/dev/cdrom was: none
Tony <uctpjac@ucl.ac.uk> writes:
> I have installed Debian 1.3.1, but find myself without /dev/cdrom as a block
> device (at the driver selection stage, nothing fitted my Mitsumi 12x, which I
> ad run under an "iso9660" on my previous slakware distribution).
>
> What is a block device, and how to get the cd recognised?
1. Access to peripherals, etc., is via "special" files for devices,
like /dev/ttyS1 for the second serial port and /dev/hdc for the
first IDE or ATAPI device on the second controller. A modem device
is a character special file because I/O is generally a character at
a time. A disk device is a block special file because I/O is
generally in blocks (of e.g. 2 sectors = 1024 bytes). There are
good hysterical reasons for this.
2. If the CD is on the first IDA controller it's probably /dev/hdb; on
the second it's probably /dev/hdc or /dev/hdd. Use the appropriate
device name instead if /dev/cdrom. The Debian-supplied kernel
automatically recognises ATAPI CD-ROMs, so type "dmesg | less" to
see where it is.
If you really want to use /dev/cdrom, do something like
"ln -s hdc /dev/cdrom".
I also recommend you do a "chgrp cdrom /dev/hdc" so that you can put
trusted users into the cdrom group (see the adduser man page) and
give them access to the CD-ROM audio with cdplay, workman, etc.
> Also - I loaded the packages off the sunsite at imperial college; it turns out
> that the Latex I picked up had a 1 year-old bug in it (\noindent did not work
> inside a quote environment). Is there a way of telling whether that is
> generally a problem with the Debian 1.3.1 distribution, or just that that
> mirror had not been updated in that directory?
You could check on http://www.debian.org/ under the Packages link and
see what the latest listed version is there. If you've got the latest
and it still has the bug, check under the Bug Tracking link to see if
it's been reported. If it hasn't been reported, use the "bug" program
to do so.
Check the HOWTO or the mailing list archives for libc6 before trying
to install the latest TeX packages.
--
Carey Evans http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/c.evans/
GNU GPL: "The Source will be with you... always."
--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
debian-user-request@lists.debian.org .
Trouble? e-mail to templin@bucknell.edu .
Reply to: