Mount CDROM fails

[caf4926]

Seriously you are just making no sense.
Are you saying you copied an old fstab to this new 80GB HD installed with 11.1?

If you get yourself setup with a nice clean install on your 80GB HD.
Now what do you need to do with the old drive?

[johmidl]

That was the point; I copied the files that I needed to keep to CDROM and also loaded them to the 10 Gig as a backup. Then I installed a clean 11.1. From CDROM to 10 Gig used fstab settings, so I cannot understand why fstab wont work with new, clean install.

[caf4926]

Originally Posted by johmidl

That was the point; I copied the files that I needed to keep to CDROM and also loaded them to the 10 Gig as a backup. Then I installed a clean 11.1. From CDROM to 10 Gig used fstab settings, so I cannot understand why fstab wont work with new, clean install.

I'm none the wiser from your explanation

[johmidl]

OK, lets forget the second drive! I copied files from old version of 11.1 to CDROM. Then I loaded the latest 11.1 to get a clean installation. Now I can't get my old files back from the CDROM. I definitely used fstab settings on the old installation. Hope I'm making sense now!

[caf4926]

Hope I'm making sense now!

Not a bit. Sorry.

[whych]

johmidl
Let's get this right:
The issue is not copying the files but mounting the cdrom/dvd?
If this is true, and its a data dvd, it should automount quite happily without any fstab entry, so remove any fstb reference to cd/dvd.
To confirm there isn't a problem with mounting a cd/dvd, put a known working cd in the drive. If you can read it, then there is a problem with the backup cd/dvd.

[deano_ferrari]

Which desktop are you using? Perhaps you are confused by the desktop behaviour. With KDE4 for example, the cdrom will not be auto-mounted, but you should see a notification icon via the Dolphin file manager. Clicking on this icon will allow it to mount the filesystem contained on a valid data cdrom (under /media directory). Right-clickng on the same icon gives options for ejecting or releasing (unmounting) this device.

As hcw mentioned (several posts back), what is the output of

ls -l /dev/cdrom

Hal, udev, and desktop takes care of handling cdrom devices these days. No /etc/fstab entry required. However, you can mount manually by creating a mount-point like

mkdir /mnt/test

Then do

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/test

ls -l /mnt/test

Hope this clarifies things for you.

[johmidl]

Let's look at it another way; forget the CDROM. If I mount the one drive that also contains the full OS as a slave, how do I access it to copy from it to the master drive? Maybe that will be easier.

[whych]

Originally Posted by johmidl

I have 11.1-2.6.27.23-0.1 on two drives. The one I have not updated for a couple of weeks. That one mounts CDROM as:
/dev/sr0 /dev/cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
This drive that is up to date returns the message;
"mount: mount point /dev/cdrom is not a directory",
with precisely the same fstab setting.
I just don't have a clue as to what is going on!
Someone heeelp, please!

Combining this post with your last, I get the picture:
Drive1 has suse on it and it mounts the cd to some mount point
Drive2 also has suse on it and you can't find the cd rom.
The reason for the error:
"mount: mount point /dev/cdrom is not a directory"
is that /dev/cdrom is a link. You can only mount to a directory in the file system.
ie, you need to make a directory /media/cdrom and change the fstab entry to
/dev/sr0 /media/cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0

But Suse on drive2 should automount the cd and it will probably, by default have the cd contents appearing in /mount/cd-label where cd-label is the label of the cd.

Now since linux mounts everything in a single file system under / , any drive or partition that is mounted will appear somewhere in /. If it is not mounted, it will not appear.
Whether the drive is a master or slave drive in the hardware is not an issue. Any partition that is mounted must appear or have a unique place under /.
The file systems on drive1 (or conversely on drive2 if drive1 is booted) will not see the other unless it is mounted.
This is now why we are asking you to post the result of the command (as root) fdisk -l.
This will then give us/you an idea of the partitioning of the drive.

Assuming you have a root and a /home partition on each drive and they are called sda1 and sda2 or sdb1 and sdb2 you would mount them thus:
As root, create a folder called sda1 (or 2) say in /media.
Now mount the drive by typing:
mount /dev/sda1 /media/sda1.
If you want the mount to be persistent, the easiest way is to use yast>system>partitioner and to mount the drive there. This will create the necessary fstab entry for you.

[johmidl]

Allis fixed! I now know that I must trust our pal Hal. He kept popping up for a few seconds to tell me that he had found a new device plugged in, but as it was so short a time I have only now read that I use Dolphin to read the CDROM. Thanks for your concern and advice.

Originally Posted by whych

Combining this post with your last, I get the picture:
Drive1 has suse on it and it mounts the cd to some mount point
Drive2 also has suse on it and you can't find the cd rom.
The reason for the error:
"mount: mount point /dev/cdrom is not a directory"
is that /dev/cdrom is a link. You can only mount to a directory in the file system.
ie, you need to make a directory /media/cdrom and change the fstab entry to
/dev/sr0 /media/cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0

But Suse on drive2 should automount the cd and it will probably, by default have the cd contents appearing in /mount/cd-label where cd-label is the label of the cd.

Now since linux mounts everything in a single file system under / , any drive or partition that is mounted will appear somewhere in /. If it is not mounted, it will not appear.
Whether the drive is a master or slave drive in the hardware is not an issue. Any partition that is mounted must appear or have a unique place under /.
The file systems on drive1 (or conversely on drive2 if drive1 is booted) will not see the other unless it is mounted.
This is now why we are asking you to post the result of the command (as root) fdisk -l.
This will then give us/you an idea of the partitioning of the drive.

Assuming you have a root and a /home partition on each drive and they are called sda1 and sda2 or sdb1 and sdb2 you would mount them thus:
As root, create a folder called sda1 (or 2) say in /media.
Now mount the drive by typing:
mount /dev/sda1 /media/sda1.
If you want the mount to be persistent, the easiest way is to use yast>system>partitioner and to mount the drive there. This will create the necessary fstab entry for you.