Asks for Installation DVD but opens CDROM drive
 

I am a complete Linux newcomer. Having said that, I have managed to successfully install Mandrake 10 beside Windows ME. Now I can really get learning.
I am trying to get my internet connection up and running, but I failed to install kppp. I have gone to the software manager to install new software, but when it comes to asking me for my installation DVD the machine opens my CDRom tray and not my DVD tray. It says Please insert Installation DVD (x86) (cdrom1) and the CD tray opens. I think it needs to read (cdrom2)...is there any way on KDE that I can change this so that it knows to ask for the installation dvd and open the correct tray?

Sorry to be long-winded, and thanks in advance...

Welcome to linux! It's quite a bit different from windows, so don't get discouraged when things don't work out.

I am a bit confused as to the state of affairs concerning your computer. My understanding is that you have, at least, two optical drives in your computer, one a DVD and the other a CD.

Situation 1) The installation disk is a cd, and not a DVD, don't worry about what tray opens. Stick it in where-ever and enjoy.

Situation 2) The installation disk is a DVD, and not a CD. Your distro has your CDRom confused with your DVDrom. Perhaps your DVDrom is not in fstab, and only your CDRom is? Could you post your fstab.

Situation 3) Unknown cause for optical drive problems still exists. You can mount your windows drive. Download the sources for kppp from windows, mount tjhe windows drive from linux, and compile it. Though the optical drive problems still exist you now have an internet connection and can read Slashdot in peace.

Assuming situation 2, my guess is that you DVDRom is not in /etc/fstab (especially if you have it as a slave). You'll need to edit add it to fstab with a text editor of your choice. I use emacs.

You can read all about fstab by getting to a terminal (konsole is the program you'll want, if you're using KDE) and issue the command "man fstab". man is the program that allows we users to read the manual pages for the various apps.

This place is a great forum to ask questions. Also cruise over to www.tldp.org for lots of HOWTOs and guides. Be sure to read http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html since some people can be mean.

<SHAMELESS_PROMOTION>
If you really want to learn Linux, use Slackware (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slackware). It's not as user friendly, but user friendly kind of gets in the way of real learning.

Slackware's a bit like a father through his child into the swimming pool to teach her to swim, so at first it can be a bit overwhelming. It's worth it though, you'll be surprised at how fast and how much you learn.
</SHAMELESS_PROMOTION>

Hope I've helped, and again welcome to Linux. If you're out to learn linux, be prepaired to read and read and read...

Thank you for your reply, ghp.
It seems as if Situation 2 most closely resembles mine. It is a DVD I am using - Mandrake wants me to insert it in cdrom1 and opens that tray. It seems to recognise cdrom2 as the DVD drive because I have used it successfully.
Thank you for your warning also...

I know I have much to learn. I also know that in order to learn I have to get online because Linux seems to rely so heavily on an internet connection - but it's a bit choosy about what modem you use. I'm trying to configure the setup; it wants my installation dvd in order to do that, and then opens the cdrom tray. I ignore that and open the dvd tray and insert the installation dvd there, and it won't read it...yadda yadda

I won't get discouraged...and I'll keep on reading...

Is your cdrom setup as a master to the dvdrom? Could you post the output of "cat /etc/fstab"?

The software manager is a frontend to a program called urpmi and not part of kde. It looks like the install program couldn't tell the difference between a cdrom and a dvd and configured urpmi to point to the wrong drive.

Could you print your file /etc/urpmi/urpmi.cfg as well as /etc/fstab for us ?

If we could see both we might be able to tell you how to reconfigure urpmi correctly.

Thanks again for your patience...but it is an education!

So, the good news is that I can tell that etc/urpmi/urpmi.cfg reads:

Installation\ DVD\ (x86)\ (cdrom1) removable://mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPMS {
hdlist: hdlist.Installation DVD (x86) (cdrom1).cz
with_hdlist: ../../Mandrake/base/hdlist1.cz
removable: /dev/hda
key-ids: 70771ff3
modified
}

(I know that my system recognises the DVD drive as cdrom2)

The bad news is that I can't find etc/fstab...it doesn't seem to exist. I guess the even worse news is that I should troll over to http://www.faqs.org/docs/linux_scrat...r08/fstab.html
and whip myself up a file, which, frankly, looks a petrifying ordeal at my tender linux age.

Am I right?

And are there any pointers you can give me to make the way easier?

No, it's there. That your drives are mounted is testament to that.

Make sure you've spelt it correctly. It's location is at, and this has to be typed verbatum /etc/fstab. Don't forget the slash in front. From a command line execute and post the output here.

Unless Mandrake has recently started to do something crazy that I'm unaware of. In that case kick yourself up to root and execute and it'll spit out the location.

Learning linux on the fly!! It's gotta be the only way to do it. All this logging out of windows, logging on to linux...back onto windows - is a real pain...

Anyhoo - the command line execute worked a treat, and the result was this information: (I couldn't seem to cut and paste from emacs so I just copied it out - I'm sure I made no mistakes)

/dev/hde6 / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hda /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom2 auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15,sync,codepage=850 0 0
/dev/hde1 /mnt/windows vfat umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hde5 swap swap defaults 0 0

What do you think?

Ok, it looks like my suspicion was correct and urpmi really thinks the dvd should be mounted on your cdrom drive.

To correct this problem, run the following as root:

Step 1 (remove the old entry):

urpmi.removemedia -a

Step 2 (add a new entry correctly):

mount /mnt/cdrom2

urpmi.addmedia main removable://mnt/cdrom2/Mandrake/RPMS with ../base/hdlist1.cz

I tested this on my own system with my own dvd and it works. Usually I just use ftp sources from www.urpmi.org/easyurpmi.

If you want more details there is online doc on your system:

man urpmi
man urpmi.addmedia
man urpmi.removemedia

Also check out the urpmi site and the easyurpmi page.

Okay, so I didn't follow your instructions to the letter, but I was able to make a change. The software manager then recognised the Installation DVD and I was able to install kppp. The etc/urpmi/urpmi.cfg now reads like this:

Installation\ DVD\ (x86)\ (cdrom1) removable://mnt/cdrom2/Mandrake/RPMS {
hdlist: hdlist.Installation DVD (x86) (cdrom1).cz
with_hdlist: ../../Mandrake/base/hdlist1.cz
removable: /dev/ide/host0/bus1/target0/lun0/cd
key-ids: 70771ff3
}

Which, oddly enough, makes me feel a little uncomfortable...I think because the second "removable" line used to say "removable: /dev/hda" and now says something much longer - but, hey, maybe that's a good thing.

Of course, after all that work, I still wasn't able to configure the modem and set up an internet connection...at which point both of you are nodding sagely because surely configuring the modem could never have been that easy. It was a cheap old thing and highly unlikely to be compatible with this setup.

I'll search around and see what gives. The massive thick book sitting on my desk suggests heading over to http://www.o2.net/~gromitkc/20000326a.html and seeing whether my modem works with linux, so I'll start there.

Thanks, again, very much for your help...

Oh, just a follow up...

I'm going to head over to http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/ instead.

I have the ability to nod sagely? I need some sort of neat hooded robe then!

Never mind, glad we could help. If you have more troubles with your modem I suggest starting a new thread.

Any more questions here will probably be buried too deep to get any help.

Enjoy!