sweet...thanks for your help....lol....

i was already standing on my head and was just about to start singing....but....lol

ok....

i am using slackware 9.1 - kernel 2.4.22

here is my lilo.conf

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
append = "ide2=noprobe ide3=noprobe idebus=33"
boot="/dev/hda"
message = /boot/boot_message.txt

prompt
timeout="180"
default = Windows
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
reset
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
vga="791"
# Normal VGA console
# vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins

image="/boot/vmlinuz"
root="/dev/hdb2"
label="Slackware"
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# Windows XP boot starts here

other = /dev/hda1
label = Windows
table = /dev/hda


here is my dmesg....mind you...there is still quite abit to work on...

Linux version 2.4.22 (root@midas) (gcc version 3.2.3) #6 Tue Sep 2 17:43:01 PDT 2003
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000e0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000003ff40000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000003ff40000 - 000000003ff50000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 000000003ff50000 - 0000000040000000 (ACPI NVS)
Warning only 896MB will be used.
Use a HIGHMEM enabled kernel.
896MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 229376
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 225280 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=Slackware ro root=342 ide2=noprobe ide3=noprobe idebus=33
ide_setup: ide2=noprobe
ide_setup: ide3=noprobe
ide_setup: idebus=33
Initializing CPU#0
Detected 2533.331 MHz processor.
Console: colour dummy device 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 5059.37 BogoMIPS
Memory: 904400k/917504k available (1813k kernel code, 12716k reserved, 614k data, 116k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 8, 1048576 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 262144 (order: 8, 1048576 bytes)
CPU: Trace cache: 12K uops, L1 D cache: 8K
CPU: L2 cache: 512K
CPU: After generic, caps: 3febfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Common caps: 3febfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.53GHz stepping 04
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf0031, last bus=2
PCI: Using configuration type 1
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
PCI: Ignoring BAR0-3 of IDE controller 00:1f.1
Transparent bridge - Intel Corp. 82801BA/CA/DB/EB PCI Bridge
PCI: Using IRQ router PIIX [8086/24c0] at 00:1f.0
PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:1f.1
PCI: Sharing IRQ 5 with 00:1d.2
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
VFS: Disk quotas vdquot_6.5.1
Journalled Block Device driver loaded
vesafb: framebuffer at 0xe0000000, mapped to 0xf880d000, size 3072k
vesafb: mode is 1024x768x16, linelength=2048, pages=1
vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:ea00
vesafb: scrolling: redraw
vesafb: directcolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
pty: 512 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with HUB-6 MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
Real Time Clock Driver v1.10e
keyboard: Timeout - AT keyboard not present?(ed)
keyboard: Timeout - AT keyboard not present?(f4)
floppy0: no floppy controllers found
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 7777K size 1024 blocksize
loop: loaded (max 8 devices)
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes
ICH4: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:1f.1
PCI: Enabling device 00:1f.1 (0005 -> 0007)
PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:1f.1
PCI: Sharing IRQ 5 with 00:1d.2
ICH4: chipset revision 2
ICH4: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xffa0-0xffa7, BIOS settings: hdaMA, hdbMA
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xffa8-0xffaf, BIOS settings: hdcMA, hddMA
SiI3112 Serial ATA: IDE controller at PCI slot 02:06.0
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 02:06.0
SiI3112 Serial ATA: chipset revision 1
SiI3112 Serial ATA: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide2: MMIO-DMA , BIOS settings: hdeio, hdfio
ide3: MMIO-DMA , BIOS settings: hdgio, hdhio
hda: WDC WD1200JB-00DUA0, ATA DISK drive
hdb: WDC AC313000R, ATA DISK drive
blk: queue c03a9d80, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
blk: queue c03a9ebc, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hdc: ST380011A, ATA DISK drive
hdd: SAMSUNG CDRW/DVD SM-348B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
blk: queue c03aa1d4, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hde: no response (status = 0xfe)
hdg: no response (status = 0xfe)
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: attached ide-disk driver.
hda: host protected area => 1
hda: 234441648 sectors (120034 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=14593/255/63, UDMA(100)
hdb: attached ide-disk driver.
hdb: task_no_data_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hdb: task_no_data_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
hdb: host protected area => 1
hdb: 25429824 sectors (13020 MB) w/512KiB Cache, CHS=1582/255/63, UDMA(33)
hdc: attached ide-disk driver.
hdc: host protected area => 1
hdc: 156301488 sectors (80026 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=9729/255/63, UDMA(100)
hdd: attached ide-cdrom driver.
hdd: ATAPI 48X DVD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
Partition check:
hda: hda1 hda2 hda3 < hda5 >
hdb: hdb1 hdb2 hdb3 hdb4
hdc: hdc1
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
md: linear personality registered as nr 1
md: raid0 personality registered as nr 2
md: raid1 personality registered as nr 3
md: raid5 personality registered as nr 4
raid5: measuring checksumming speed
8regs : 2914.000 MB/sec
32regs : 1821.200 MB/sec
pIII_sse : 3252.400 MB/sec
pII_mmx : 2843.600 MB/sec
p5_mmx : 2826.000 MB/sec
raid5: using function: pIII_sse (3252.400 MB/sec)
md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
LVM version 1.0.5+(22/07/2002)
Initializing Cryptographic API
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
IP: routing cache hash table of 8192 buckets, 64Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 262144 bind 65536)
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
FAT: bogus logical sector size 0
UMSDOS: msdos_read_super failed, mount aborted.
FAT: bogus logical sector size 0
FAT: bogus logical sector size 0
reiserfs: found format "3.6" with standard journal
reiserfs: checking transaction log (device ide0(3,66)) ...
for (ide0(3,66))
ide0(3,66):Using r5 hash to sort names
VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 116k freed
Adding Swap: 265064k swap-space (priority -1)
