Red Hat Topics - Problem mounting DVD

Author

Problem mounting DVD

2006-07-23, 1:11 pm

Hi,

I've a problem mounting a DVD.

Basically I'm upgrading from RedHat 7.2 to Fedora Core 5 and I've burned
the FC5 install DVD. I swapped the CD drive in my Linux PC for a DVD drive
(Pioneer 109) booted and typed 'mount /dev/hdc /mnt/dvd' no problems, it
worked fine and the files were all accessible in '/mnt/dvd'. So I tried
booting from the DVD... can't boot from DVD's with the system BIOS. Oops.
So then I tried booting from a Linux boot floppy disk - the kind to allow
you to use 'parted', 'mount', and not much more. This allowed me to mount
the DVD drive from /dev/hdc but then told me 'no medium is present' in the
drive --when the same DVD was in the drive. So I rebooted into RH 7.2 on
my hard disk, and now when I try to mount the drive using the same command
as before it now tells me again that 'no medium is present' in the drive,
when before it worked fine. Several DVDs (that I've verified work on
another PC) all get the 'no medium is present' message from 'mount'.

Please advise what the problem may be and how to resolve it.

Many thanks.

Jan Gerrit Kootstra

2006-07-23, 1:11 pm

MS wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've a problem mounting a DVD.
>
> Basically I'm upgrading from RedHat 7.2 to Fedora Core 5 and I've burned
> the FC5 install DVD. I swapped the CD drive in my Linux PC for a DVD
> drive (Pioneer 109) booted and typed 'mount /dev/hdc /mnt/dvd' no
> problems, it worked fine and the files were all accessible in
> '/mnt/dvd'. So I tried booting from the DVD... can't boot from DVD's
> with the system BIOS. Oops. So then I tried booting from a Linux boot
> floppy disk - the kind to allow you to use 'parted', 'mount', and not
> much more. This allowed me to mount the DVD drive from /dev/hdc but then
> told me 'no medium is present' in the drive --when the same DVD was in
> the drive. So I rebooted into RH 7.2 on my hard disk, and now when I try
> to mount the drive using the same command as before it now tells me
> again that 'no medium is present' in the drive, when before it worked
> fine. Several DVDs (that I've verified work on another PC) all get the
> 'no medium is present' message from 'mount'.
>
> Please advise what the problem may be and how to resolve it.
>
> Many thanks.
MS,

RH has no filesystem type compatible with DVD filesystem.

You need to make boot CD which image is put in the /image directory of
your FC5 install DVD.

Kind regards,

Jan Gerrit Kootstra

Douglas Mayne

2006-07-23, 1:11 pm

On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 14:24:28 +0000, MS wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I've a problem mounting a DVD.
>
> Basically I'm upgrading from RedHat 7.2 to Fedora Core 5 and I've burned
> the FC5 install DVD. I swapped the CD drive in my Linux PC for a DVD drive
> (Pioneer 109) booted and typed 'mount /dev/hdc /mnt/dvd' no problems, it
> worked fine and the files were all accessible in '/mnt/dvd'. So I tried
> booting from the DVD... can't boot from DVD's with the system BIOS. Oops.
> So then I tried booting from a Linux boot floppy disk - the kind to allow
> you to use 'parted', 'mount', and not much more. This allowed me to mount
> the DVD drive from /dev/hdc but then told me 'no medium is present' in the
> drive --when the same DVD was in the drive. So I rebooted into RH 7.2 on
> my hard disk, and now when I try to mount the drive using the same command
> as before it now tells me again that 'no medium is present' in the drive,
> when before it worked fine. Several DVDs (that I've verified work on
> another PC) all get the 'no medium is present' message from 'mount'.
>
> Please advise what the problem may be and how to resolve it.
>
> Many thanks.
>
Did you verify your DVD was made correctly? DVD's are harder to get right,
and some writers are better than others. From what I have heard, the
Pioneer drive should be very good. I also thought that Plextor would be
very good, but it produces expensive coasters, in general. Memorex,
LiteOne work fine though, IME.

It's been a while since I was using RH7.2. I am not sure it would handle
the extensions to iso9660 which allow optical to go beyond 650M. Your
DVD disc could be fine, but it if the OS lacks the UDF extensions to
iso9660, then it could report "no media found," as a general error
message. If you could actually boot from the DVD, those messages might
disappear inside the setup platform, and within your new install.

Yesterday, I discovered an interesting utility which makes it possible to
boot cds/dvds when BIOS support is lacking. I read about the method here:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/TIP_Chainloa...D-ROM_from_GRUB

I was able to make a boot floppy image which encapsulates the method. Let
me know if you'd like me to post that image.

--
Douglas Mayne

2006-07-23, 1:11 pm

Jan Gerrit Kootstra emailed this:
> MS wrote:
> MS,
>
>
> RH has no filesystem type compatible with DVD filesystem.
>
> You need to make boot CD which image is put in the /image directory of
> your FC5 install DVD.

