CD: not a valid block-device

[AugustQ]

Hi,

another problem: cannot mount a cdrom.
I will get the message: not a valid block-device.
What's wrong here?

I've seen the thread #17348 and I checked my system.
Here is what I found:
uname tells me: 2.6.11 (from Knoppix 3.8.1)
lilo.conf looks as described
but I found a line like:
append="ramdisk_size=100000 .... hda=scsi .... hdh=scsi"
in it, but I do not have scsi nor do I use ist. Removing the entry
hdc=scsi
does not help.

dmesg tells me: CD/DVD-drive is on hdc.

Checking /dev/hdc: I changed the group to cdrom (was root).
I also did this with /dev/cdrom and /dev/dvd.

I created a new icon on the KDE-desktop: get the same message.

So the situation is: mounting a CD via commandline or via KDE
results in the message: not a valid block-device.

What can I do?

Thanks.
AugustQ

[Markus]

Did you run lilo after changing lilo.conf?
Are you trying with a data cd? Audio cd's won't mount due to no filesystem.
What does dmesg say about the cd?

[AugustQ]

Hello Markus,

sorry for beeing late.

For safety I started lilo (I thin I started it after I made the changes). Here is what it says:

/proc/misc: no entry for device-mapper found

Don't know if this is a hint for my problem.

dmesg: it tells me the following:

hdc: LITEON DVD-ROM LTD163 ATAPI
ide-cd: passing drive hdc to ide-scsi emulation

the CD: I've used the Knoppix-CD for my tests, no audio-CD.

So what's wrong with my system?

Thanks.
AugustQ

[Markus]

Hmm, it's still using scsi emulation even if you removed hdc=scsi from lilo.conf. Just to be sure, remove it from all kernels (append lines) in lilo.conf and run lilo -v .
Did running lilo say something like "Added linux" or did it just give the error? If just the error, post lilo.conf.
If nothing else works, scsi emulation can be used with 2.6.x kernels, it's just unnecessary to use it.

[AugustQ]

Hello Markus,

by accident my lilo.conf still contained an etnry

hdc=scsi

which I removed. Then I started lilo:

root@Athlon:/etc# lilo -v
LILO version 22.6.1, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger
Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2004 John Coffman
Released 17-Nov-2004, and compiled at 20:30:43 on Dec 9 2004
Debian GNU/Linux

/proc/misc: No entry for device-mapper found
Is device-mapper driver missing from kernel?
/dev/mapper/control: open failed: No such device
Failure to communicate with kernel device-mapper driver.
/proc/misc: No entry for device-mapper found
Is device-mapper driver missing from kernel?
/dev/mapper/control: open failed: No such device
Failure to communicate with kernel device-mapper driver.
Incompatible libdevmapper 1.00.20-ioctl (2005-01-06)(compat) and kernel
driver
Reading boot sector from /dev/hda
Warning: Kernel & BIOS return differing head/sector geometries for device
0x80
Kernel: 65535 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors
BIOS: 1023 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors
Using BITMAP secondary loader
Calling map_insert_data
Mapping bitmap file /usr/share/lilo/debianlilo.bmp
Calling map_insert_file

Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.11
Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.img -> initrd.img-2.6.11
Added Linux *

Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11
Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.img-2.6.11
Added Linux(2.6)-1

Writing boot sector.
/boot/boot.0300 exists - no boot sector backup copy made.
root@Athlon:/etc#


Does this give any hints?

AugustQ

[Markus]

So what does dmesg say now? The post in thread #17348 should work for the rest of the setup.

The error from running lilo doesn't seem to affect it getting updated as it added the kernels. Do you have something like this in lilo.conf:
disk=/dev/hde
bios=0x81
If yes, comment out with a # to:
#disk=/dev/hde
#bios=0x81
If no, post lilo.conf

[AugustQ]

Hello Markus,

the problem is solved!javascript:emoticon(':D')

Today I first checked the access to the CD-drive before I looked into lilo.conf and voila: it works.
Don't know why it didn't work on wednesday (maybe I forgot to reboot after I made the last changes).

Thanks for your help!

AugustQ

PS: lilo.conf contains the lines you mentioned but they are already converted in a comment.

[Markus]

You're welcome, and if everything works now I wouldn't worry about the device mapper lilo complained about.