Found dvd, can't mount it.

Odyssey1942 · 12-29-2006, 04:31 PM

Have determined that my newly (physically) installed DVDRW is /dev/hdd.

I made a directory as /mnt/dvdrw (which I can see in the file manager, and it is empty)

and ran the command:

Code:

sudo mount /dev/hdd /mnt/dvdrw

but received the message:

Quote:

No medium found

and the dvdrw does not show up in the device manager. What am I doing wrong?

running Ubuntu 5.04

bernied · 12-29-2006, 04:35 PM

Just to be sure - was there a DVD or CD in the drive at the time you tried the mount command?

Odyssey1942 · 12-29-2006, 04:42 PM

This is strange. A few minutes later, I put a cd in the dvdrw drive and ran the mount command again. This time it gave the message:

Quote:

mount: block device /dev/hdd is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: mount point /dev/dvdrw is not a directory

Then a desktop icon showed up and I clicked on it and could see the cd contents. I then tried to eject it and got this message:

Quote:

Error: mount point /mnt/dvdrw is not below /media/
eject: unmount of `/dev/hdd' failed

Do I have to unmount it before I can eject the cd?

Edit: Berneid, I see that I cross-posted. Thanks for yours. I think there was a cd in the drive when I first tried to mount it, but not 100% sure. In any case, it seems to have mounted correctly. Now how to get the cd out?

Odyssey1942 · 12-29-2006, 04:49 PM

Well, I am getting less timid about trying things. Ran the command:

Code:

sudo mount /dev/hdd /mnt/dvdrw

and the icon disappeared and I can now eject the cd.

Next question is how to "permanently" mount the dvdrw, so that anytime I put a Cd or DVD into it, it will show on the desktop and I will be able to eject without unmounting?

Edit: When I put a blank dvd+rw into the drive and try to mount it with

sudo mount /dev/hdd /mnt/dvdrw

I get the message:

mount: block device /dev/hdd is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: you must specify the filesystem type

The blank DVD surely is not write-protected. What am I doing wrong? TIA

Odyssey1942 · 12-30-2006, 02:24 PM

OK, getting there. Have learned that one doesn't mount dvd's (disks) and software is needed to write, so downloaded k3b which d/l'd, installed, and worked about as well as one could possibly hope. Have now written my /home folder to dvd, tested the dvd by opening a few files at random, and am now ready to repartition (/, /root, and /home), then install Ubuntu 6.06.

Two questions. One is that all the files written to the dvd will be write protected, so when I copy them to the new /home partition, can someone give me some guidance as to the most effective way to do this, also changing the RO to RW along the way?

Secondly, before I do the above, does anyone see any:

"Have you.....'s", "Are you.....'s", "By the way,....'s" and similar that they would kindly share with me before irreversible things start happening. TIA.

masonm · 12-30-2006, 03:04 PM

If you preserve the permissions when you write them to DVD it'll be ok when you copy them back. I believe that is k3b's default.

I copy files between DVD, flash drive, and hard drive all the time without any permission problems.

If you're able to burn files to the drive then you have adequate permissions to it.

A removable medium drive can't be permanently mounted as it must have a medium in it to be mounted, but automount will mount it for you when you insert a mountable medium. I'm pretty sure this is enabled by default in Ubuntu.

Gnomebaker is the Gnome burning app, and it's pretty good but I think you're better off with k3b. Just tossing this in there in case you prefer to stick with Gnome apps.

Odyssey1942 · 12-31-2006, 07:51 AM

k3b worked well for me in this first use, so will stay with it for now.

Question regarding

Quote:

I'm pretty sure this is enabled by default in Ubuntu.

I understand you to mean that automount is enabled by default and indeed my CD player will automount a CDROM disk, but the DVD does not. Do I need to add a line to fstab?

and

Quote:

A removable medium drive can't be permanently mounted as it must have a medium in it to be mounted, but automount will mount it for you when you insert a mountable medium.

Would it be the case that CDROMS and DVDROMS would "automount", but blank CD's and DVD's would not and would need to be mounted from the command line?

Finally, is there any advantage to creating a tar with /home and burning this to the DVD? (I have seen this recommended elsewhere, but not as a comparison to a straight copy-type burn.

Thanks.

teckk · 12-31-2006, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Would it be the case that CDROMS and DVDROMS would "automount", but blank CD's and DVD's would not and would need to be mounted from the command line?

Blank disks won't mount. They don't have a file system on them. A file system is what mount mounts.

http://linuxcommand.org/man_pages/mount8.html

masonm · 12-31-2006, 09:19 AM

Teckk already answered the one question correctly. You can't mount a medium that lacks a file system.

You can tar the files you want to back up, with permissions preserved, and then burn that. It ensures permissions are preserved and will make for a smaller burn.

And yes, you would want to create an fstab entry for your DVD device.

JimBass · 12-31-2006, 09:27 AM

Here's a sample multi ROM fstab. I have noauto enabled in mine, but you can switch it to auto, which I believe will mount the contents of a C(DV)D as soon as the tray is closed. Where I have hda and hdb you'll want hdc and hdd.

Code:

jim@JimsBeastie:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
/dev/sda3       /               reiserfs defaults        0       1
/dev/sda1       /boot           reiserfs notail          0       2
/dev/sda5       /home           reiserfs defaults        0       2
/dev/sda2       none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/hda        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto     0       0
/dev/hdb        /media/cdrom1   udf,iso9660 user,noauto     0       0
/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto  0       0

Peace,
JimBass

speck · 12-31-2006, 07:50 PM

Using tar and growisofs, you can also treat a DVD disk like a tape. It preserves permissions and also allows you to extract only specific files from the DVD.

Code:

tar -L 4590000 -cvf - /home | growisofs -Z /dev/dvd=/dev/fd/0

jschiwal · 12-31-2006, 08:35 PM

The noauto option will cause this entry to be skipped when running "mount -a". You need this for removable media so that it isn't mounted when booting up. If there isn't a disc in the device, this would stall the boot process.

Please read the "man mount" and "man 5 fstab" man pages.

Also, I don't know but Ubuntu may use udev and some helper programs to mount discs automatically when they are inserted. I don't have Ubuntu but your documentation or a Ubuntu wiki may have details.

If the original posters /etc/fstab has an entry like:

Code:

/dev/cdrom      /media/cdrom    subfs   noauto,fs=cdfss,ro,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,iocharset=utf8 0 0

then it may be the case.

Odyssey1942 · 01-01-2007, 09:41 AM

Thanks for all the great posts.

You will be encouraged to hear that I think I have my head around the language for blank DVD's (although all the beginner books clearly state that in Linux, everything is a file. Now I know that blanks are an/the exception).

I am off to the man pages (although usually written in Greek, I know that the more I read them, the sooner I will be able to read Greek) and trusty google for the newbie-friendly tutorials and 'how-to's".

and Happy New Year!