reiserfs: found format "3.6" with standard journal
reiserfs: checking transaction log (device ide0(3,68)) ...
for (ide0(3,68))
ide0(3,68):Using r5 hash to sort names
NTFS driver v1.1.22 [Flags: R/O MODULE]
NTFS: Warning! NTFS volume version is Win2k+: Mounting read-only
NTFS: Warning! NTFS volume version is Win2k+: Mounting read-only
NTFS: Warning! NTFS volume version is Win2k+: Mounting read-only
NTFS: Warning! NTFS volume version is Win2k+: Mounting read-only
Linux agpgart interface v0.99 (c) Jeff Hartmann
agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 816M
agpgart: Detected an Intel(R) 845G, but could not find the secondary device. Assuming a non-integrated video card.
agpgart: Detected Intel(R) 845G chipset
agpgart: AGP aperture is 128M @ 0xf0000000
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
usb.c: registered new driver usbscanner
scanner.c: 0.4.13:USB Scanner Driver
scanner.c: probe_scanner: User specified USB scanner -- Vendor:Product - 4b8:808
gameport0: Emu10k1 Gameport at 0xdc00 size 8 speed 1028 kHz
scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices
eepro100.c:v1.09j-t 9/29/99 Donald Becker http://www.scyld.com/network/eepro100.html
eepro100.c: $Revision: 1.36 $ 2000/11/17 Modified by Andrey V. Savochkin <saw@saw.sw.com.sg> and others
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 02:08.0
eth0: Intel Corp. 82801BD PRO/100 VE (LOM) Ethernet Controller, 00:07:E9D7:B7, IRQ 11.
Board assembly 000000-000, Physical connectors present: RJ45
Primary interface chip i82555 PHY #1.
General self-test: passed.
Serial sub-system self-test: passed.
Internal registers self-test: passed.
ROM checksum self-test: passed (0x04f4518b).
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 02:01.0
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:1f.5
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:1f.3
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:1f.5 to 64
intel8x0: clocking to 48000
i810_rng hardware driver 0.9.8 loaded
PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 00:1d.7
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:1d.7 to 64
ehci_hcd 00:1d.7: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB2
ehci_hcd 00:1d.7: irq 9, pci mem f8de5c00
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
ehci_hcd 00:1d.7: enabled 64bit PCI DMA
PCI: 00:1d.7 PCI cache line size set incorrectly (0 bytes) by BIOS/FW.
PCI: 00:1d.7 PCI cache line size corrected to 16.
ehci_hcd 00:1d.7: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2003-Jun-19/2.4
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 6 ports detected
uhci.c: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v1.1
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:1d.0
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:1d.0 to 64
uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xe800, IRQ 11
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
PCI: Found IRQ 3 for device 00:1d.1
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:1d.1 to 64
uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xe880, IRQ 3
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:1d.2
PCI: Sharing IRQ 5 with 00:1f.1
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:1d.2 to 64
uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xec00, IRQ 5
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.1-1, assigned address 2
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x46d/0xc506) is not claimed by any active driver.
hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.1-2, assigned address 3
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 4 ports detected
hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.1-2.2, assigned address 4
usb.c: USB device 4 (vend/prod 0x781/0x9393) is not claimed by any active driver.
hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.1-2.3, assigned address 5
scanner.c: USB scanner device (0x04b8/0x0808) now attached to scanner0
hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.1-2.4, assigned address 6
usb.c: USB device 6 (vend/prod 0x45e/0x39) is not claimed by any active driver.
hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.0-2, assigned address 2
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 4 ports detected
hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.0-2.1, assigned address 3
usb.c: USB device 3 (vend/prod 0x45e/0x1d) is not claimed by any active driver.
usb.c: registered new driver usbmouse
input0: Logitech USB Receiver on usb3:2.0
input1: Microsoft Microsoft IntelliMouse® Optical on usb3:6.0
usbmouse.c: v1.6:USB HID Boot Protocol mouse driver
usb.c: registered new driver hiddev
usb.c: registered new driver hid
input: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [045e:001d] on usb2:3.0
input: USB HID v1.10 Device [045e:001d] on usb2:3.1
hid-core.c: v1.8.1 Andreas Gal, Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz>
hid-core.c: USB HID support drivers
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Vendor: Generic Model: STORAGE DEVICE Rev: 0119
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
sda: Unit Not Ready, sense:
Current 00:00: sns = 70 2
ASC=3a ASCQ= 0
Raw sense data:0x70 0x00 0x02 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x0a 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x3a 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
sda : status = 1, message = 00, host = 0, driver = 08
Current sd00:00: sns = 70 2
ASC=3a ASCQ= 0
Raw sense data:0x70 0x00 0x02 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x0a 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x3a 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
sda : block size assumed to be 512 bytes, disk size 1GB.
sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
ldm_validate_partition_table(): Disk read failed.
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
unable to read partition table
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 4
USB Mass Storage support registered.
usbdevfs: USBDEVFS_CONTROL failed dev 5 rqt 128 rq 6 len 55 ret -6
usb.c: registered new driver usblp
printer.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 5 if 1 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x04B8 pid 0x0808
printer.c: v0.11: USB Printer Device Class driver
usb.c: registered new driver usbkbd
usbkbd.c: :USB HID Boot Protocol keyboard driver
usbdevfs: USBDEVFS_CONTROL failed dev 3 rqt 128 rq 6 len 18 ret -6
usbdevfs: USBDEVFS_CONTROL failed dev 3 rqt 128 rq 6 len 18 ret -6
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,EPP]
lp0: using parport0 (polling).
input4: MadCatz Panther XL on gameport0.0
0: nvidia: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 NVIDIA Kernel Module 1.0-5336 Wed Jan 14 18:29:26 PST 2004

