Re: Reusing the cdrom drive

Alastair Munro writes:

> Hello,
> 
> I have backups on cdr, and want to restore them under LNX-BBC. However, after
> booting LNX-BBC the cdrom cannot be unmounted, as it says its busy. I can't see which
> process has the cdrom open (did an lsof). I even tried to kill a couple of the
> processes, to see if that makes a difference. Most of the utilities I want are
> in the ram drive (I think), so I don't think I need to run stuff off the LNX-BBC
> cdrom when accessing my cd.
> 
> Anyone any ideas how I can unmount the LNX-BBC cdrom, and swap if for one of my
> backup cds? If if its a case that I can't use LNX-BBC after swapping the cds,
> then I can always reboot LNX-BBC again. I'm just using LNX-BBC for hard disk
> recovery.
> 
> Many thanks in advance.

Currently LNX-BBC can't do what you want at all, because it has a
filesystem mounted from the CD.  All the LNX-BBC software is contained
in that filesystem.  (The kernel, through the cloop driver, has the
CD-ROM open -- not a user process.)  None of the LNX-BBC software is
initially in the RAM disk.

I just read that the new Knoppix supposedly has a way of loading
itself into memory, so that the CD can be ejected.  (I guess you have
to have a lot of memory, since Knoppix uses a full CD.)  We've been
talking about implementing that; among other things, it might make it
practical to netboot LNX-BBC.

If you have a floppy drive, you might want to try using tomsrtbt.  (If
not, you can boot tomsrtbt from a CD as an El Torito emulation mode
image, and then you will probably be able to remove the CD and
continue using tomsrtbt.)

-- 
Seth David Schoen <[email protected]> | Very frankly, I am opposed to people
     http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/   | being programmed by others.
     http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/     |     -- Fred Rogers (1928-2003),
                                       |        464 U.S. 417, 445 (1984)