I am tring to mount my DVD/CD Combo Drive. I read that I am suppost to:
1.)Login as root.
2.)Then type /etc/fstab at the command prompt.
When I typed that it said -bash: /etc/fstab: Permission denied
Shouldn't I be able to access everything from the root?
How would I go about getting access the this?
I'm using Slackware 9.1
I'm using this page as a reference for mounting the drive.

you need to edit the text file /etc/fstab .... by typing the command by itself on the command line, you are trying to execute /etc/fstab instead of editing it.

You can look at the file with the following commands:

less /etc/fstab

cat /etc/fstab

If you have your GUI working, you can edit via gedit ... if not, you can use vi, nano, or pico (pico and vi were both installed on my slackware install ... nano I had to add later from a addon package) from the command prompt like this:

pico /etc/fstab

BTW,

You don't need to mount the drive to play DVD videos or Audio Cd's ... you would use the designated media player instead (I use mplayer for DVDs and xmms, mplayer, or cdplayer to play audio cds).

You would need to mount any data cds (or mp3, avi files, etc).

I think i have mounted my drive now. How do i check to see if is was mounted? Also how do you access the drive from KDE(i think thats what you call the GUI)?

if you issue the command:

mount

(without any switches) it will tell you eveything that is currently mounted.

Use konqueror ... (that is the KDE filemanager) ... to see the drive.

Ok i am really lost i typed mount and i didn't see my drive there. I have tried everything you told me and everything the link i mentioned earlier and nothing is working. Could we start over?

OK...

Is it a CDRW / DVDROM or just a CDROM / DVDROM? (If it can write CD's (or dvd's)we need to do some more things to enable that).

First, you need to know what drive it is (ie, /dev/hdc is my cdrom)....

Now make sure that /dev/cdrom is pointing to /dev/hdc (in my case ... if your cd is a different drive, point to it instead ... Primary Master is /dev/hda, Primary Slave is /dev/hdb, Secondary Master is /dev/hdc, Secondary Slave is /dev/hdd) ... issue the commands:

ls -al /dev | grep cdrom

ls -al /dev | grep cdrom

if it looks like this (pointing to the correct drive) we are good:


If it is pointing to the wrong drive, remove it with this commands:

rm /dev/cdrom

rm /dev/dvd

Create a new link, if required (if you had to remove it ... or if there is no /dev/cdrom or /dev/dvd)

ln -s /dev/hdc /dev/cdrom

ln -s /dev/hdc /dev/dvd
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Next check /etc/fstab....

my slackware /etc/fstab has this entry:


(other linuxes mount the cdrom to /mnt/cdrom ... I can't remember if I changed my fstab or if it came that way ... you can mount to /cdrom OR to /mnt/cdrom ... it's up to you) ... you must create the directory if it doesn't exist ... so if you want to mount to /cdrom ... make sure it is there, if not ... do the command:

mkdir /cdrom

or

mkdir /mnt/cdrom
----------------------------------------------------------

SO ... to mount a CD (or DVD) data disk as root type this:

mount /mnt/cdrom

or

mount /cdrom

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In the /etc/fstab line ... change owner to users on the cdrom line to let everyone mount a cdrom ... do the same for floppy if you want to.

I edited it my last post ... if you are still here, refresh it...

Thank You

It is now mounted and I can see files on a CD i have in the drive.

My Drive is a DVD/CD RW will i be able to burn DVDs and CDs in Slackware?

If it is a CDRW you can burn CD's and if it is a DVDRW you can burn DVD's...but it requires some setup changes...

