I read a bunch of threads about mounting CD's and I couldn't find anything to help me out.
My cdrw drive is /dev/hda and my cdrom is /dev/hdc.
What I want to do is change the pointer for /dev/cdrom to point at /dev/hdc, and I want to add a device /dev/cdrw that points to /dev/hda.
Is this possible? I tried creating a symlink /dev/cdrw that points to /dev/hda, but when I try to mount it I get "mount: special device hda doesn't exist." Is the /dev/cdrom more than just a symlink? From the way it looks, I should be able to create the /dev/cdrw symlink, include it in fstab, and mount away...but it doesn't work. Any ideas?

Uh oh. I may have screwed up my /dev/hda and /dev/hdc. When I looked at man ln, it said that the correct syntax was:
ln [source] [destination], so I did:
ln -s /dev/hda /dev/cdrw
ln -s /dev/hdc /dev/cdrom
But when I check the permissions for /dev/hda and /dev/hdc, they're listed as lrwxrwxrwx, like somehow they became links. The rest of the dev/hd* have permissions brw-rw----

heh. hahaha. this seems like it may be a problem.... since my /dev/cdrom is also a lrwxrwxrwx link pointing right back at /dev/hdc. Same with /dev/cdrw pointing to /dev/hda. Hooray for recursive symlinks (or special devices according to mount). Anyone have any idea how I might restore my /dev/hdc and /dev/hda back to their proper states?
-Kris

which kernel are you using?
are hotplug and udev enabled?

Using 2.4.26, hotplug is disabled, and I'm not sure about udev... I don't think so.

and you are just looking to correct your permissions?


does chmod not work?

No, the problem is in the first character of the permission. The usual "b" has been replaced by "l". Meaning that the original /dev/hda and /dev/hdc block device files have been replaced by sym links, rendering them useless. There is no longer a /dev file referring to either of my CD drives, just the recursive links:
/dev/hda <--> /dev/cdrw
/dev/hdc <--> /dev/cdrom

I need to find out if there's a way to restore the original /dev/hda and /dev/hdc files. I've found some references to the /dev/MAKEDEV script by googling, but from what I can tell, it's only for making links or new devices. Although, ls -l does list some of the settings for /dev files. Instead of the file size, ls -l shows two numbers representing the major and minor device number (used for kernel IO).
If someone could post the results of:
I may be able to rebuild the files using the mknod command. (I guess it's another option for building a device file, according to my googling. You just need the major and minor device numbers).
Thanks for the help.

A crazy type solution would be to enable udev and reboot. Udev makes all the devices at boot time.

BCD-F520D CD-ROM, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive:
brw-rw---- 1 root cdrom 22, 0 2004-09-20 20:24 /dev/hdc

YAMAHA CRW2200E, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive:
brw-rw---- 1 root cdrom 22, 64 2004-09-20 20:24 /dev/hdd

Ok, it's all fixed. mknod worked. I just had to google to find the right major and minor device numbers. I did have to change the group of both files however--they were both created in the root group rather than disk group
Then I made the proper symlinks:
/dev/cdrw -> /dev/hda
/dev/cdrom -> /dev/hdc

What's weird though, is my fstab. I had to leave the devices listed as /dev/hda and /dev/hdc. When I had them listed as /dev/cdrom and /dev/cdrw in fstab and issued a "mount cdrom" or "mount cdrw" I got an error: device hda not listed in fstab blah blah.
Anyway, it all works with a simple "mount cdrom" or "mount cdrw" Beautiful. Now to see if I can mount them as anything other than root.

LOL at the crazy type solution. That probably would have been easier...I've never even heard of udev... oh well.
And I lied about "mount cdrom" haha that only works when I'm in the /dev directory. I gave up root privileges and thought I broke it again....until I realized that I wasn't in the /dev directory anymore. Working like a charm...thanks for the help everybody.