[vox-tech] Accessing cdrom from Tom's Root Boot

[Peter Jay Salzman]

On Thu 30 Dec 04,  1:03 PM, Richard S. Crawford <rscrawford at mossroot.com> said:
> On Thursday 30 December 2004 11:03, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> > On Thu 30 Dec 04, 10:58 AM, Richard S. Crawford <rscrawford at mossroot.com> 
> said:
> > > I'm trying to build a LuMiX box; the distribution comes as a big tar file
> > > on a Unfortunately I can't seem to figure out how to get to the cdrom
> > > drive.  I imagine that when I booted the computer, it detected the cdrom
> > > drive somehow, but dmesg reveals nothing about it.  I've tried to mount
> > > /dev/hdc through /dev/hde to /cdrom, but I've had no luck.  The message I
> > > receive is:
> > >
> > > # mount -a
> > > mount: the kernel does not recognize /dev/hdc as a block device (maybe
> > > 'insmod driver'?)
> > >
> > > The relevant entry in /etc/fstab looks like this:
> > >
> > > /dev/hdc /cdrom iso9660 1 1
> > >
> > > What am I missing?  I've never done an installation like this; these
> > > newfangled distributions like FC3 and even Debian make everything too
> > > easy.
> >
> > Hi Richard,
> >
> > Please post:
> >
> >    dmesg | egrep '^hd[a-z]'
> 
> # dmesg | egrep '^hd[a-z]'
> hda: WDC AC23200L, ATA DISK drive
> hda: WDC AC23200L, 2098MB w/256kB Cache, CHS=787/128/63
>  hda: hda1 hda2 hda3
> 
> Apparently the CD-ROM drive is *not* being detected during boot, even though 
> I've got the BIOS to boot from the CD-ROM drive, and it spins up during 
> bootup.  The cable to the drive is firmly seated.

You don't have to cc me.  :)


Interesting.  So the question is, why isn't the cdrom being detected by the
kernel?  First, let's make sure the porch light is on.  If BIOS doesn't see
the drive, Linux won't.

1. Verify that BIOS sees it.  Just because you set the boot order doesn't
   mean that BIOS sees a cdrom drive.  Take your floppy out of the system,
   and you'll see the "A" option is still in the boot order.

   First, you should have a BIOS option that says "Autodetect IDE drives)
   somewhere.  Try getting BIOS to autodetect the cdrom drive.

2. Between when BIOS finishes POSTING and lilo (or grub) takes over, there
   should be a period of time where BIOS prints interrupts and IDE
   information.  This info is usually destroyed by lilo (or grub), so you
   have to be quick to see it.  Do you see the cdrom drive?

Once we verify the porch light is on, we'll knock on the door to see if
anyone is home.

BTW, what's the make and model of the cdrom drive?  Does it work on other
Linux distribution?

Pete

-- 
The mathematics of physics has become ever more abstract, rather than more
complicated.  The mind of God appears to be abstract but not complicated.
He also appears to like group theory.  --  Tony Zee's "Fearful Symmetry"

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