unable to mount cd-rom during installation

magicked · 10-13-2003, 08:10 PM

i booted slackware 9.1 from the cd-rom drive in my HP Pavilion, and everything started up fine. i then formatted the hard drive and set up the swap and primary partitions. during setup to install slackware, i told it to install from slackware CD or DVD, then i told it to scan for the cd automatically. the CD-Rom drive starts up, so i know it is talking to it, but then it comes up with a message saying : "CD/DVD drive not found". any ideas as to what's going on here?

adz · 10-13-2003, 11:50 PM

Didn't you boot from the CD? It shouldn't need to scan for it. This may be a question better asked in the slackware forum. Maybe ask a moderator to move it there.

magicked · 10-14-2003, 01:30 PM

yeah, i booted from the cd. it's really strange...

adz · 10-14-2003, 06:48 PM

Does it give you the option of manually selecting a cd drive?

magicked · 10-14-2003, 07:28 PM

yeah, i've tried about every single one, and i haven't found one that works.

rakriege · 10-14-2003, 07:33 PM

you need to mount the Device.... mount /dev/cdrom/

magicked · 10-14-2003, 07:50 PM

i just tried that, and it says "mount: can't find /dev/cdrom/ in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab"

rakriege · 10-14-2003, 08:07 PM

@ the shell run "cat /proc/devices" to see if its mounted

adz · 10-14-2003, 08:42 PM

Oh you can enter typed commands? I didn't realise. Try mount -t iso9660 /dev/hdc /cdrom. Make sure the directory "/cdrom" exists (or whichever other directory you choose to use) and make sure that /dev/hdc is your cdrom. If you have one cd drive (and no other dvd and/or burner) then hdc is a pretty safe choice.

I thought you were still in the clutches of the automated install. If that fails then show us the contents of /etc/fstab.

magicked · 10-14-2003, 09:06 PM

see, this is my first time trying to install linux. i don't know how to check the /etc/fstab.

i'm trying to install slackware, i haven't even got past that point. when i tried to mount using "mount -t iso9660 /dev/hdc /cdrom" it said "mount: Not a directory"

adz · 10-14-2003, 10:59 PM

Did you make sure that the directory "/cdrom" exists? Slightly weird error message... To check whether you have the directory "/cdrom" you type ls /cdrom. You can do the same for "/mnt/cdrom" or any other directory for that matter. If they don't exist you can then make a directory with the command mkdir <directory name>. You check /etc/fstab by typing cat /etc/fstab. This will spit out the contents of the file. You can also open it using an editor. To do that replace cat in the above command with vi or nano.

magicked · 10-14-2003, 11:18 PM

could it possibly be that i'm using a kernel that doesn't support my cd-rom drive? or that i'm not passing parameters needed by my drive to the kernel?

when i do "cat /etc/fstab" this is what i get:
/dev/fd2 / ext2 defaults 1 1
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

adz · 10-15-2003, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by magicked
could it possibly be that i'm using a kernel that doesn't support my cd-rom drive?

Doubt it. ALL standard kernels come with CD support except in VERY specific cases. You said that you were in the middle of installation when this happened. Maybe certain parts of the system aren't installed yet. I really know nothing about the slackware installation. If that mount command (or any variation) doesn't work then there's something not installed like a module. You can try modprobe cdrom and modprobe ide-cd. If they don't work then you'll have to ask a slacker... Your CD isn't SCSI or SCSI-emulated by any chance is it?

magicked · 10-15-2003, 12:39 AM

yeah, i'm not sure. i'll try asking slackware. the CD is IDE. i'm downloading redhat linux to see if it'll work instead.