Cannot find DVD drive

[Timothy Murphy]

Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:

>> I'm afraid this may be a very ignorant question,
>> but how do I access the DVD drive on my desktop?
>> 
>> It is shown by lshal:
>> --------------------------
>> udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_model_DVD_ROM_DRD_841B'
>>   block.storage_device
>> = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_model_DVD_ROM_DRD_841B'  (string)
>>   info.product = 'DVD-ROM DRD-841B'  (string)
>>   info.udi =
>>   '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_model_DVD_ROM_DRD_841B'
>> (string)
>> --------------------------
>> 
>> And I see it referenced in /proc/sys/dev/cdrom ,
>> from which I guess I should find it at /dev/cdrom .
>> But when I try to mount it, I don't see the CD in it:
>> --------------------------
>> [root at alfred ~]# mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
>> mount: No medium found
>> --------------------------
>> 
>> So is this the correct device?
>> How can I tell?
>> 
> Do you have more then one CD/DVD drive? You can see what device
> /dev/cdrom is a symlink for by running "ls -l /dev/cdrom". If you
> only have one drive, you may have to clean the drive...

Thanks.
I only have one drive.
/dev/cdrom is a symlink to /dev/sr0 , but trying to mount this
has the same outcome.

I guess the drive needs cleaning, or more.
I should perhaps have mentioned that this is an ancient machine -
I keep it running because it is the only machine I have
with a Centronics printer socket for my HP LaserJet 5L.
I'm not sure if I ever used the DVD drive,
but certainly not for many years.

I think I have Windows-2000 on it.
I'll fire that up and see if it can do any better.

But I was thinking that it was a pity Linux/Fedora
does not have something like Windows "My Computer",
where one can see at once what devices can be seen.
Or maybe there is an equivalent?

-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland