The FreeBSD Diary

I had just installed 2.2.8 on a machine which would server as an FTP server for an upcoming install-a-thon [that is an event experienced FreeBSD users help novices install FreeBSD on their machines].  But I couldn't mount the CD-ROM.  Eventually I figured it out.

Here's what the box told me about my CD-ROM:

fred# dmesg
Copyright (c) 1992-1998 FreeBSD Inc.
Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
   The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.

FreeBSD 2.2.8-RELEASE #0: Mon Nov 30 06:34:08 GMT 1998
    jkh@time.cdrom.com:/usr/src/sys/compile/GENERIC
CPU: i486DX (486-class CPU)
real memory  = 33554432 (32768K bytes)
avail memory = 30334976 (29624K bytes)
Probing for devices on PCI bus 0:
chip0 <intel 82424ZX (Saturn) cache DRAM controller> rev 2 on pci0:0:0
ncr0 <ncr 53c810 fast10 scsi> rev 1 int a irq 11 on pci0:1:0
ncr0 waiting for scsi devices to settle
(ncr0:0:0): "DEC RZ25M    (C) DEC 0680" type 0 fixed SCSI 2
sd0(ncr0:0:0): Direct-Access 
sd0(ncr0:0:0): 10.0 MB/s (100 ns, offset 8)
510MB (1046206 512 byte sectors)
(ncr0:1:0): "SEAGATE ST5660N 0592" type 0 fixed SCSI 2
sd1(ncr0:1:0): Direct-Access 
sd1(ncr0:1:0): 10.0 MB/s (100 ns, offset 8)
520MB (1065664 512 byte sectors)
(ncr0:6:0): "NEC CD-ROM DRIVE:841 1.0" type 5 removable SCSI 2
cd0(ncr0:6:0): CD-ROM can't get the size
chip1 <Intel 82378IB PCI-ISA bridge> rev 0 on pci0:2:0
Probing for devices on the ISA bus:
sc0 at 0x60-0x6f irq 1 on motherboard
sc0: VGA color <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x0>
ed0 at 0x280-0x29f irq 3 maddr 0xd8000 msize 16384 on isa
ed0: address 00:00:c0:f8:c1:b9, type SMC8216/SMC8216C (16 bit) 
sio0 at 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 on isa
sio0: type 16550A
lpt0 at 0x378-0x37f irq 7 on isa
lpt0: Interrupt-driven port
lp0: TCP/IP capable interface
lpt1 at 0x378-0x37f on isa
lpt1 not probed due to I/O address conflict with lpt0 at 0x378
mse0 not found at 0x23c
fdc0 at 0x3f0-0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2 on isa
fdc0: FIFO enabled, 8 bytes threshold
fd0: 1.44MB 3.5in
npx0 flags 0x1 on motherboard
npx0: INT 16 interface
changing root device to sd0s1a

The highlighted lines show the details of the CD-ROM.  I tried various things to mount the CD-ROM.  Like the following:

fred# mount /dev/scd0a /mnt    
/dev/scd0a on /mnt: Device not configured
fred# mount /dev/scd0c /mnt
/dev/scd0c on /mnt: Device not configured
fred# ls -lt sc*
brw-r-----  1 root  operator   16,   2 Jun 11  1999 scd0c
brw-r-----  1 root  operator   16,   0 Jun 11  1999 scd0a
fred# ./MAKEDEV scd0
fred# mount /dev/scd0a /mnt    
/dev/scd0a on /mnt: Device not configured
fred# ./MAKEDEV scd0a
bad unit for disk in: scd0a
fred# mount /dev/matcd0c /mnt
/dev/matcd0c on /mnt: Device not configured
fred# mount /dev/cd0a /mnt
/dev/cd0a on /mnt: Incorrect super block.
fred# mount /dev/mcd0 /mnt
/dev/mcd0 on /mnt: No such file or directory
fred# mount /dev/mcd0a /mnt
/dev/mcd0a on /mnt: Device not configured
fred# /mount /mcd0b /mnt      
/mount: Command not found.
fred# mount /dev/mcd0b /mnt         
[D[Dmo/dev/mcd0b: Command not found.
fred# mount /dev/cd0a /mnt 
/dev/cd0a on /mnt: Incorrect super block.
fred# mount /dev/cd0c /mnt
/dev/cd0c on /mnt: Incorrect super block.

Then I started searching the FreeBSD Mailing List Archives and I found this entry.  In short, it mentions this:

mount -t cd9660 -o ro /dev/cd0a /cdrom

Which is kind of familiar.  In fact, I wrote about this before.  Look at cdrom.html#mount and you'll see what I mean.  I should be referring to my own notes more often!   <grin>

And it was from that page that I learned out to add this entry to /etc/fstab:

/dev/cd0a  /cdrom   cd9660  ro,noauto   0       0