Topic: unable to mount cdrom in 5.6

[Jason Graver]

Hello all. We are experimenting with SME 5.6 on a brand new HP/Compaq DL380 G3 2.8GHz Xeon server and we can't mount a cdrom. We have tried several different commands and nothing works. The closest we get to it mounting locks up the server. This is the command that locks up the server:

# mount -t iso9660 /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom

This command responds as indicating the device is read-only, and then the cd spins and then the server locks hard. All other commands attempted prompt a repsonse indicating incorrect filesystem. Any ideas?

Thanks!

[Michael P. Soulier]

Jason Graver wrote:
>
> # mount -t iso9660 /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom

Is there a /dev/cdrom symlink?

ls -l /dev/cdrom

Mike

[Jason Graver]

Michael P. Soulier wrote:
>
> Is there a /dev/cdrom symlink?
>
> ls -l /dev/cdrom


Yes there is, at least on my test machine which exhibited the exact same problem.
This is what was output on the test machine using the command listed above:
lrwxrwxrwx      1 root       root        8 Jul   4 15:43  /dev/cdrom --> /dev/hdb

I can reproduce this cdrom issue on two completely different hardware configs. The one at work, the HP DL380 G3, uses a notebook style cdrom attached to an IDE interface. The test machine at home, a PII 400 with an Acer 6x-2x-2x ATAPI CDRW, gives the same results. Is there an issue with the SME 5.6 cdrom driver?

[Dave Liquorice]

> Is there an issue with the SME 5.6 cdrom driver?

There is certainly something "odd" about 5.6u4 and CDROMs. I  installed from CD no problem but the entry in fstab:

/dev/cdrom      /mnt/cdrom       iso9660 noauto,owner,ro 0 0

Doesn't allow the normal methods to work:

[root@srvr1 etc]# mount /dev/cdrom
mount: /dev/cdrom is not a valid block device
[root@srvr1 etc]# mount /mnt/cdrom
mount: /dev/cdrom is not a valid block device
[root@srvr1 etc]# mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
mount: /dev/cdrom is not a valid block device

[root@srvr1 dev]# ls -l cdrom
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root    9 Jun 19 01:57 cdrom -> /dev/scd0
[root@srvr1 dev]# ls -l scd0
brw-rw----    1 root     disk      11,   0 Apr 11  2002 scd0
[root@srvr1 dev]# mount /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom
mount: /dev/scd0 is not a valid block device

Finally the CDROM does work...:

[root@srvr1 dev]# mount /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom
mount: block device /dev/hdc is write-protected, mounting read-only
[root@srvr1 dev]# ls -l /mnt/cdrom
total 93
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         4096 Jun 15 00:49 DevTools
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root         2048 Jun 10 23:35 Documentation
etc etc

[root@srvr1 dev]# ls -l hdc
brw-rw----    1 root     disk      22,   0 Apr 11  2002 hdc

Cheers
Dave.

[Graeme Fleming]

This got 'broken' in Update 4 and has been reported to Mitel - there are quite a few posts on this going back 4-6 weeks or so

[Jason Graver]

Thanks for replying. Unfortunately, I still can't get this thing to mount a cdrom. But only on the production machine: I had no troubles after the first day with the test box. The production machine is an Compaq DL380 G3.

I've heard some have had problems with Compaq cdroms and mounting in RH 7.3. Since SME 5.6 is built around the RH 7.3, could this be where the problem lies?

Help!  

[Jason Graver]

I have the solution to this problem! We  recently purchased 3 HP Proliant DL380 G3 servers to replace our older servers. 2 of the three servers shipped with the same model cdrom drive, and the third was totally different. The cdrom wouldn't mount on either of the same two drives, but mounted flawlessly with the third. Although the command I had to use to mount the cdrom was the one previously listed and no other one would work... Any way, the problem can be narrowed done to either the firmware or manufactoring process used in the other two drives.

I am more than willing to supply jpg's of the two drives if anyone else is interested. Botton line: If you have a newer Compaq or HP server and it won't mount a cdrom, check the drive itself.

Thanks to those who responded to my question!

[Bob]

Dave
 I think I have found the rub. When looking through the /dev directory, I did a ls -l | less, and found the cdrom is attached to scd0. I am a newbie to linux in general, and learning about all the fun with e-smith. How do I set it to hdc or hdd. I found it is done during boot, but do not know where to change it. I think this is part of the problem other people have had trying to mount a cd after upgrade 4

[Bob]

With help from Stephen at dungog, and a little digging I have solved the problem. SEM 5.6U4 has a feature that translates an IDE cd rom to appear as a scsi cdrom. This causes a problem when trying the cdrom As a work around, you just need to change the symbolic link ( ln -fs /dev/hdx /dev/cdrom ). The dungog  autofs works perfectly now. I think should help with what you are trying to do also.

Bob