Well done Douglas

[Nils Kassube]

Knapp wrote:
> Perhaps I should go back and redo this using 
> /dev/dvd1, because that is then linked on my system to /dev/scd0, also
> sr0, cdrom1,cdrw1, dvdrw1 also point there. And what of that bit about
> /media??
> It might be a more generic and more correct answer.

There is a big difference between /dev/cdrom and /media/cdrom. /dev/cdrom 
is the device node which can control the hardware. You need this type of 
access point whenever you want to read audio CDs or write to a CDRW. 
Actually then it would be more likely /dev/cdrw, but like you say, both 
are just symlinks pointing to the same device which is /dev/scd0.

Now if you insert a CD with a filesystem on it (e.g. your Kubuntu CD), the 
automount mechanism of Kubuntu can see there is a file system and mounts 
it to /media/cdrom0/ and there you can read the files on the CD just like 
any other file in your file system. There is also the 
symlink /media/cdrom pointing to /media/cdrom0 which is another path to 
reach the files on the CD.

Usually I would expect to find symlinks /dev/cdrom and /dev/dvd which are 
generic names pointing to the actual device while they are independent 
from the actual hardware device name. These devices in /dev are needed by 
Xine (and Kaffeine via the Xine engine) to have direct access to the 
drive if the contents is something other than a file system, i.e. a video 
DVD or audio CD.

> I just tested setting them all do /dev/dvd1 and it works to as I
> expected. Perhaps this is better advice for the masses because they
> might not have scd0?

Yes, /dev/dvd (or /dev/dvd1) is better because you don't know which device 
name will be used by the kernel of future Kubuntu versions. This is where 
the problem started in the first place. Previously it was /dev/hda and 
now it is /dev/scd0. And I would expect the symlink /dev/dvd to be still 
there even for future kernel versions.


Nils