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

[Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@arcor.de>]

Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> 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?

/dev/hdc (and other files in /dev) are not called "files", they're 
called "special devices").


> 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!)).

Use /dev/sdc instead of /dev/hdc.  The default in new kernels is to only 
use /dev/sd*.

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