when you do
ls /dev/hd*
what do you get? One of them should be your cdrom drive (hdc is your hd).
you can then link /dev/cdrom to that.

before it was linked to hdd still I used to get error messages.
Here are a few things that I tried just now.

bash-2.05b$ ls /dev/hdd
/dev/hdd
bash-2.05b$ ls -l /dev/hdd
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 22, 64 Oct 12 2002 /dev/hdd
bash-2.05b$ mount /dev/cdrom
mount: /dev/cdrom is not a valid block device

I tried this just now. Here is the proof

bash-2.05b# rm /dev/cdrom
bash-2.05b# ln -s /dev/hdd /dev/cdrom
bash-2.05b# exit
exit
bash-2.05b$ mount /dev/cdrom
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/cdrom,
or too many mounted file systems
(could this be the IDE device where you in fact use
ide-scsi so that sr0 or sda or so is needed?)
bash-2.05b$

I tried this. Didn't work. Here are the results:

bash-2.05b# ln -s /dev/sr1 /dev/cdrom
ln: `/dev/cdrom': File exists
bash-2.05b# rm /dev/cdrom
bash-2.05b# ln -s /dev/sr1 /dev/cdrom
bash-2.05b# rm /dev/cdwriter
bash-2.05b# ln -s /dev/sr0 /dev/cdwriter
bash-2.05b# mount /dev/cdrom
mount: /dev/cdrom is not a valid block device

I did this. Here are the results.

bash-2.05b# cdrecord -scanbus
Cdrecord 2.0 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2002 Jörg Schilling
cdrecord: No such file or directory. Cannot open '/dev/pg*'. Cannot open SCSI driver.
cdrecord: For possible targets try 'cdrecord -scanbus'. Make sure you are root.
cdrecord: For possible transport specifiers try 'cdrecord dev=help'.

Can you post your lilo.conf or your grub.conf depending on whether you're using grub or lilo?

As requested:

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hdc
append = "=ide-scsi"
message = /boot/boot_message.txt
prompt
timeout = 1200
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
reset
# Normal VGA console
vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769
# End LILO global section
# DOS bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hdc1
label = DOS
table = /dev/hdc
# DOS bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hdc6
label = Linux
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

change this to
append="hdd=ide-scsi"

run lilo:
/sbin/lilo -v

and then reboot. Your cdrom will now be attached as a scsi-device. See if you now can use
/dev/sr0 instead of /dev/cdrom

Here are the results:

/dev/sbash-2.05b$ /sbin/lilo -v
LILO version 22.3.3, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger
Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2002 John Coffman
Released 30-Aug-2002 and compiled at 14:16:07 on Sep 18 2002.

Warning: LBA32 addressing assumed
Reading boot sector from /dev/hdc
Fatal: open /dev/hdc: Permission denied
r0 instead of /dev/cdrom

you have to be root to run lilo.

Tried this as root. Here are the final results. It didn't work.

bash-2.05b$ mount /dev/cdrom
mount: /dev/cdrom: unknown device
bash-2.05b$ mount /dev/sr0
mount: can't find /dev/sr0 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

can you tell me what exactly you did? Have you deleted /dev/cdrom before?
First, you must
1. edit lilo.conf
2. run lilo
3. REBOOT


BTW, could you delete /var/log/messages again before you reboot and post what it says now?

He will still get error messages if he has 1 writing and 1 cdrom because 1 will be setup as a scsi and the other atapi, knowing this cdrecord and other tools need all readiable cdroms to be scsi... so if you intend to use your cdwrite and cdrom to do 1:1 copys it wont work unless you make both drive scsi emulated.

rvijay said:
I take it that this is means it is one device that does the reading and writing.

Yes, this is correct. By the way, everything worked perfect until two or three days ago. That is when I started getting error messages when trying to mount Data Cd's.