Intermitent CD drive

[davidblaine]

I have installed Mint after formatting the hard drive on an old computer. The former OS was Windows XP. Mint only recognizes the CD R/W drive intermittently, maybe once every four or five boots.

I also have a networking problem. I have this computer tied to a Windows XP computer through a gateway. Both computers share the internet connection, and the Mint computer shares a printer over the network, a printer that is attached to the Windows computer. But the mint computer does not recognize the windows computer. The Windows computer does find the Mint computer though.

Any help appreciated.

A true newbie.

[foggytown]

Hi DB,
The CD issue will probably be hard to figure out, as you might know, intermittent issues are often the hardest to troubleshoot.

The networking issue might be easier to figure out. I find that when I browse my network Mint often doesn't "see" the Windows computer. But if you are in the file manager (Nautilus) and choose "File/Connect to Server" from the menu you can choose Windows Share and enter the IP address or the Windows name of the computer that you are trying to connect to and that should do the trick.

Printing is the same. In the Printing applet (located under Administration in the Mint Menu) , after choosing New Printer select Network Printer and then Windows Printer and proceed as above.

Post back if that works or not and if I can't help you maybe someone else can.

--john

[davidblaine]

Thanks for your reply. First, the CD drive seems to show up regularly now. Past three or four boots in a row. The system has placed an incon for the CD drive on the desktop, and it will label it "audio disc" or "blank disc" if there is media present. Nice.

And I found the network. In file manager I went "go", "network" and then I could see the server. (I'm using workgroups on the XP machine.) The first time I opened it, I was prompted for the user id and password. After that I've just been able to go back in, even if both machines have been shut down and re-started. But formerly (this is my second install) there was an icon on the desktop for "Network" and that's gone.

One last question, I've been able to open image and audio files from the windows machine via the network, but not Word.Doc documents. I'm not sure if that's because the Open Office word processor can't accommodate that extension, or if it's a sharing issue. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Dave