[NBLUG/talk] Re: CDROM problem [still need help in Cotati!]

Lincoln Peters sampln at sbcglobal.net
Wed Aug 23 21:42:51 PDT 2006


On Tuesday 22 August 2006 22:32, Bill Kendrick wrote:
> Actually, the error is a bit more complicated, from KDE.  It suggests
> that maybe /dev/cdrom needs to be IDE-SCSI instead of IDE...?  Nothing
> has changed, hardware-wise, since the last time I visited.

Sometimes the mount utility will try to guess the cause of an error, but in my 
experience, it gets it wrong at least 50% of the time.  I suspect that its 
suggestion is wrong this time, as well.

Besides, now that it's possible to burn CD's on IDE burners without the need 
for SCSI emulation, I no longer see any rationale for using IDE-SCSI.  
(Although since Knoppix still uses IDE-SCSI for CD drives, there's probably 
an obscure advantage to using it under certain conditions.)

>
> As I said before, I think someone helped him recently (maybe me,
> depending on how long the issue was happening -- my dad wasn't using his
> computer much for a few months :^) ) and that may have been what caused
> the issue with me needing to change the printer from /dev/lpr to
> something usb-related.

Was /dev/lpr a symbolic link to something else in the /dev directory (maybe 
lp0)?  If so, it might make more sense to change the symbolic link, so you 
don't need to reconfigure your print daemon (although restarting it after 
changing the link might be wise).

>
>
> I had him try a regular "mount /cdrom" and it just said "No media found."
> Additionally, running "eject" from the K->Run Command... did nothing
> (not even blink the lights), which MAY be a symptom of a dying
> (or disconnected!) drive.

When he ran the "eject" command, did he use "/dev/cdrom" as an argument?  I 
wonder if pointing directly to the CD drive (e.g. "eject /dev/hdc", depending 
on his specific configuration) would have different results.

>
> Being 100 miles away, I can't help immediately.  I'm still hoping someone
> from NBLUG has a few minutes to go give him a hand.  He said he can throw
> some coins at whoever helps. :)

I might be able to help (e-mail me off-list).

One thing I would suggest is that you consider setting up DynDNS on his 
computer, so that when he needs your help, you can SSH into his computer and 
investigate (unless he needs networking help, of course).  It doesn't allow 
you to actually see what he sees, but in situations like these, you might be 
able to reproduce the cause from a command line without too much difficulty.

I've never used DynDNS for this purpose, but I have used it to set up my 
own "proxy" e-mail server, that I could access on my laptop from any place 
with an Internet connection.  If DynDNS works for IMAPS, it should work for 
SSH.

(In case it's not obvious, the purpose of DynDNS in this setup would be to 
provide his computer with a static name, even if its IP address changes 
periodically.  If your dad is at all like mine, I don't think you'd want to 
talk him through looking up his IP address over the phone!)


-- 
Lincoln Peters		<sampln at sbcglobal.net>

Serfs up!
		-- Spartacus



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