TN0022: Installing from DVD media on Linux

Last Updated: August 7, 2008
Author: Chris Daly

Summary

On Linux configurations, the default options for mounting DVD media may not grant permission to run programs from the DVD. In this case attempting to start the launchpad or the IBM Installation Manager from the Rational Team Concert DVD will result in an error message like the following:

  	bash: ./launchpad.sh: /bin/sh: bad interpreter: Permission denied  

This Tech Tip shows how to mount the DVD with execution permissions to enable running the launchpad and installing Rational Team Concert.

More Information

The general strategy for fixing this problem is to make sure that your DVD is mounted with the exec option. This can be accomplished either by adding the exec option to the line that describes your DVD drive in the /etc/fstab file or by passing the exec option directly to the mount command you use to manually mount the DVD.

Modify mount settings in /etc/fstab file

Linux uses the file /etc/fstab to describe the default settings for mounting filesystems. Each line in the file describes the mount settings for an individual file system. The first field of each line refers to a device (such as a CD, DVD or floppy drive). Examine this file and look for the line that describes the settings of your DVD drive. If it is not clear which device is your DVD drive, try the following command:

	ls -l /dev/dvd*

On most systems this will show a symbolic link to the DVD device such as:

	lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 3 Feb 29 01:17 /dev/dvd -> hdc

Typically device names of IDE drives are /dev/hda, /dev/hdb, /dev/hdc or /dev/hdd. The above output would indicate that your DVD device is /dev/hdc. In this case look for a line beginning with /dev/hdc in the /etc/fstab file. It may look like this:

	/dev/hdc    /media/dvdrom    auto    noexec,noauto,user 0 0

The fourth field of each /etc/fstab line is a comma separated list of options. In the example shown above noexec is present and this prevents execution of programs from the DVD. Even if noexec is not present, it may still be the default behavior. You can fix the problem by changing noexec to exec or adding exec to the fourth field.

After changing the /etc/fstab file, eject and re-insert the DVD (or unmount and re-mount it) to make the changes take effect.

Manually mount DVD with execution privileges

If your DVD is not automatically mounted when the disc is inserted, you would have used the mount command to reach the point where you encountered this problem with execute permissions. In this case you can add the exec option to the mount command to solve the problem. For example, if you used:

	mount /dev/dvd

then unmount the drive and re-mount it like this:

  	umount /dev/dvd  	mount -o exec /dev/dvd  

References

Use the following commands to show Linux manual pages relevant to this Tech Tip:

  • man mount and man umount – Show the mount and unmount command documentation.
  • man fstab – Show documentation for the /etc/fstab file format.
  • man eject – Show documentation for the command to eject physical media from a drive.
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