USB external DVD/CD Drive in Linux OS.

[ADRT]

Found these two files in /root/

# ~/.bashrc: executed by bash(1) for non-login shells.

export PS1='\h:\w\$ '
umask 022

# You may uncomment the following lines if you want `ls' to be colorized:
# export LS_OPTIONS='--color=auto'
# eval "`dircolors`"
# alias ls='ls $LS_OPTIONS'
# alias ll='ls $LS_OPTIONS -l'
# alias l='ls $LS_OPTIONS -lA'
#
# Some more alias to avoid making mistakes:
# alias rm='rm -i'
# alias cp='cp -i'
# alias mv='mv -i'


and

# ~/.profile: executed by Bourne-compatible login shells.

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
. ~/.bashrc
fi

mesg n


Mean anything to you?

 

[Gryd3]

Found these two files in /root/

# ~/.bashrc: executed by bash(1) for non-login shells.

export PS1='\h:\w\$ '
umask 022

# You may uncomment the following lines if you want `ls' to be colorized:
# export LS_OPTIONS='--color=auto'
# eval "`dircolors`"
# alias ls='ls $LS_OPTIONS'
# alias ll='ls $LS_OPTIONS -l'
# alias l='ls $LS_OPTIONS -lA'
#
# Some more alias to avoid making mistakes:
# alias rm='rm -i'
# alias cp='cp -i'
# alias mv='mv -i'


and

# ~/.profile: executed by Bourne-compatible login shells.

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
. ~/.bashrc
fi

mesg n


Mean anything to you?

You certainly are green to this Linux thing eh? (I'm Canadian... really )
Anyway, the majority of the file system cannot be altered unless you have credentials to sign on as 'root' or if the current user has the rights to elevate to root access. You've made some quick progress, but let's cover some more tricks for you.

If you are familiar with cmd.exe in windows, you should understand what 'bash' and 'sh' are. They are the 'shell' you use when you use the terminal in Linux, and they are responsible for spitting out text and running the commands you pass it.
Now.. as far as permissions are concerned, if the account you are logged in as has permissions to do so, you can do one of the following:
'sudo <command>'
'sudo bash'
'su'

sudo (Superuser Do, will run any command as 'root' which is the highest 'administrator' account possible in linux)
Using sudo before any command that requires it is a good practice, but you can take a shortcut and start a new 'bash' session AS the root user. You can then run anything you want.
su (Switch User, allows you to switch to root, but may require a password you do not have... this is why I suggest sudo first... as it will ask for the regular account password)

 

[ADRT]

lol. I am very green to programming all around. Learning as I go. So I changed to superuser, but still lsusb does not work. Is there another way for me to see where the drive address is?

Oh, and I live about 15 minutes from the Canadian border in Maine. Fact is the company I work for is based out of New Brunswick so I get it.

 

[ADRT]

So that put's me in /home/usr. Thats still not the root directory is it? No dev file in home/usr

 

[Gryd3]

lol. I am very green to programming all around. Learning as I go. So I changed to superuser, but still lsusb does not work. Is there another way for me to see where the drive address is?

Oh, and I live about 15 minutes from the Canadian border in Maine. Fact is the company I work for is based out of New Brunswick so I get it.

Awesome. Considering lsusb was 'not found' you will not get it to work unless you download and install the binary or build it from source code. This is usually the case with 'custom' linux distrobutions... some tools will be missing.
Now that you are a superuser, some things will change.
First and foremost the prompt will usually change.

gryd3@Hubble:~$ sudo bash
root@Hubble:~#

Notice the $ sign compared to the # sign. # is usually a 'root' prompt.
Additionally, notice the tilde? ( ~ )
The ~ is a shortcut for your home directory. Which WAS /home/usr/ but now that you are root, it's somewhere else. (perhaps /root/ )
Regardless, the directory you are in now makes little difference, you now have permissions to edit the fstab and run the mount / umount commands as well as create / remove almost ANY file on the system.

 

[ADRT]

Ok, so I can edit fstab now. Here is what it looks like.

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
#<file sys> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
/dev/sda2 / ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/sda5 none swap sw 0 0
none /proc proc rw,nosuid,noexec 0 0
/dev/sda3 /alternate ext3 ro,errors=remount-ro 0 2
/dev/sda1 /boot ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 2
/swap/swapfile none swap sw,pri=0 0 0


This is what I added. Tried sda0 as well.

/dev/sda1 /mount/sda1 vfat defaults 0 0

Kinda hard to do if I don't know what the path is right?

 

[Gryd3]

Ok, so I can edit fstab now. Here is what it looks like.

