[gentoo-user] mount: "special device /dev/hdc does not exist". What does this mean?

[Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>]

Hi, Gentoo?

I've a newly installed system, now working with my own special
optimiesed keyboard layout.  :-)

However, I can't access my DVD drives.  I know at least one of them
works, because I installed Gentoo from it.

When I do

   mount -tiso9660 /dev/hdc /cdrom

, it comes back with "special device /dev/hdc does not exist".  And yes,
there was a CD in the drive, and /cdrom exists.

What does "special device" mean here?  Does it mean the physcial
hardware, the controller chip, the directory entry /dev/hdc, the driver
in the kernel, or what?  What is "special" about my DVD writer?

Well, to answer some of my questions, I was missing a /dev/hdc, so I
made one with

# mknod /dev/hdc b 22 0

.  This didn't help one iota.  I had a look at dmesg, but there was no
mention of hdc in it.  (It did mention hdg, hdh, where my main hard
drives are (don't ask!)).

My kernel is an up to date linux-2.6.25-gentoo-r6.  I _think_ it's got
all the needed options set in the configuration.  Can anybody suggest
how to get my system to recognise my DVD drives?

Thanks in advance!

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).
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