Hi folks,

Some months ago, I installed Mandrake 8.2. This seemed to work fine for a while, but I then discovered that I was unable to mount the CDROM device, even when logged in as 'root'.

Any attempt to mount the CDROM resulted in the message 'Unable to enter file : /mnt/cdrom. You do not have access rights to this location'

When Mandrake 9.0 came along, I thought this might be the solution to the problem, so I installed 9.0 instead, but I still have the same problem.

I'm fairly sure that the problem is something simple, but being a 'newbie' I have no idea how to proceed. Any advice from the more experienced in the community would be very much appreciated, as I am anxious to remove Bill Gates's garbage from my PC.

Well, do you have a /mnt/cdrom ? Also check the permissions of it. What's the permissions of your actual cdrom device ?

Many thanks for your response.

I checked the permissions of '/mnt/cdrom' (ls -l /mnt/cdrom) and it looks good to me. I then tried accessing the device again by means of the 'Removable media' icon, and bingo!! everything seemed to work. I was able to view the contents of CDs, etc.

However, when I tried to 'Eject' the CD, the tray opened and then closed again before I could do anything. Next time I caught it, replaced the CD, and was able to view the contents as before.

As a final check, I re-booted the system, but once again I found that when I execute 'ls -l /mnt/cdrom' I get 'input output error', and the original permissions problem when I attempt access from the 'Removable Media' icon.

mount /dev/hdX /mnt/cdrom
X being the letter of your drive

if that works then add it to /etc/rc.d/rc.local

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

The contents of my /etc/fstab is :

/dev/hda5 / ext2 errors=remount-ro 0 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hda8 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom iso9660 user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,ro 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-15,sync,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda7 /usr ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hda6 swap swap sw 0 0

This is after trying a few things from other similar threads without success.

For future problems: using KDE, you should check your /mnt/cdrom directory icon. On my system it was a locked directory that couldn't be accessed by anybody. Being a newbie, I just reinstalled Linux and the directories unlocked. You can also choose to mount the cdrom to another directory using manual described by 404

Yes, I sometimes have that too, but re-installing Linux doesn't help. I've done that several times (Mandrake 8.2 and 9.0).

I've been having the exact same problem with my CD-ROM, as described my dnldsnj - /mnt/cdrom is a locked file inaccessible even to root.
ls -l /mnt/cdrom produces the error message 'input/output error' even when I am su
And now I can't access the floppy drive either, even as root - it worked when I first installed, and I haven't 'done' anything to it...
all suggestions gratefully received.

Oh yeah, forgot to say - I'm using Mandrake 9.0 as well.

Jane

oops...sorry.
This is my fstab:

/dev/hda3 / ext2 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/scd0,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/cdrom2 supermount dev=/dev/hdd,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-15,sync,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c vfat iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/win_d vfat iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda6 /mnt/win_e vfat iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda7 /mnt/win_f vfat iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda4 swap swap defaults 0 0

would much appreciate pointers

thanks

Jane

I am having the same problem. I read somewhere that if you remove the supermount functions that the cdrom will work but I have yet to get that to work as well. If anyone has any idea how to fix this please let me know.

First duhh...every time I said 'file' in my initial post to this thread I should have said 'directory' of course. Sorry 'bout that.

Unfortunately I haven't come up with a solution (would be remarkable as a technically-challenged newb wouldn't it?) but might as well report that the floppy mysteriously unlocked itself following a reboot...no joy with the CD though. And now I daren't reboot again in case I lose the floppy
Have now found that this problem was raised in MandrakeExpert back in June, and has received no responses

Does this discussion need to move to the Distro Forum, what do the mods think? Any users of other distros having the same prob?

Jane

I have the latest verison of Red Hat on another machine and it is not having this problem. I have to edit the /etc/fstab file, but does not resolve the issue. I am going to contact Mandrake and see if they have a solution.

Regarding removal of 'supermount', I have tried this (read it in another thread!), but it doesn't seem to make any difference to the problem.

I am also getting this problem. My floppy seems to be ok though. Anyone made any progress with a solution yet?