When I try to mount my CD-ROM drive, I get:
mount: /dev/cdrom is not a valid block device

I did some research, but no-one seems to have my same problem. Any sugeestions?

You need to have it in /etc/fstab and have a valid mountpoint directory created

How exactly are you mounting it? Do you actually have a CD in the drive?

Yes, even with a valid mount-point and CD in the drive it won't load.

I checked the linkage to the /dev/cdrom and it returned this:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Oct 4 07:07 /dev/cdrom -> /dev/scd0

My fstab says:

/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660

/dev/scd0 is a SCSI CD-ROM.. Is this really the case?

You can refer to a IDE CD as /dev/hdXX too.
E.g. "mount /dev/hdc1 -t auto /mnt/cdrom"

I don't know if it's SCSI, but it's a laptop drive(not very helpful, I know). On the fstab file, there is a /dev/cdrom1 and /dev/cdrom, despite the fact that my laptop only has one drive. One is linked to /dev/scd0 and the other is linked to /dev/hdc, but neither works

Originally posted by MYOB
You need to have it in /etc/fstab and have a valid mountpoint directory created

You are only half right, strickly. You do need a mount point, but no entry in fstab is needed if you supply the device name and mount point, i.e.

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

however, if you want to say:

mount /mnt/cdrom

then you need the fstab entry.

Try a manual mount, i.e.:

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

or

mount /dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom

or even

mount /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom

(where hdc is your CD-ROM)

My /dev/cdrom is a symbolic link to /dev/hdc:

0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8 May 19 22:50 cdrom -> /dev/hdc

You might need to update the link for this to work.

delete the link:
rm /dev/cdrom

recreate the link:
ln -s /dev/hdc /dev/cdrom

where hdc is your cdrom (i.e. secondary master)

needless to say, you need to be root for this.

I changed up my fstab a little bit, and I managed to get this:

mount: /dev/cdrom is not a block device (maybe try `-o loop'?)

But other than that, nothing. Unfortunately, I've tried everything here. Thanks for all the advice!

Where is your /dev/cdrom pointing to?

I assume you have some RedHat..

Look in /etc/sysonfig/hardware. Locate the entry that coresponds to your CD drive.

It should be sth like:
class: CDROM
bus: IDE
detached: 0
device: hdc
driver: ignore
desc: "ATAPI CD-RW 52XMax"

Note how it shows the /dev/ entry after "device:". Evidently my CD-ROM (CD-RW actually) is attached to /dev/hdc.

This is a laptop. Keep in mind that Linux doesn't play well with those (we'll see how the new SuSE manages).

All sorts of custom hot pluggable things don't work. For example if your CD-ROM in in a docking device then you have to boot up with the dock attached to make Linux find your drive.

It is /dev/scd0 if you're using kernel 2.4.x or older. They use SCSI emulation for IDE burners. If the emulation layer is configured as a module, you need to load it first: modprobe ide-scsi.

Originally posted by Phantasm66
You are only half right, strickly. You do need a mount point, but no entry in fstab is needed if you supply the device name and mount point, i.e.

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

however, if you want to say:

mount /mnt/cdrom

then you need the fstab entry.

Correct. But don't forget I'm going off long supressed memories of when I actually used UNIX. BeOS doesn't have these problems...

That said, I miss my Indy working...

Modprobe returns a command not found when I use it? I did install the 2.6 kernel, but I still boot to the 2.4 (at least until I get networking working). I get the same error under both kernels (block device, that is).

You have tobe root to use modprobe. In case you haven't put /sbin and /usr/sbin in the root's PATH variable then you have to type it manually e.g. /sbin/modprobe blabla.

I tried modprobing, but I still have the problem. There must be something wierd going on...

insmod should work in 2.4 kernels too.

Did you look in /ets/syconfig/hardware? You will see if Linux has found your CD-ROM at all and where it thinks it is.

I tired to use that location, but hardware doesn't exist puke:

SOmebody must have had this problem. Oh well, I 'll keep trying :knock:

Finally, I found a fix! Stupid me, I deleted /dev/hdc and made it a symlink to /dev/scd0 :monkey: . I remade the hdc file with MAKEDEV, but now I still can't eject or mount:

Mount says:
wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/cdrom,
or too many mounted file systems
(could this be the IDE device where you in fact use
ide-scsi so that sr0 or sda or so is needed?)

Eject says:
eject: unable to eject, last error: Invalid argument

FStab:
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0


I do have hdc=ide-scsi in my grub config...Anybody?

P.S. I think this is why I deleted hdc in the first place...

I do have hdc=ide-scsi in my grub config
Depending on your kernel, I don't think you'd need that. 2.4 kernels might work without, 2.6 definitely does. You can mount CDs/DVDs "simply" by mount -t iso9660 /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom.

I tried to mount -t iso9660 /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom, but it still didn't work (same error). I don't know what else to try... :blackeye:

Do you actually have a data CD in the drive? :p

I just bought UT2004, and this is really bugging me (BUMP).

My eject function doesn't even work! It returns:

eject: unable to eject, last error: Invalid argument

It seems like a problem with the kernel. Then again, the 2.6 kernel returns the same thing.

PLEASE HELP! I'm begging you! :angel:

I'm beginning to think the CD drive isn't secondary master, or you don't have proper kernel modules loaded.

In command line, go to /proc/ide, and type

grep -ir "cdrom" *

That will search for string "cdrom" from files in directories there.

If the drive indeed is secondary master, one line should say

hdc/media:cdrom

If it's something else than hdc (like hdb), use that instead when mounting.

If it returns nothing, then the drive wasn't detected at all. In that case, type

lspci | grep IDE

The first part, lspci, lists all PCI devices (cards and onboard). The second filters only those that have IDE in them.

The result should display the computer's IDE controllers.

It does indeed say that /dev/hdc is my CD-RW drive. As for kernel modules, I just looked around a bit... the grub.conf says hdc=ide-scsi, TWICE! First, it's listed as a kernel option, then in Append. I don't know if this is the problem, I deleted one instance and it still returns the same problem. I'll try without any ide-scsi and see if it works... :giddy:

Update: I erased the entry from /etc/fstab and Redhat put back all the files, but it linked scd0 to the cdrom drive. This means *something*, but I don't know what.

Yes, when I try to mount under this new config it returns no valid block device, and yes there is a disk in the drive. :suspiciou

Perhaps, it's a bit late and nothing really new. But I would look what dmesg thinks your cdrom is. It must say "hdc: ...(then goes the brand of your cdrom)". I mean, if it says your cdrom is "hdd", then it's even so. It would mean your (ide!)cdrom is linked with the node /dev/hdc(hdd).
About ide-scsi option(scsi emulation): it's only here for CD-burning on ide cd-burners, and not for accessing data CDs on IDE cd-drives. The corresponding SCSI dev node will be used for burning. So, the /dev/cdrom must be a link to your /dev/hdc. It must be mounted on whatever mount point you choose(like the way you did it).If it doesn't, and the disk is there, it could be: bad disk or/and broken drive. Or, a bug in the "mount" utility? Not likely as thousands use it without running into such problems.
If the dmesg command output says (your brand name)CDROM is here as "hdc", then it can recognize the device as ide cdrom drive. It must mount,then, unless for the reasons mentioned above.
Another thing one would check is this master/slave jumpers on the drive itself, but yours I assume to be a laptop.Don't think you must check the jumpers.