If you installed grub as your bootloader, edit the file:

/boot/grub/menu.lst

and add the following (if it is not already there) to your kernel line:

hdc=ide-scsi

So for me:

kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 vga=773

becomes

kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 vga=773 hdc=ide-scsi

(use your actual cdrom drive for hdc) ... this will setup hdc as a scsi device using the ide-scsi module (which is required to write to a cd or dvd device).
------------------------------
Now you will have to change your links again ...

rm /dev/dvd
rm /dev/cdrom

Then do the commands:

ln -s /dev/scd0 /dev/cdrom

ln -s /dev/scd0 /dev/dvd

(this takes scd0 ... which stands for scsi cd 0 ... and points cdrom and dvd to it. scsi cd 0 was created on hdc by adding the hdc=ide-scsi).

---------------------
After you make these changes, reboot.

Login as root and you should still be able to mount your cd with the command:

mount /mnt/cdrom or mount /cdrom ... however you set it up in /etc/fstab.

you should also be able to use the command:

cdrecord -scanbus

to see your CDRW device .... it should look similar to this:



You should be able to burn ISO images with the command:

cdrecord -v dev=0,0,0 filename.iso

(if your device is not 0,0,0 above ... use your actual device)

You can also write directories / files using mkisofs ... see this site for cdrecord details:

cdrecord

It's posts like this that make me wonder if Linux will ever make it in the desktop world. For anyone new to it who just wants to use a dvd, this is quite cryptic and confusing.

I agree with you duende, however i am interested in learning linux indepth. Mounting my DVD/CD RW is only the first of the problems i am trying to solve. I didn't realize you had to have a data disk in the drive when you mounted the drive. Problem solved.

I agree with Corey ...

Linux is not nearly as easy to use as Windows, especially if you already have any Windows OS experience.

Linux is also not as easy to learn ... things in windows work in a manner that is easier to understand for the beginning computer user. (Stick in a CD and it can be read, install nero and you can make cd's, etc.)

Another area where windows is much easier for the user is drivers. Compiling modules agianst kernel source, and having to redo it after every security patch to the kernel is silly.

Installing programs in Windows is simple ... point and click ... no tar -xvzf required....no make errors, no dependancy hell!

------------------------------------

As a UNIX system administrator, I have been mounting CD's so I can install programs on AT&T, Sun and HP servers for years ... so to do the same thing in Linux is second nature for me. The same for hardware drivers, using tar, writing sh scripts, etc.

I don't have any real problems with Linux on the desktop, it does everything I want and I can do most things fairly easily. If I don't know how to do something, I can usually figure it out by searching the web in a couple minutes.

I use Linux for editing/saving my mini DV movies from my camcorder, I use it to download my pictures from my Digital Camera, I use it for all my web surfing and e-mail. The only real thing I do on windows any more is video games.

Linux is a great database server, it's a great web server, it's a great file and printer server, it's a good domain controller for windows NT networks, it makes a good firewall .... BUT it is not a very convenient choice for the desktop (as compared to Windows) for beginning PC users.
----------------------------------
We could start a whole different thread about the security aspects of Linux compared to Windows ... and linux is more secure in it's default setup (usually). There have been less than 50 worms/viruses for linux all time ... and many more than that each month for Windows.

The bottom line ... my wife and my 11-year-old daughter both have windows XP boxes as their main computers. My wife doesn't use linux at all (except to schedule recordings for MythTV and to watch the programs), my daughter only uses linux to play tux racer and when I am teaching her how it works. I have them use Windows XP because it is easier for them to use and it provides a better user experience ... given their knowledge of computers and OS's.

Computers for the masses should be like toasters (or stereos, or Televisions) ... you plug them in and they work.

Can you do almost everything you need to be productive on Linux ... yes. Is it as easy to use as windows on the desktop ... unfortunately not.

Can Linux become that OS for the masses, the one that is easy to use...can it be point and click, hardware and software just work out of the box ... absolutely, and I think Linux will be that OS in the future.

Steve,

If you really want to learn Linux ... I recommend that you build a Linux From Scratch partition from within your Slackware install.

I learned alot about how linux works while working through LFS.

Actually using the LFS box for anything important isn't a good idea (in my opinion), but it is a great learning tool.