Untar from a CD

CJohnM · 03-11-2006, 12:06 AM

Is it possible to untar a tar.gz package from a CDROM? Would it just be untar zxvf /cdrom/<DIRECTORY>.tar.gz? I am asking because I'm having problems getting my GUI up and running on Ubuntu and working entirely in the command line. I also don't have a properly configured network, so I can't download stuff. I have a dual boot with XP, from where I run Ubuntu through VMware, so I can make the required packages that way.

Thanks

crAckZ · 03-11-2006, 12:19 AM

give it a try. if not i just copy (cp) it to my hd

theNbomr · 03-11-2006, 12:21 AM

No problem at all, as long as you have space where the untarred files will be deposited.

If it is a gzipped tar, like somefile.tar.gx, you would want to first 'cd /the/destination/directory', then

tar zxvf somefile.tar.gz.

The directory where the CDROM is mounted will vary; /mnt/cdrom is one location that some distros use. /media/cdrom seems to be gaining popularity.

--- rod.

CJohnM · 03-11-2006, 12:55 AM

Yes, I have a /media/cdrom directory. But when I put the CD in it doesn't do anything. Isn't detected, for some reason.

I built my system up from a debian base using an ubuntu cd which I added to my sources list. I have an Intel 865 video card, which has serious problems with X, which is why I can't get a GUI going. What I have on the CD is a patch for this, so it's quite crucial! Frustratingly my network is also asleep, so I'm stuck with this method (I had no network configured during a debian net install, so that's why I was left with just the deb base).

Is there possibly some way to force the cd to mount from the command line?

theNbomr · 03-11-2006, 01:53 AM

Try
mount /media/cdrom

Failing that,

man mount

--- rod.

CJohnM · 03-11-2006, 10:39 PM

Tried various options, including -

mount /mnt/cdrom
mount media/cdrom
mount -t iso9660 /dev/hdc /media/cdrom

The last returned the reply -

Code:

mount: block device /dev/hdc is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdc,
       missing codepage or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

The strange thing is I got the same result on Ubuntu through VMware, which I run on XP. I have a desktop icon for the CDROM, though, and I can easily access it there. I've tried all these commands as both root and user, and no luck. I'm going to try a floppy now. If that doesn't work does anyone know if there's a way to access a Linux partition through Windows and transfer files? I seem to remember reading about something like that.

prasanta · 03-11-2006, 11:53 PM

I think you are trying to mount an audio/media cd. mounting the cd with iso9660 type sometimes doesnot work. Try going with udf fstype.

CJohnM · 03-12-2006, 12:28 AM

Thanks Prasanta, I'll try that. I've also found this -

http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm

which I'll also try. Also this -

http://www.it.fht-esslingen.de/~zimm...re/ltools.html

WindowBreaker · 03-12-2006, 03:39 AM

Try mounting your cd with device file "/dev/scd0".

Code:

mount /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom -t iso9660

Sometimes that device file is used instead of or /dev/hdc if using SCSI emulation.

Otherwise, do

Code:

dmesg | grep -i atapi

to see which device file your cdrom was detected on at boot time.

Have you tried mounting other CD's, just to verify the CD itself is not the problem?