cdrom kinda almost works...

[chzlchp]

Why does my cdrom only recognize audio cd's and nothing else. I cannot install an app. that I have on cd, nor can I view pictures on cd. Can only play audio, and only when it feels like it. What's going on (or more correctly, what's not going on) here?

[mrBen]

Which distribution are you using? Have you tried mounting the CD? What error messages do you get?

[serz]

You're probably not mounting the cds? Why I say this? Because to play audio-cds you won't have to mount them...

mount /mnt/cdrom will probably work. If it's not /mnt/cdrom it's /mnt/media or something.

[chzlchp]

Which distribution are you using? Have you tried mounting the CD? What error messages do you get?

I am using Mandrake 10.1

When I run 'mount' without any parameters, I get (partially):

/dev/hdc on /mnt/cdrom type iso9660 (ro,noexec,nosuid,nodev,users,umask=0,iocharset=is o8859-1,codepage=850,user=lowell)

Inasmuch as I can:

a) use the installation discs, and;
b) play music cd's, what is missing? What don't I get?

[tcarradine]

try:

mount /dev/hdc

and then check /mnt/cdrom for the data

Tim

[serz]

For audio-cds you don't need to mount it. You would have to if you want to use a data cd (installation disks for example).

[Davy]

i have mandrake 10.1 also. whenever i want to use to the cdrom drive; i give myself root privelages and then i type in mount /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom

[serz]

i have mandrake 10.1 also. whenever i want to use to the cdrom drive; i give myself root privelages and then i type in mount /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom
Just so you know, you can refer to it just by typing either mount /dev/hdc or mount /dev/cdrom, that would work as long as you have your cdrom entry in /etc/fstab.

:)

[chzlchp]

[lowell@localhost lowell]$ mount /dev/hdc
mount: /dev/hdc already mounted or /mnt/cdrom busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/hdc is already mounted on /mnt/cdrom
[lowell@localhost lowell]$

This is what I get in response to "mount/dev/hdc". When I attempt to open a [data] cd contained in the cd-drive, by default Amarok is activated, and of course that app. balks at being asked to deal with data-it doesn't.

So...what's next in the bag of linux tricks?

[chzlchp]

So...I have tried every suggestion offered here. All of my documentation say with glowing confidence that I should be getting some use out of my CD drive. It comes as no great surprise to me that none of the suggestions work. None of the 'documentation' works. It seems that, in this linux thing, nothing seems to work. What is the point?

[je_fro]

No point. If you're ready to give up then rm -rf / and reinstall windows.
See Ya.
But if you are the adventurous type, try mounting a data cd and post here the following...
umount /dev/hdc
mount /dev/hdc
tail -n 20 /var/log/messages
ls /mnt/cdrom/

(it may be something other than /var/log/messages...whatever your logfile is...)
Hang in there dude...we'll get it sorted.

[chzlchp]

OK, OK, OK...I'll give it one more try!

Here goes-here's what I did. There is a CD/ROM icon on my GUI window top that was apparently designed to do harm. When I tried to enlist it to actually open a CD that was 'in the tray' it tried to do so with a musical app. Well, OK? So, I went down to the tty arena (true command line) and entered your series of suggested lines. I'm not exactly sure why, but with the 'ls', I got a listing of familiar 'tar.feather' (sorry, I meant 'tar.gz') files, all variations of a CAD application I was trying to bring on board. Piece of cake in windows, know what I mean? Pop in the disk, and presto...got a new appl. on board. (Windows makes it all so easy.) So anyway, I was able to figure out-because I've been force feeding linux knowledge (randomly, blindly, without direction) for the last few weeks-and remembered a few things I had done, that I could a) copy the 'tar.feather' file I wanted onto HD, then b) go thru the tar/install cycle. It all worked. Why? 'cause YOU knew what sequence of commands I needed to apply to get started. Could I have figured that out? Dunno. Here's the issue, I think. It's virtually impossible to get a beginning toe-hold in linux. It's just too vast and random without, at some point. someone looking over your shoulder to get that first spark of light started. I was just doing stuff and so almost by accident I had stumbled across the right things to do when the time came to do them.

Point is, trying to work absolutely alone, with no one to turn to for even a hint of where to get started, can be incredibly frustrating...and yea, I am on the virge of throwing in the towel. Where does it all go? Am I building a better future here in linux? I dunno. How could I know? I went to a LUG meeting a year or so ago to try to get some answers. I've been to AA meetings that had more energy and promise. What do I think is the result of my being able to assimilate your suggestions here? I put it on the epiphany level. I had spent a lot of time recently 'following the bouncing ball' in various linux/shell 'how-to's' and had absorbed a bunch of random knowledge that made absolutely no coherent sense to me, but when I tied it to your comments, and went the next step, I realized I had just taken a huge leap, in a completely different direction than what I had envisioned. Things happened. For the first time ever, something made real sense. The 'way of linux' may have grudgingly shed its' first little sliver of light on me.

Yea, I'll hang in there, I guess. Thanks. If I do, and I actually get somewhere, it will all be your fault.

[je_fro]

I've been to AA meetings that had more energy and promise....
Yea, I'll hang in there, I guess. Thanks. If I do, and I actually get somewhere, it will all be your fault.

LOL!

Awesome...I've come to see over the past few years here that the people who struggle the most are "windows experts". Just try to forget everything about 'doze when you're in Linux. Things make sense here, and sooner or later that random knowledge will start to come in handy as you can do more and more. You'll soon see that the CLI is far more powerful than the GUI. Any GUI.
Later!

[chzlchp]

LOL!

Awesome...I've come to see over the past few years here that the people who struggle the most are "windows experts". Just try to forget everything about 'doze when you're in Linux. Things make sense here, and sooner or later that random knowledge will start to come in handy as you can do more and more. You'll soon see that the CLI is far more powerful than the GUI. Any GUI.
Later!

Ya know, this might be kinda a corny analogy, but it works...

The first time I stepped out of helicopter door (at 2000 feet), it took some doing to 'let go' of the familiar, comfortable, safe. But until I did let go, I wasn't going to experience the exhileration of flying free! I did, and I did, but believe me it took a little coaxing from someone who knew how to 'show the way'. I needed that first nudge with the little extra knowledge; but once I'd been given that first nudge I knew where I was headed, and why.

(Oh, yea...I was a 20 year old Marine, and it was, well..., a whole bunch of years ago.)