Xubuntu Cd question

I recently just installed Xubuntu 7.04 on my computer, but I don't think it recognises my CD drive. I can put any CD I like in but nothing appears in the File Manger as described.

Taken from the Xubuntu Desktop Guide

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After inserting a CD into your CD Drive, you will see a new shortcut in the left pane of the File Manager, representing the CD

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Can anyone help me with this?

Also, is it absolutely necessary to have an internet connection to install new programs? And how exactly do I go about it? Is it as easy as typing the "sudo apt-get install" code?

My computer specs are:
533 Mhz Celeron
128 mb ram
onboard video/audio
10 gb hdd
Manufacturers Page

Thank you

Pointy_Stick

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Originally Posted by Pointy_Stick

Also, is it absolutely necessary to have an internet connection to install new programs?

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Whilst it's not absolutely necessary to have an internet connection, where are you going to get the new programs from otherwise?

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And how exactly do I go about it? Is it as easy as typing the "sudo apt-get install" code?

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Basically, yes. Although there are graphical tools available to make life easier if you don't know the exact name of the application you want to install.

e.g. if you want to install foo, you might type:
sudo apt-get install foo
but if it's foo_1.0.0.1 on the server, you'll need to type
sudo apt-get install foo_1.0.0.1

Can't help with the CD problem just now, but somebody will be along shortly with the answer, or you could try the forums.

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Originally Posted by xmastree

Whilst it's not absolutely necessary to have an internet connection, where are you going to get the new programs from otherwise?

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The family computer has an internet connection, just not the Ubuntu one, so I can get the programs there and burn them to a disc. Any idea where to from there? Just pop it in the CD drive and open it up, assuming I can get it to co-operate? I'll also scour those forums for similar topics.

Thanks for your help

Well that's an option, but it can be tiresome. If you download an application then try to install it you might need some other files before it will work. These are called dependencies, and can cause a lot of heartache...
If you're familiar with some Windows apps requiring certain dlls, then you know what I mean.
Using apt-get will automagically download these as well, if you need them. Doing it manually and the installation will fail. It will tell you what you need, so you can go back and download the missing files and try again, but it's a PITA really.

Much better (IMO) would be to run a temporary cable to whatever provides the internet connection for the family's computer and use that. Then remove it afterwards.

If you do want to look for downloadable programs, look for ones which provide a .deb package. This is the 'installer' which has been prepared for that version of linux.

.deb packages, eh:think: I'll have a look at those. And temporarily running out a cable isn't really an option at the moment, as the linux computer doesn't have a network card. Looks like I'll have to fork out a whole $15 bucks for one tomorrow, on the topic of which, anything special I might have to do to get it to work?

Xubuntu doesn't natively have desktop icons installed. At all. Nothing will show up on you desktop when it's there. The only way to see what's actually on your desktop is open Thunar and look at the desktop. You need to install icons for it to show up.

Also, it's really, REALLY worth getting your PC hooked up to the net. You'll have a hell of a time installing packages from burned CDs just like xmastree said.

If you're getting a wired network card, you shouldn't have any trouble. And actually, with the release of 7.04, I think most wireless is now supported too.

What's the family computer on? If wireless is an option then you could buy a wireless NIC for it. I have a CNet CWP854 which works just fine.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PCI-wireless-8...QQcmdZViewItem

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Originally Posted by .Maleficus.

Xubuntu doesn't natively have desktop icons installed. At all.

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Actually, I think mine did have icons on the desktop straight from installation.
Is this what you mean by the desktop?
http://www.xubuntu.org/files/edgy1.jpeg
Because my desktop had icons which said "File System", "Floppy", "Trash" and "Home".

But even in Thunar (this thing on the right, right?) the CD drive does not show up. Any ideas?

As for the network card, will I just be able to slot it in and away it goes? At least that's just the way your post reads to me.

@xmastree: the family computer is on a wired modem, this one actually

Thank you both for your help. If I can, +rep to both of you

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Originally Posted by Pointy_Stick

But even in Thunar (this thing on the right, right?) the CD drive does not show up. Any ideas?

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go to 'File System' and look in either mnt or media for the CD.

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As for the network card, will I just be able to slot it in and away it goes? At least that's just the way your post reads to me.

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Should be able to, yes. None of this driver nonsense.
Assuming your modem has a DHCP server (it will have) then you might even see the thing connect to the net and check the time before the desktop is anywhere near loading.

Nope. In "mnt" there's nothing and in "media" there are four folders: "cdrom", "cdrom0", floppy" and "floppy0", all of which are completely empty. The discs I'm using for testing are a bunch of straight data cd's and a store bought copy of Rage Against the Machine's debut album, and when I put a disc in I do not here it spin up at all.

Also not sure if this is connected but when I try to eject the disc it takes a long time to do it and I end up hitting the eject button for a good 10 seconds.

There shouldn't be anything in /mnt, unless you have other partitions and had them mount to a directory in the /mnt folder. If the disks are all good (and I imagine a store-bought CD would be) then it's either a bad drive or something very strange in Xubuntu. Have you tried the drive in other machines? Well, I guess it would work if you installed with it... Hm...




Actually, thinking about it a bit, you may need to add it to the fstab. It might not be mounted at all, in which case it won't do anything. Can you do "mousepad /etc/fstab" and post what it says in there? That might be the problem.