Thanks Jan. If RH has 'no filesystem type compatible with DVD filesystem'
how come I was (initially) able to mount the DVD and access the files on
it using RH 7.2 before things went wrong after trying to boot from it, etc.??

Thanks and regards,

MS

Lenard

2006-07-23, 7:11 pm

MS wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I've a problem mounting a DVD.
>
> Basically I'm upgrading from RedHat 7.2 to Fedora Core 5 and I've burned
> the FC5 install DVD. I swapped the CD drive in my Linux PC for a DVD drive
> (Pioneer 109) booted and typed 'mount /dev/hdc /mnt/dvd' no problems, it
> worked fine and the files were all accessible in '/mnt/dvd'. So I tried
> booting from the DVD... can't boot from DVD's with the system BIOS. Oops.
> So then I tried booting from a Linux boot floppy disk - the kind to allow
> you to use 'parted', 'mount', and not much more. This allowed me to mount
> the DVD drive from /dev/hdc but then told me 'no medium is present' in the
> drive --when the same DVD was in the drive. So I rebooted into RH 7.2 on
> my hard disk, and now when I try to mount the drive using the same command
> as before it now tells me again that 'no medium is present' in the drive,
> when before it worked fine. Several DVDs (that I've verified work on
> another PC) all get the 'no medium is present' message from 'mount'.
>
> Please advise what the problem may be and how to resolve it.

Did perhaps RHL7.2 remove your /dev/dvd device???? It really is not needed
anyway try mounting using the cdrom mountpoint; mount /mnt/cdrom

The main problem is booting the DVD media, try this floppy instead;

http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm

--
"A personal computer is called a personal computer because it's yours,
Anything that runs on that computer, you should have control over."
Andrew Moss, Microsoft's senior director of technical policy, 2005

Nico Kadel-Garcia

2006-07-23, 7:11 pm

"MS" <No.Way.Jose@No.Spam.Thank.You.com> wrote in message
news:wELwg.106058$wl.84745@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
> Hi,
>
> I've a problem mounting a DVD.

[ problems skipped ]

With all the grief you're going through, wouldn't it be easier to do your
installation with FC5 CD's for now?

Robert Heiling

2006-07-23, 7:11 pm

MS wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I've a problem mounting a DVD.
>
> Basically I'm upgrading from RedHat 7.2 to Fedora Core 5 and I've burned
> the FC5 install DVD. I swapped the CD drive in my Linux PC for a DVD drive
> (Pioneer 109) booted and typed 'mount /dev/hdc /mnt/dvd' no problems, it
> worked fine and the files were all accessible in '/mnt/dvd'. So I tried
> booting from the DVD... can't boot from DVD's with the system BIOS. Oops.
> So then I tried booting from a Linux boot floppy disk - the kind to allow
> you to use 'parted', 'mount', and not much more. This allowed me to mount
> the DVD drive from /dev/hdc but then told me 'no medium is present' in the
> drive --when the same DVD was in the drive. So I rebooted into RH 7.2 on
> my hard disk, and now when I try to mount the drive using the same command
> as before it now tells me again that 'no medium is present' in the drive,
> when before it worked fine. Several DVDs (that I've verified work on
> another PC) all get the 'no medium is present' message from 'mount'.
>
> Please advise what the problem may be and how to resolve it.
>
> Many thanks.

This sounds like it might be the isolinux problem and bios limitation on that
machine. I used a tool called Smart Boot Manager myself, but I just saw this
suggested in another redhat group:
http://amdg.no-ip.org/slackware/sla...linux/sbootmgr/
My own 7.2 install CD will boot, but the FC5 and many others will not on my old
machine.

HTH
Bob

2006-07-24, 1:12 pm

Lenard emailed this:
> MS wrote:
>

Thanks Lenard.
[vbcol=seagreen]
> Did perhaps RHL7.2 remove your /dev/dvd device???? It really is not needed
> anyway try mounting using the cdrom mountpoint; mount /mnt/cdrom

No the device is there. Mounting to /mnt/cdrom has the same effect as before.

>
> The main problem is booting the DVD media, try this floppy instead;
>
> http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm

Already tried it and a no go. :-( Detailed already in my reply to Douglas.

Cheers.

2006-07-24, 1:12 pm

Nico Kadel-Garcia emailed this:
> "MS" <No.Way.Jose@No.Spam.Thank.You.com> wrote in message
> news:wELwg.106058$wl.84745@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
>
> [ problems skipped ]
>
> With all the grief you're going through, wouldn't it be easier to do your
> installation with FC5 CD's for now?

Thanks Nico. I had assumed my booting-from-the-FC5-DVD problem was that I
couldn't boot from the DVD drive. Do you think the FC5 CDs will boot from
my DVD drive?

Cheers.