a cat /dev/cdrom ....gives me output

ls -l /dev/cdrom gives me brwxrwxrwx 2 root disk 22, 64 Jun 9 2002 /dev/cdrom
ls -l /dev/sr0 gives me brwxrwxrwx 1 root disk 11, 0 Apr 12 1999 /dev/sr0
ls -l /dev/hdd brwxrwxrwx 2 root disk 22, 64 Jun 9 2002 /dev/hdd

and just for kicks...here is my fstab


/dev/hdb3 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hdb2 / reiserfs defaults 1 1
/dev/hdb1 /boot ext2 defaults 1 2
/dev/hdb4 /home reiserfs defaults 1 2
/dev/hda2 /mnt/data ntfs auto,owner,umask=022 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows ntfs auto,owner,umask=022 0 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/programs ntfs auto,owner,umask=022 0 0
/dev/hdc1 /mnt/storage ntfs auto,owner,umask=022 0 0
/dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,user,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
//10.0.0.3/e /mnt/tv_e smbfs auto,user,umask=022,guest 0 0
//10.0.0.3/c /mnt/tv_c smbfs auto,user,umask=022,guest 0 0
//10.0.0.3/f /mnt/tv_f smbfs auto,user,umask=022,guest 0 0
.................................


dig

few more things:
output of lsmod
file /dev/cdrom

everything else looks just fine to my eyes; you don't have ide-scsi emulation enabled, fstab looks fine, permissions are set, the kernel sees everything correctly

and mount /mnt/cdrom or /dev/hdd still won't work?