And yes, you can rep people at any time, they just don't count until you have 10 posts or more. For a full explanation, there is a thread in the TBCS Handbook forum. I think you -rep'ed me though LOL

I don't know what "mousepad /etc/fstab" might be, but her is the contents of the "/etc/fstab/" found in file manager. I have no way have getting a screenshot so I wrote it out and did it in MSPaint so please excuse any mistakes in spacing.

mousepad is the Notepad of Xubuntu. Running "mousepad" and then a filename will open the file in mousepad. When you clicked on fstab in the /etc folder, it probably opened it in mousepad for you.

But it looks like you have an entry for a CD drive (you can see the line that says /media/cdrom0). That means that the contents of the CD would reside in the /media/cdrom0 folder. The entire line containing the CD entry is "/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9600,user,noauto 0 0". All I want you to try changing now is the "/dev/scd0" part. Change scd0 to cdrom. Then, run "sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom0", enter your password, and see what happens.


Edit: To change the entry, run "sudo mousepad /etc/fstab".

Noob question: Where do I type this "sudo" stuff. I opened terminal under accessories in applications and it took me to a black screen with some white writing and then back to the logon screen like I had just started

After installing a CD try the command; " mount /media/cdrom0 " (minus the quotes of course).

You will have to open up a shell to type this, and it should just show a window with white on black text. Once that is done, type "mount" (again minus the quotes) and it will spit out all partitions mounted.
Let us know...

It is the terminal you're looking for (also known as command line). You'll see something like "username@systemname: " and that's where you type everything.

Except my terminal doesn't open, instead it logs me out and I have to log back in. Here is a link to the solution I'm trying now (3rd post from bottom)

If that doesn't work, you could always use xterm instead of xfce-terminal. Make a shortcut on your menu as an application, and then have it run "xterm" in the terminal. It will open xterm instead of xfce-terminal then.

Yeah I've been using xterm by opening /usr/bin/xterm manually and that seems to be working. I'm just going to try what you and Airbozo suggested again and post results. What I can tell you right now is that both of your solutions don't seem to work. Details in a minute.

Results

Did as you suggested Maleficus and changed "scd0" to "cdrom" in fstab using xterm. The entered "sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom0" and got

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mount:block device /dev/cdrom is write protected, mounting read-only
mount:you must specify the file system type

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If I try Airbozo's advice of "mount /media/cdrom0", I get

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mount:block device /dev/cdrom is write protected, mounting read-only
mount:wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/cdrom,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in sys log-try dmesg | tail or so

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Does this help at all? And thanks again for your continued help.

Hmmm.... Try this: "mount -t iso9600 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom0".

When I tried that, it told me "only root can do that". So I tried the line again, this time with "sudo" in front of it. Sure enough, it asked for my password, which I entered and then gave me the message: "mount: mount point mnt/cdrom0 does not exist". Oh well.

I think I'm just going to reinstall Windows (it was meant to be dual boot to begin with, but something stuffed up). At least the CD drive works in Windows. But I haven't given up on Linux entirely, it's just something for another place, another time.

Thank you for all your effort, and once I've spread it round some, you WILL recieve +rep.

Pointy_Stick

I noticed you had "mount/cdrom0". You need that first "/" in front of mnt or it won't work. I'm not sure if you just didn't type it in here, but you'll get that error if it isn't there. It should be "sudo mount -t iso9600 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom0". I'm really confused why it isn't working though. I've never had this problem with Xubuntu... :thinks: This is version 7.04, right? If not, do "sudo apt-get update" and then "apt-get upgrade". It should get you to version 7.04. That might fix it.

I'm 99% sure I had that "/" in front of "mnt/cdrom0", but I'll try it again to be sure. If it doesn't work I'll just have to admit defeat and try it again another time on another machine. I might even have a look at Damn Small Linux alternate install (liveCD install of that freezes on me) or Mepis, which was recommended on another tech forum I posed this question to. Any experience with that? And it is the latest version of Xubuntu I've got, 7.04. Thanks though anyway for your assistance.

Pointy_Stick

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Originally Posted by Pointy_Stick

: "mount: mount point mnt/cdrom0 does not exist".

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does that directory exist? It should be there, but if not you may need to sudo mkdir /mnt/cdrom0

and don't forget that leading /

If you ditch Xubuntu, give Fedora a shot. It's what I'm currently running (I've had (X)Ubuntu, Gentoo, and Fedora all on here though) and it's really nice. Download the Fedora 7 LiveSpin and try it out. You won't regret it.

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Originally Posted by .Maleficus.

If you ditch Xubuntu, give Fedora a shot. It's what I'm currently running (I've had (X)Ubuntu, Gentoo, and Fedora all on here though) and it's really nice. Download the Fedora 7 LiveSpin and try it out. You won't regret it.

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I'll second that. My server is running Fedora 7.

im on linux mint and if you are new to linux id recommend it, ive gone straight to it from windows without any problems whatsoever. and it will automatically mount any cd, hdd or removeable drive

I'd also like to point out Sabayon linux, and give another vote for Ubuntu. :)

If you are feeling brave you can try DSL (Damn Small Linux), but it's not nearly as friendly (or pretty) as the other two. Its just damn small. :D