ok, i searched the forum for the answer to my question but couldn't find it. ok here's the problem. i don't know how to access my floppy drive, or my cd drive. i mean, i know u go to /mnt/floppy/ for the floppy and to /mnt/cdrom/ for the cd, but when i type that in it says:

[root@localhost root]# cd /mnt/floppy/
-bash: cd: floppy: Input/output error

it does the same thing with cdrom, saying cdrom instead of floppy.
how do i fix this?
Thanks,
Elise

You must mount the device to the directory before using it. Try this

That should mount the device fd0(your floppy drive) to the directory /mnt/floppy


deflin39

It sounds like you don't have a floppy or CD in your drives. If that's the case, put in a floppy/CD into the drive and see if you still get the errors.

you probably don't have to mount the drives since you're using mandrake and it has supermount enabled by default.

"It sounds like you don't have a floppy or CD in your drives."

i had the installation disk in with the rpm file that i needed, so that can't be the problem. i'll try mounting the drives, cause i didnt know about that.

ok. you probably want to disable supermount. it's a feature that is supposed to save you the hassle of mounting manually but it's very buggy. you can disable it by the command (as root):

supermount -i disable

(you can enable it again with 'supermount -i enable). After this, reboot and see if mounting the drives manually helps. You should be able to mount the drives with

mount /mnt/floppy

and
mount /mnt/cdrom

respectively. Don't forget to unmount them before removing the disks:
umount /mnt/floppy (or /mnt/cdrom)

ok, i disabled supermount like you said, then tried to mount a floppy disk. it didn't work, so i tried a different disk, which worked. then i tried the first disk again, and it worked, so that's good. when i tried to mount my cdrom, this is what it said:

[root@localhost root]# mount /mnt/cdrom
mount: special device /dev/hdc does not exist

what does this mean? and how do i fix it?
thanks,
Elise

There's something wrong with your /etc/fstab

try
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

if this works, open /etc/fstab in an editor and change the line that begins with
/dev/hdc
to
/dev/cdrom
leave the rest of the line as is. You also have to be root to edit the file. After this, you should be able to mount the cdrom with
mount /mnt/cdrom

how do i change that line of /dev/hdc?

did
mnt/ dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
work?

If it did, open the file
/etc/fstab
in an editor. There should be a line that looks something like
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom iso9660 iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,nosuid,umask=0,user,exec,nodev 0 0

(it will probably be a bit different for you after /mnt/cdrom; don't worry about it). Just change the
/dev/hdc
to
/dev/cdrom
and save. You have to be root to edit the file. I think the easiest would be to open a terminal, su to root, and then open an editor like kedit with
kedit

(or you can use vi or emacs if you are comfortable with them).

ok, what is an editor? i haven't checked whether mnt/ dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom worked or not, but either way it'd be nice to know what an editor is and how to use it. thanks

an editor is a program to edit a text file. A word processor is a fancy editor with lots of extra functions. You could use a word processor too so long as you save the file as a plain text file.

I hope
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
works. If not try
mount /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom

ok, thanks, # mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom worked well. what commands would i use to use a word processor or a text editor?

You should have kedit installed. It's simple editor like notepad in windows. Open a terminal, su to root and then use the command
kedit

You should be able to use once you start it. It's pretty standard.

ok, what do you mean by "Open a terminal, su to root and then use the command"
i'm working from a command prompt, so i'm assuming that open a terminal means get to a command prompt. as for what su to root means, i'm not sure. i've heard of the command, but i still don't know what it is. i tried the kedit command, and it didn't work. it said it wasnt' a command...i dunno.
thanks,
Elise

are you using a (gui) graphical interface? If so, opening a terminal jsut means opening a window with the command prompt. You can switch to root by using the command
su
and then supplying the root password. As root, you will have privileges that you don't have as a normal user. You can switch back to being a normal user with the command exit.
If you don't have kedit, then try the command
vi {name of file to edit}
this'll open a very quaint editor. You can start editing by pressing the INSERT key. Quit editing by pressing ESC, then save and quit with
:wq