the only other thing i can possibly think of is the scsi emulation module loading or the idea that fstab would rather have /dev/cdrom instead of /dev/hdd on the drive's entry line (though neither of these should make any difference whatsoever)

if your lsmod shows the ide-scsi module, edit your /etc/rc.d/rc.modules file and comment out the line that says modprobe ide-scsi
if file /dev/cdrom shows a symlink to /dev/hdd, place /dev/cdrom in place of /dev/hdd in fstab

reboot and try either mount /mnt/cdrom or mount /dev/cdrom

my lsmod is below....but what do you mean "file /dev/cdrom"

and it is not that i cant mount the cdrom...i just want to be ablr to do it as a normal user...and not have to su over all the frickin time...

thanks

dule Size Used by Tainted: P
nvidia 1965152 10 (autoclean)
a3d 3560 0 (unused)
snd-pcm-oss 37572 0 (unused)
snd-mixer-oss 12624 0 [snd-pcm-oss]
usbkbd 3416 0 (unused)
printer 7040 0
usb-storage 65536 0 (unused)
keybdev 1952 0 (unused)
mousedev 4244 1
hid 21156 0 (unused)
usbmouse 2008 0 (unused)
uhci 24496 0 (unused)
ehci-hcd 16872 0 (unused)
i810_rng 2656 0 (unused)
snd-intel8x0 18376 0
snd-mpu401-uart 3264 0 [snd-intel8x0]
snd-emu10k1 62260 0
snd-pcm 56416 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-intel8x0 snd-emu10k1]
snd-timer 13508 0 [snd-pcm]
snd-hwdep 4864 0 [snd-emu10k1]
snd-util-mem 1136 0 [snd-emu10k1]
snd-page-alloc 6356 0 [snd-intel8x0 snd-emu10k1 snd-pcm]
snd-ac97-codec 43532 0 [snd-intel8x0 snd-emu10k1]
snd-rawmidi 12672 0 [snd-mpu401-uart snd-emu10k1]
snd-seq-device 3904 0 [snd-emu10k1 snd-rawmidi]
snd 30148 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-intel8x0 snd-mpu401-uart snd-emu10k1 snd-pcm snd-timer snd-hwdep snd-util-mem snd-ac97-codec snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device]
soundcore 3332 10 [snd]
eepro100 19380 1
mii 2304 0 [eepro100]
ide-scsi 9424 0
emu10k1-gp 1352 0 (unused)
gameport 1452 0 [a3d snd-intel8x0 emu10k1-gp]
joydev 5888 0 (unused)
input 3200 0 [a3d usbkbd keybdev mousedev hid usbmouse joydev]
scanner 10488 0 (unused)
usbcore 58400 1 [usbkbd printer usb-storage hid usbmouse uhci ehci-hcd scanner]
agpgart 39576 4
ntfs 51040 4 (autoclean)

not sure if you've tried this. But under debian the /dev/cdrom or /dev/hdc is owned by user root and group cdrom so for users to be able to access cdrom all i need to do is

adduser username cdrom

log out then login and presto.

in slackware 9.0 i also used Kuser(user manager),alloted user to "disks" group......hope that helps

Not sure if you ever got this working but I had the same problem. Followed all the steps that are listed on this thread to no avail. Here is what I did that finally fixed it.

Setuid to root on mount


sudo chmod u+s /bin/mount


After I did this I could successfully mount/unmount my cdrom and floppy.

Good luck!

$ mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/hd
mount: only root can do that

is there a way to use that under a non-root/superuser mode?

any ideas?

sorry for the hijack....

u can edit some file
is /etc/fstab
/dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,ro 0 0

to...

/dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,user,ro 0 0

when user need to mount ---->
mount /mnt/cdrom (this command only.)

!!don't this "mount /dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom"!!)
use full floppy drive , USB storage and digital camera ( usb port) too!!