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
#<file sys> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
/dev/sda2 / ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/sda5 none swap sw 0 0
none /proc proc rw,nosuid,noexec 0 0
/dev/sda3 /alternate ext3 ro,errors=remount-ro 0 2
/dev/sda1 /boot ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 2
/swap/swapfile none swap sw,pri=0 0 0


This is what I added. Tried sda0 as well.

/dev/sda1 /mount/sda1 vfat defaults 0 0

Kinda hard to do if I don't know what the path is right?

Notice that most of those items are in /dev/ ?
sda refers to harddrive 1
sdb refers to harddrive 2

sda1 refers to partition 1 on harddrive 1
sda2 refers to partition 2 on harddrive 1
sda3 refers to partition 3 on harddrive 1

So look for /dev/sr* or /dev/sdb . It's debian based, so you can always ask.
Additionally, you can 'tail -f /var/log/dmesg' and watch what happens when you plug in the usb device

 

[ADRT]

Ok. I'll try that tomorrow. Thanks for all the help and patience Gryd. I really appreciate it.

 

[ADRT]

So after much screwing around I've got it mounted. Yeah! Only problem is that I created a directory to do it so pressing the "Update Sytem" Icon still doesn't read from the disk. I'm assuming that it's because of the directory I created? Needs to be in a different directory?

mkdir /mnt/sr1

fstab edit

/dev/sr1 /mnt/sr1 udf,iso9660 usr,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

 

[ADRT]

Ok, so there 's a symbolic link in /home/user/ called "CDROM". When you insert a disk into the SATA CD drive it turns into a directory and has all the stuff from the CD in it. How can I link my external drive to this symbolic link?

 

[Gryd3]

Ok, so there 's a symbolic link in /home/user/ called "CDROM". When you insert a disk into the SATA CD drive it turns into a directory and has all the stuff from the CD in it. How can I link my external drive to this symbolic link?

'ls -al' should show EVERY file in a directory, as well as where the symbolic link actually points to.
For example :
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Jun 26 20:26 brian -> /home/brian/www

If the link you are talking about is /home/usr/CDROM you can simply rename it, and make a new symlink.
mv /home/usr/CDROM /home/usr/CDROM_
ln -s /mnt/sr1 /home/usr/CDROM

That should do it for you.. as now anything accessing the original CDROM from the /home/usr/CDROM path will use your symlink which is pointed to /mnt/sr1

This will only work if the update app uses the /home/usr/CDROM path though...
Is the update icon a script or an application?

 

[ADRT]

It's a script. I can find it under /user/icewam/toolbar/

PROGG Update System Update /user/local/bin/ UpdateSystem

Or something to that effect.

 

[Gryd3]

It's a script. I can find it under /user/icewam/toolbar/

PROGG Update System Update /user/local/bin/ UpdateSystem

Or something to that effect.

OK, because the update is a binary file, you can't tell exactly where it goes to access the CDROM, so you may need to make more than one symlink, but the process is the same once you find other access locations.

 

[ADRT]

Well that's the thing. User /local/ doesn't have anything in it but a file called share. On the cd there is two directories and a text file. One directory holds the update. The other directory is /user/local/bin/UpdateSystem

Somehow this is all done through the files on the cd.

 

[ADRT]

So the bin file on the cd runs the update which is a compressed file. Also located on the cd.

 

[ADRT]

The whole system is set up funny. Like /usr/media/ only contains a directory called "mirror". Nothing else.

 

[ADRT]

Actually, come to think of it, the directory on the cd where the update is stored is called "media" I believe.

 

[Gryd3]

Actually, come to think of it, the directory on the cd where the update is stored is called "media" I believe.

well.. I think at this point, we will either progress at a snails pace.. or not at all.

You have all the details right in front of you, and other than playing with mounting points and symlinks I'm at a loss as to what to do next without actually being able to see the system myself.
It may be time to find some form of live chat focused on debian to get you rolling quicker.

 

[ADRT]

Notice that most of those items are in /dev/ ?
sda refers to harddrive 1
sdb refers to harddrive 2

sda1 refers to partition 1 on harddrive 1
sda2 refers to partition 2 on harddrive 1
sda3 refers to partition 3 on harddrive 1

So look for /dev/sr* or /dev/sdb . It's debian based, so you can always ask.
Additionally, you can 'tail -f /var/log/dmesg' and watch what happens when you plug in the usb device

Just wanted to reiterate on this as well. After executing

tail -f /var/log/dmesg

All I got was info on the hard drive. After some meandering today through the system I tried Just

dmesg

Got all kinds of stuff then! Lol. But this was instrumental and finding that I was not connected to /sr0/ as I originally thought but actually at /sr1/. This was a huge help in figuring this all out.

 

[ADRT]

I have a few things I want to try tomorrow. I'm right there, I just know it! Thanks for all the help. I'll keep you informed as to my progress.