UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

ok here is what i do and get:
# mount /dev/sd6a /cdrom
mount /dev/sd6a write-protected

ok so what do i do its a external cdrom and its on scsi number 6. its a SparcSTATION 2. we're trying to put red hat sparc 6.2 on it but it wont boot. i am about to take the hard drives out and install it a different way but then i wont learn anything so please help me before i go insane and shot the unix machine.


wixifer

Is it possible that you have to mount it
as read only? I believe read/write is the
default.

Try...

# mount -r /dev/sd6a /cdrom

The cdrom shouldn't let you mount it any other way than read-only. I may be missing it here, but I don't see the problem...

If you're trying to install Redhat on your Sparc, first off, make sure you have the Sparc release. Next, read the installation manual - you can't just mount a cdrom and copy files over...

wixifer writes...
Note that mount defaults to read/write.
My suggestion is to add the "-r" (read-only)
option to the mount command.

ok i tried this and got this
# mount -r /dev/sd6a /cdrom
/dev/sd6a write-protected or something else but not mounted
# mount /dev/sd6a /cdrom
/dev/sd6a write-protected or something else but not mounted
# mount -F ufs /dev/sd6a /cdrom
/dev/sd6a write-protected or something else but not mounted
# mount -F ufs -r /dev/sd6a /cdrom
/dev/sd6a write-protected or something else but not mounted

ok just read the first one i wrote on 10-16-01 if u want to know more info.

I've got some questions for you, and I think I understand your frustration...
I remember somewhere a while back reading that Suns will only boot from a 2048 block reading CDROM, and the norm is a 1024 block read, so your run of the mill scsi cdrom won't boot a Sun, if that is part of your aim ( or reverse the block sizes, one way or the other...).
I understand you want to install RedHat on the Sparc, so why bother with the CD? From my experience with RH on Sparc (not much), I needed to make a boot diskette, and since that was an image, I could do that on a PC or by dd-ing off my other boxes. If your Sparc is without a floppy, let me say the a sparc floppy is also a bit different from your average floppy.
Now, if you wan to keep solaris and mount that CD, you need to know a coupla things, your filesystem type, and your device. Most of the mount versions out there will see that the device is read-only and warn you and then allow the mount but ask you to use "mount -o ro /dev/cdrom" in the future. Make sure you are mounting the correct partition of the CD, this is part of the device special. I have had the odd CD that wanted s4 mounted or something equally strange.
I also notice that you are using the Linux drive letter specifications, Solaris is different, your devices are under /dev/dsk/c0t6d0s0, as a matter of fact, that is prolly your cd right there, have you explored /dev/dsk for the "cooked" devices on the system? you'll want to look....

Okay, now that all of that is out of the way, if you are installing RH, boot from the floppy, and it will find the CD, especially if you don't have a Sun CDROM, and don't think it's Sun just because the case says so, sometimes it ain't so.
If you are keeping Solaris, mount the drive with:
"mount -o ro /dev/dsk/c0t6d0s0 /cdrom", that should work better.



loadc

just so you know solaris should auto mount cd's and floppys.

run the command volcheck if that does not work makesure automountd is started.