The lines below might help.
regards,Bruno

bb@localhost:/mnt> su
Password:
localhost:/mnt # which mount
/bin/mount
localhost:/mnt # chmod ug+s /bin/mount
localhost:/mnt # exit
exit
bb@localhost:/mnt> ls -l /bin/mount -rwsr-sr-x


one line from my /etc/fstab

/dev/hdb1 /mnt/backup vfat rw,noauto,users,gid=users,umask=0002 0 0


when mounting as user, do

bb@localhost: mount /dev/hdb1

and NOT

bb@localhost: mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt/backup

(the latter will result in the meddage "only root can do that"

I have the answer for your problem,

open /etc/fstab with vi or another text-program and edit this line:

/dev/hdc /cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner blabla

to:

/dev/hdc /cdrom iso9660 noauto,umask=000,users,uid=1001,gid=100 0 0

you just leave the part with /dev/hdc or whatever your cdrom is called in your linux the way it is. You also leave the mountpoint /cdrom or whatever yours is, the way it is in your fstab. iso9660 also stays the same. The only thing you add, or change is noauto,umask=000,users,uid=1001,gid=100

uid stands for your userID, you must check what your userID is and replace 1001 with your userID (works best with Kuser).
gid stands for your groupID, it often is 100, but you also can check that with Kuser or another program.

Hope I could help you!

I got this same problem. Nothing's worked, so far.. it's as if the mount command itself's just being a bitch. When I'm running as root, everything works fine. It's just as a normal user (which I would never even bother having had set up if it weren't for wine, but.. eh) that the problems start happening.

I really don't know how anyone can take advice like "you shouldn't always be running as root" seriously if it's so goddamn impossible not to.

Here is my cdrom section in fstab:
It works! I simply changed user & group ID to 99 which is 'nobody'! No need for passing arguments at boot time, changing mod for /dev/cdrom or recreating the link!

P.S: Don't forget, when you want to mount just type
It will automaticly mount it under /mnt/cdrom! if you try mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom it doesn't work...

Nope, didn't work... I also can't mount anything else, either, as a normal user. With root, it works just fine, though.

"Must be superuser to mount"

Ok here's my skinny, Slackware 9.1 (no swaret updates, fresh install)

I had the same problem mounting CDroms and USB drives to my system. The issue I had wasn't the permissions of the mount points, it was in the fstab like they posted earlier. It was the command I was using. It seems there is a restriction on the mount command itself for regular users. mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom is not allowed.. the drive or device has to be in fstab to begin with... and you can only type mount /dev/cdrom ... it won;t let you specify where to mount it because (obviously... ) root wants you to mount it to a specific place, not anywhere you darned well please. here's my fstab for my cdrom and other devices if it helps. I also set up aliases in the profiles so i can just type cdrom or ucdrom to mount them

/dev/hda3 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hda5 /tmp ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hda6 /var ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hdb1 /archive ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hdb2 /pub ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hdb3 /shared ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom auto noauto,users,ro,exec 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/hd auto noauto,users,rw,exec 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

oh... since users can;t specify anything other than the device to mount (assuming the device exists) they also can;t specify the FS type... so it's a good idea to use the auto option under that section. Note the USB drives i have get mounted as scsii drives. If you need to mount more than one then just set up multiple /dev/sda's to multiple /mnt/hd's to accomodate them being plugged in at the same time.

you also have to set the permissions to /mnt/cdrom and /mnt/hd (if that's where you want the usb drive connected) to chmod o+rx and chmod o+rwx respectively if you want to allow full access. (or whatever you want the actual permissions to be.)

It took me hours to find that out about the mount command. I even tried messing around with sudoers and everything. it was a mess... but it works flawlessly now.

OH! make sure you have hotplug support to handle your USB devices or they won;t get seen correctly.

NOTE: Forgot to mention... if you don;t set the exec in the fstab, you won;t be able to go inot folders or execute scripts or programs stored on those devices... (IE my setup program on my Quake2 CD's) the options are simple in explanation and you shouldn;t need any umasks or uid's or anything fancy.

noauto = don;t auto mount this device even if there is media present
users=allow all regular users to access (thereby mount /dev/cdrom) this device
rw / ro = read/write and read only respectively
exec = allow users to enter directories and run executables from this device (may or may not be a security issue)

For me either.

Then I did some theoretical thinking and realized that even though user(s) option should give an ordinary user possibility to mount, (s)he will still not be able to write to mtab (/etc/mtab). I don't know whether this user option should handle that or not. So I figured that either I need to enable writing on the mtab file or put suid bit on in the mount and umount commands. Allowing writing to mtab didn't sound like a good choice so I chose the latter one - I put the suid bit on:
Please bare in mind that I'm running an old version of RedHat, so you might need to check with 'which' where your mount/umount actually resides.

I'm not totally confident that this was the best or even a good solution, but this was the only way I got it working.

Unfortunately this is still kind of a guess, I don't know whether this will work for you or not. Hope it works though ...