2006-07-24, 1:12 pm

Robert Heiling emailed this:
> MS wrote:
>
> This sounds like it might be the isolinux problem and bios limitation on that
> machine. I used a tool called Smart Boot Manager myself, but I just saw this
> suggested in another redhat group:
> http://amdg.no-ip.org/slackware/sla...linux/sbootmgr/
> My own 7.2 install CD will boot, but the FC5 and many others will not on my old
> machine.
>
> HTH
> Bob

Thanks Bob. I tried SMB but it did not work, as detailed in my reply to
Douglas.

Cheers.

2006-07-24, 1:12 pm

Nico Kadel-Garcia

2006-07-24, 7:12 pm

MS wrote:
> Nico Kadel-Garcia emailed this:
>
> Thanks Nico. I had assumed my booting-from-the-FC5-DVD problem was
> that I couldn't boot from the DVD drive. Do you think the FC5 CDs
> will boot from my DVD drive?

It's a working guess: burning and booting from DVD's has been... awkward,
due to fascinating issues with the format of DVD's, whether DVD+ or DVD-,
what the particular burner and reader are similar enough, etc. It's as bad
as booting CD's used to be years ago: CD's have gotten much more reliable
about it.

Matt Giwer

2006-07-25, 1:17 am

MS wrote:
> Hi,

> I've a problem mounting a DVD.

> Basically I'm upgrading from RedHat 7.2 to Fedora Core 5 and I've burned
> the FC5 install DVD. I swapped the CD drive in my Linux PC for a DVD
> drive (Pioneer 109) booted and typed 'mount /dev/hdc /mnt/dvd' no
> problems, it worked fine and the files were all accessible in
> '/mnt/dvd'.

And you then retyped that after rebooting? You added it to /etc/fstab?

> So I tried booting from the DVD... can't boot from DVD's
> with the system BIOS.

Why not? If it boots from a CD it can boot from DVD as far as I know. I've done
it.

--
When western nations renounce the right to resistance to foreign occupation
they can honestly demand Palestinians do so.
-- The Iron Webmaster, 3650
nizkor http://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml
book review http://www.giwersworld.org/israel/w...cutioners.phtml a7

Some Other Somebody Else

2006-07-25, 7:28 am

What happens when you copy the isolinux directory from the Fedora DVD
to a local filesystem, add a grub entry for it (analogous to an entry
for a Linux system, using its vmlinuz and initrd files) to your
existing grub configuration, and boot from the hard disk? I used that
approach with a variety of Red Hat and Fedora versions under a variety
of circumstances and it always worked; the files on the hard disk were
enough to allow the installer to automatically detect the CD or DVD
when it was present. It should at least narrow down what is wrong if
it doesn't work for you. One caveat: Use the isolinux directory from
the FC5 disk if you're installing FC5, not the one from RH7.2 for
example; they won't work if you mix versions.

Nico Kadel-Garcia

2006-07-26, 1:12 am

Matt Giwer wrote:
> MS wrote:
>
>
>
> And you then retyped that after rebooting? You added it to /etc/fstab?
>
>
> Why not? If it boots from a CD it can boot from DVD as far as I know.
> I've done it.

I've had numerous such failures: "a DVD" can mean so many differences in
DVD+ or DVD-, double-density, cheap disks sold as better quality, subtle
differences in DVD drives, and the drivers to support them, that they're
nowhere near as stable or reliable as CD drives. We're in the position we
were years ago with CD's, where they've become cheap enough to include on
new systems by default but where a lot of fly-by-night operators are making
some ghods-awful devices that no ones worked out the drivers for well enough
to boot with them.

This'll change over time, but for now, I find CD booting to be much more
reliable.

Matt Giwer

2006-07-26, 1:12 am

Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
> Matt Giwer wrote:
>
>
>
> I've had numerous such failures: "a DVD" can mean so many differences in
> DVD+ or DVD-, double-density, cheap disks sold as better quality, subtle
> differences in DVD drives, and the drivers to support them, that they're
> nowhere near as stable or reliable as CD drives. We're in the position we
> were years ago with CD's, where they've become cheap enough to include on
> new systems by default but where a lot of fly-by-night operators are making
> some ghods-awful devices that no ones worked out the drivers for well enough
> to boot with them.
>
> This'll change over time, but for now, I find CD booting to be much more
> reliable.

Not arguing but I did it on a nothing special emachine with a DVD drive that
got those very poor reviews. The format is backwards compatible with CDs.

But as I read what he wrote he did not try it. Rather he noted no BIOS option
for DVD rather than CD and went on to something else.

--
America will murder as many Iraqis as required to liberate Iraq from Iraqis.
-- The Iron Webmaster, 3651
nizkor http://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml
flying saucers http://www.giwersworld.org/flyingsa.html a2

2006-07-26, 1:15 pm

Nico Kadel-Garcia emailed this:
> MS wrote:
>
> It's a working guess: burning and booting from DVD's has been... awkward,
> due to fascinating issues with the format of DVD's, whether DVD+ or DVD-,
> what the particular burner and reader are similar enough, etc. It's as bad
> as booting CD's used to be years ago: CD's have gotten much more reliable
> about it.

Thanks.