> I am totally new to linux and debian. I tried to install from CD-ROM but > it (a Hi-Val (MITSUMI) FX400) wasn't recognized. Following the > installation instructions I tried the second choice of booting in > DOS/Win first and copying installation files to the C: partition. This > works OK, but still, when I get to the part about mounting the CD-ROM it > fails with no indication of why. How can I trouble-shoot this? > Is there a way to shell out of the installation menus to try a manual > mount? or where do I look to see why the CD-ROM fails to mount? I > believe the driver was installed when I was prompted for that in a > previous step, but can I check somewhere that it actually was? Is it > possible that this CD_ROM is not supported by LINUX? What info should I > post to this list so someone can undertand exactly where my problem > lies? (I know you can't guess at it from my limited descriptions here). > Thanks very much for your time, Dave
It can be done. I have two systems, both with the FX400. One of the drives even came as part of a Hi-Val multimedia kit. From the system logs: Aug 10 09:56:19 picard kernel: hdc: FX400E, ATAPI CDROM drive <date> <time><hostname><Linux stuff I barely understand> Linux auto-detected this thing hooked to my secondary IDE controller. Here's how I set it up: 1. I did not connect the CDROM drive's IDE cable to the sound card. 2. I think I set a jumper on the sound card to disable IDE or some such thing. 3. I set the jumper on the CDROM to "master" (it might work as slave too, I don't know) 4. I connected it to the motherboard's "secondary IDE" connector. 5. It magically worked. If it hadn't, I wouldn't have known what to do. Note that in my system, there are two IDE devices. The CD-ROM is the master on the secondary IDE controller. My hard disk is the master on the primary IDE controller. There are no slave drives in my computer. I don't know if this chart will help, but here goes: /dev/hda primary master (usually a hard disk) /dev/hdb primary slave /dev/hdc secondary master (in my case, a CD-ROM drive) /dev/hdd secondary slave If you still have difficulty getting the CD to mount, make sure the CD in the drive is a Debian binary, not Debian source. Also, I think it would be helpful to know how your CD-ROM drive is connected and how many IDE controllers your system has (usually 1 or 2, not counting sound cards). Hope this helps, Patrick
