Everything was working fine until now (1 and a half year) and after the last install i am unable to eject/mount my External USB DVD+RW Drive. I just get this messages:

/home/diablo_# mount /mnt/cdrom
mount: /dev/cdrom is not a valid block device

This is correct ... ls -l /dev/cdrom
(It should be a symlink to your CD drive block device say: /dev/hdc... bet it isn't)

Try: mount -t iso9660 /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom

I get and done that:

But the answer was:

Maybe your kernel got some problem with such USB devices, have you recompiled it ?

Well, if it's an external usb DVD+RW drive then it would be sd* not hd*, right ? So it would be /dev/sda or /dev/sdb not /dev/hdb. Are you sure you are trying to mount unmount the right device ?

run this and post output:

Yeah... I don't believe I missed that!

The "last install" would have been slack 11 - was the previous install also slack?

Distros with udev usually have things set up to stick an icon on the desktop when external media is hotplugged. I would imagine that one just inserts the media and closes the drawer manually, then the kernel does the rest.

However, slack has a great deal of flexibility in terms of what to install... do some people still use devfs itself in slack?

Anyway - I'd want to plug in (and switch on) the device, check dmesg | tail (or so) for usb messages. Insert media and do the same. This should tell what is going on.

I doubt that the usb drive was ever at /dev/hdb.

Thanks for help. I will try that in a few hours (didn't have time until now ) About versions i installed: all were slackware 10.1 to 11.0). Drive was working an all of that versions but for unknown reason it don't after the last install of 11.0.

Nothing works. Tried mounting /dev/sda and /dev/sdb as well as ls -l /dev/disk/by-id but for the first i get "not a valid block device" and for the second "no such file or directory".

Which kernel are you using ? If it's a 2.4.x, might wanna try a 2.6.x

do a "mount" command (means no options) see what all device are mounted.

do a a "dmesg |more " get the right device. check for errors.
somitimes u may need to enable/disable dma.

try "eject /dev/device" as root. and see if it works
then edit /etc/fstab.

identify the problem, if nothing is working go for other kernels.
if u want to try an alternate 2.6 kernel go to http://rkrishna.tp.googlepages.com/slackerbasics#alt

regards

Wooha, steady on chaps ...

Before jumping to ( wrong ) conclusions let`s get some data shall we ?

What kernel are you using NOW ? 2.4, 2.6
Did you use one of the Slackware 11 install or did you compile it yourself ?
If you just "installed" one, which one?
if you "compiled" one yourself: did you compiled it with support for USB ?
Do you use "Hotplugging" ? And/Or did you switch from devfs/udev ?

confused on how to check ( these ) things ? Ask us again

I am using 2.4.33.3 kernel.
I installed it from Slackware installation DVD.
bare.i
No, it worked without it last time i installed. Hm, i was in a rush when i was instaling so i passed few "end" steps by pressing enter without reading... Who knows what i enabled/disabled
I think i am using it, but i am not sure
I don't know what is that but i am

I would try a 2.6.x kernel and see if it works in there.

Diablo,

Please follow the suggestions of rkrishna and Simon Bridge: After you plug in/turn on the drive, check the output of dmesg. This should show you what dev was assigned to your usb drive and/or any error messages.

OTOH, I found usb devices to be painful under 2.4 and easy under (at least recent) 2.6. So upping your kernel is IMHO quite worthwhile.

Brian

Well ... no use telling you know that you should have taken time and took care and read everything flashing on the screen, is it?
Now, let us see ...

There are two possibilities: -> You have a system which does not process USB -> in that case consider checking your kernel AND if you're running the appropriate modules ( bare.i is compiled with USB support under module ! How do I know this? There is a directory on the dvd /kernel/bare.i in which you find the precompiled bzImage= the kernel and 'config' the textfile with the options en/dis-abled for this particular kernel. Size could be a indication of which kernel you are using. And yes, you can (re)-install a precompiled kernel from the DVD, without changing anything else ... )
If you are using bare.i: did you install the Kernel-2.4.33.3 modules ?
Remember you can always check under /var/log/packages what SL11 package you installed or use pkgtool.

Other thing you can do is running lsusb. It should give you any USB-device attached to your system. If your DVD do show up you have
The second possibility: -> you configuration is wrong.
So, how is this DVD been setup in /etc/fstab ?
Does this device has a 'link' in /dev ?
Is there a line with '/proc/bus/usb usbfs' perhaps ?

I'am guessing you could have a USB mouse, since nowadays these things work more on USB then anything else. IF that thing is working correctly, then 9 out of 10 you have a configuration problem !

If you're in for a big ride: you can always restart the setup from the installation and redo the part you missed, or reinstall a more suitable kernel at least ... or just restart the whole process of installing from scratch

Whatever you do: READ what is on the screen and take your time !

And yes 2.6 IS a better system for everything USB - but I would not recommend compiling a new kernel to somebody with ... eh ... so little time