Laboratory for Scientific Visual Analysis
Procedures for Mounting and Unmounting Peripheral Devices

Mounting optical disks and other SCSI devices in the SMVC Classroom:

Mounting Optical Disks:

• Logon: (username: assigned-name, password: secure ) to UNIX workstation in the SMVC classroom.

• Insert the 4.2Gb Optical Disk, CD-ROM, or PC-Floppy disk into drive of peripheral and the media should automatically mount using the the operating system's volume daemon called "vold". The "vold" daemon mounts the CD at /cdrom and the floppy disk at /floppy. If the the CD or Floppy disk doesn't mount you can mount the CD or Floppy disk using CDE which is described below. If the optical disk does not automatically mount at /rmdisk contact Ron Kriz at rkriz@vt.edu

• Here we assume you are using the Common Desktop Environment (CDE). Find and "select," by clicking the right mouse button on the background, a window ("Workspace Menu") appears with several options:

  With the right mouse button "select" "Folders" from the menu and another window appears with the following choices:

  Open CD-ROM

  Open Floppy

  The optical, CD and Floppy media can be ejected by using the eject command in a shell.

  e.g. at the shell prompt >

  > eject rmdisk (unmount and eject optical disk)

  > eject cdrom (unmount and eject CDs)

  > eject floppy (unmount and eject floppy)

  Note: These devices cannot be unmounted and ejected when you are in a directory on that device i.e. a message will appear in shell window that will show system errors, i.e. "..device busy..". In CDE you can open such a window: Workspace Window->Tools->Watch Errors. To verify your present location (directory name), type % pwd and the system should respond that your current directory is on the mounted device. To exit from that directory type % cd "return" and the system will move you to your current home directory that is not on the mount device. Now try unmounting again and it should work. Remember that you can't take the saddle off of a horse if you're sitting in the saddle.

• When mounting and unmounting observe messages in system error window that informs you which directory is effected by the mounted SCSI device, i.e. "the optical disk is mounted on /rmdisk"

  For example: move into a mounted directory and list files and other directories.

  %cd /rmdisk/rmdisk0

  followed by

  % ls -lag

  !! In the current state this SCSI device can not be unmounted and ejected !!

  
  

  
  Mounting CD's and floppy disks:

  • Mounting CD's is done differently depending which windowing environment you are using:

    If you are using Open Windows Environment, make sure you have a File Manager window already opened. If you do not have a File Manager window open, locate the mouse cursor on the background screen and hold down the right mouse button: a "Workspace" menu should appear. Continue to hold down the right mouse button while you move the cursor over "Programs ->" and then continue to move the mouse cursor over the right pointing arrow to get another menu from which you can choose "File Manager ..." when you release the mouse button. With a File Manager window open a new CD file manager window should open from which you can work. Notive the File Manager associated with the CD has an eject button. You can also cd to the directory off of the root / by typing in the command in a shell window "cd /cdrom" which is where the CD is mounted. To eject the CD from the CD-ROM dirve you can also enter the command "eject cdrom" with using the File Manager.

    If you are using the Common Desktop Environment (CDE), open up a a File Manager window and change directories to cd/ cdrom or open a shell window and at the UNIX prompt: panet-name> cd /cdrom and then planet-name> ls -la to view the files. Similar to OpenWindows previously described above you can eject the CD by entering panet-name> eject cdrom: remember the CD can not be ejected if any application or shell window is positioned in that directory located on that CD.

    NOTE: either the CDE or OpenWindows have a help section for you to practice and learn how to more efficiently use either windowing environment. Most students prefer CDE.

  • Mounting floppy disks are done very much the same except the mount point is located at /floppy.

Mounting optical disks on the SGI Octanes in the VT-CAVE Lab:

• Logon: (username: user-name, password: user-password ).

• Insert the 4.2Gbyte Optical Disk into drive.

• Find the "Toolchest" menu and select the "VT-Tools" item on the list and then select "Optical Disk" where another menu pops up from whcih you can select
  Check Status
  Mount
  Unmount
  Init/Erase

  Note: Devices cannot be unmounted when you are in a directory on that device i.e. a message will appear in the console window "..device busy..". To verify your present location (directory name), type % pwd and the system should respond that your current directory is on the mounted device. To exit from that directory type % cd "return" and the system will move you to your current home directory that is not on the mount device. Now try unmounting again and it should work. Remember that you can't take the saddle off of a horse if you're sitting in the saddle.

  When mounting and unmounting observe messages in the console window that informs you which directory is effected by the mounted SCSI device, i.e. "the optical disk is mounted on /opdisk" of the SGI Octanes.

  Now move into the mounted directory and list files and other directories.

  For example:

  %cd /opdisk

  followed by

  % ls -lag

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  Manager, Viz Lab
  Va Tech
  Revised 01/09/03
  

  http://www.sv.vt.edu/classes/ESM4714/mounting.html

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