When I put a cd in the dvd-rom drive, it does not mount. I checked etc fstab and everything looks okay. I have no idea what is wrong. Even when I go to /mnt/cdrom2 nothing is there. What gives?

Try with "# mount /dev/hdX"

(hdX = dvd)

make sure you have the right mount points the fstab file.

do a mkdir /mnt/cdrom

then type mount /mnt/cdrom

if that doesnt' work try this:

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

this should mount your secondary master drive...aka your cdrom.


hda - primary master
hdb - primary slave
hdc - secondary master
hdd - scondary slave.

let me know if this helps!

Cool, but now here comes an even more newbie question... How do I unmount the drive lol? I tried using unmount but that didn't do it...

Also, why isnt the desktop icon of the mounted drive showing up? This is usually an automatic procedure...

Also you might want to open the box and check the cable from the drive to the mother board and make sure that it is seated firmly in the motherboard and in the back of the drive and that nothing is loose.

Then you might want to look and make sure that it is set properly as the master or slave depending on whether or not another drive shares the IDE cable with it.

Then you can also check your BIOS settings and make sure that your BIOS is set up to detect the drive and isn't set up to ignore that IDE controller.

You can try changing your BIOS settings to "not plug and play OS" and see if that helps.

Also, backtrack and think of anything you changed in your hardware or BIOS settings (such as flashing the BIOS) that might have broken your current set up.

If all of that checks out and it still won't mount, you can try accessing the drive from Windows to ensure that the problem is Linux and not a problem with the drive itself (sometimes they just crap out on you and you think the OS or some software is not working when really the drive itself is fried from ripping too much illegal music) LOL!

In Mandrake 10 you aren't supposed to have to do that. The drive should mount and unmount automagically when you put in or pull out a disk.

What desktop are you using?

KDE 3.2, a linux only box. Windows XP will not reinstall for some reason, but thats another ballgame in itself... I wouldn't dare ask people for help with that problem on a linux forum lol...

Oh yeah, I never changed the bios or cmos settings at all. I just reinstalled Mandrake Monday because I tried to reinstall windows xp home so I can burn dvds and use photoshop (I cannot for the life of me copy dvd's in linux without a hassle. Also, I am just better with photoshop than GIMP. I tried wine but photoshop wouldn't install so I need windows back).

LOL!

Maybe Linux knows what you are planning and has taken steps to prevent you from poisoning the hard drive.

I hate to say this to you, but frequently people who download Mandrake 10 get a corrupted iso. The .iso file will still burn to a CD, and the installation routine will still run, but something on it will be slightly corrupt and ruin everything. Do you still have the .iso files? Did you run md5sum on them to make sure your installation .iso files were pure?

Did the CD suddenly stop mounting, or has it ever mounted with this install?

no, i'm using a store bought Mandrake 10.0 Official Power Pack set. It came with 6 cds.

Ah.

Was the CD ever working before on this installation, or has it never worked?

Yeah, everything always worked fine until now...

Try different disks and see if it can read them - try an audio disk if you were using a CDR, and see if the drive can read it and self-mounts. The problem may be the drive throwing a rod, not your operating system. The OS may be correctly reporting that it cannot mount a drive that can't see that it has a disk in it.

You should still open up the box and check the hardware connections - power feed and the IDE cable just to be sure. I shook my head at that advice once for a week before I finally opened the box and saw the cable had fallen out of the back. It seems unlikely but it happens.

Also check your BIOS settings - sometimes a power surge will cause it to lose saved settings and reset.

Alright, i'll bite an open it ...