dvd to /dev/cdroms/cdrom0?

Also my cd-burner isn't recognized at all, I am not sure if it is a scsi device, but I think it is. I have enabled scsi and cd-rom scsi support in the kernel.

Are there commands to probe for these devices, and to list their device paths. How do I enable these devices in /etc/fstab?

Yes. You do need to link it to that device. Names aren't really important to linux, it won't recognize your burner and automatically refer to it as such (well depending on your setup and your distro it might). Same with DVD. So you have to make those links yourself:
ln -sf /dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /dev/dvd

This creates a symlink that programs (like mplayer) can use to determine your dvd device. Other options with mplayer include -dvd-device switch:
mplayer -vo xv -dvd-device /dev/cdroms/cdrom0 (check the man, I'm not 100% on that syntax). That way you won't have to make the symlink if you don't want to/can't.

You should check out your bootloader, look for an "append" line to see if scsi emulation is there for your drives. It will list the device as:
hdc=ide-scsi

As an example. If nothing is there, then your burner is not recognized as being a scsi-emulated device, and you'll want to add an entry for it similar to my example, replacing the device with the one that your burner is.

Check dmesg for more info on what block device your ROMs are assigned.

To see dmesg:
dmesg | less
As into a terminal.

Cool

Ok, I issued the dmesg command, My DVD is hdc and my cd-rw is hdd . Looks like SCSI is messed up, I enabled it in the kernel, but not as a module, here is a line from dmesg: SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2

Thank You!
ln -sf /dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /dev/dvd

This command worked perfectly. I can now play DVD's using mplayer

Unfortunately now, the KSCD program won't open (for audio cd's)
and when I click on the cd/dvd-rom icon, I get this error

The reported error was:
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/cdroms/cdrom0,
or too many mounted file systems

OK- after issuing that command you now have essentially two names for the DVD drive right? Linux calls it /dev/cdroms/cdrom0 but you call it /dev/dvd which is much easier to remember and it will aid you in changing/adding drives(that's another subject almost). Now you likely need to do the same with your cdrom drive. I have never used kscd so ?? but.....it needs to know where your cdrom is. You can find out thusly:

Different distros name drives differently so your mileage may vary.

~$ ls -al /dev/cdrom

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 Mar 27 08:41 /dev/cdrom -> scd1
Notice how it says "/dev/cdrom points to /dev/scd1

Now check the dvd drive
~$ ls -al /dev/dvd
This command can be interpreted as "tell me where /dev/dvd points to"

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Mar 27 11:33 /dev/dvd -> /dev/scd0

Pardon my ignorance but I think mplayer may also play cd's.

Those icons are unneccesary, convenient pehaps but you can fix that later.
If /dev/cdrom is linked to the same drive as /dev/dvd then kscd is probably looking for the wrong drive eh? If /dev/cdrom linked to /dev/cdrom0 then you need to get rid of that link - how?

rm /dev/cdrom

I just posted a few examples- again your experience and exact syntax will likely differ. It is my guess that simply relinking /dev/cdrom properly will fix it. If you're unsure of which link to remove post back. I apparently like to learn the hard way and just do it!! :cool:

Thank you very much, it all works correctly, this linux stuff is fun

Indeed Linux does rock.