slackware 8
 

I just installed slackware 8 for the first time and I have no directory for the floppy drive. I have a directory showing for the cdrom but it will not open. could anyone help.

thanks,
joe

are you talking about like in the /mnt directory..? you should be able to create one.. name it something like floppy..
edit your fstab if you want the entry there as well..

cdrom
 

I have a /cdrom directory which wont open the cdrom any suggestions

Re: cdrom
 

well if i think what i think your trying to do, first you have to mount the cdrom to that directory...

something like this: mount /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom

then you can cd into the directory... are you mounting the cdrom first.. same goes for a floppy disk too...

The cd has to be mounted before you can use it. /cdrom is just the mount point. To mount the cd type the following:

mount /dev/hdb /cdrom
That should work as a generic mount command IF your cdrom is the second drive in your system. If you have two harddrives the cdrom may be hdc etc...To eject it you have to unmount it by typing umount /cdrom or umount /dev/hdb etc... Then you can eject it. Depending on the filesystem on the cd, for example if it's UDF (the packet writing method of cd/rw's), you'll have to add support for it in the kernel or type /sbin/modprobe udf on the command line to load the module. Type man mount to get all of the options you can use, but if it's a plain old cd you shouldn't have to pass any special options. The same is for the floppy. Slack doesn't automagically set things up like other distros, you'll want to get used to doing things alot more manually.

slackware
 

when i type mount /dev/hdb /cdrom I get /dev/hdb is not a valid block device.

one more thing
 

one more thing do you think slackware is better than debian or doesnt it matter.

try this: first must make sure your CD rom is set up in your device files. /dev directory that is.
make sure you have something like this in your fstab file ../etc/fstab

/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,ro,usr 0 0
(all one line) the /dev/cdrom can also be your hdb, however it is setup as primary or secondary controller.. on the first ide... etc
then make sure you have an empty directory /mnt/cdrom/

then use the command:
mount /mnt/cdrom/

then go to the directory /mnt/cdrom/ and your cd files should be there.

even though, i don't have an entry for my cdrom in fstab, i can still mount my cdrom with no problem.

well, i won't discuss in details about slack vs debian.. lets just say i like them both and recommend them for advanced users.

oh you can find some more solutions if that first one doesn't work here: http://www.computing.net/linux/wwwboard/forum/6331.html

i beleive that a simple mount /dev/cdrom (since cdrom should be a link to /dev/hdc or whatever the cdrom is on)
so try mount /dev/cdrom /cdrom
and then when you try to enter the /cdrom directory you should get all that is on the cd... to eject the disk you have to umount it first (umount /cdrom).

cool
 

cool you guys have been a lot of help
thanks
joe