Check the contents of your /etc/fstab for an entry for the cdrom. If there is one, post it. Maybe it is wrong, or needs to be commented out.

Your internet connection is probably an easy thing to fix (esp. if not wireless!) so you could try to fix that first, if you don't want to go thru the hassle of reinstalling an OS (and it is something you'll need to learn how to do anyway). How is your internet being provided to you (are you on a LAN connected to a wireless router, etc.). Start simple and show the output of some commands:

cat /etc/network/interfaces  (shows saved IP configuration)

ifconfig   (shows state of currently configured network devices)

route -n  (shows state of IP routing table)

ethtool  (at the bottom, shows whether a physical link is detected)

ls /sys/class/net  (shows physically detected network devices, and the loopback adapter)

You're on the right track sticking w/a popular distro, too. Ubuntu is certainly good. I like Fedora too (lots of community support). Another very popular one with the n00bs is Linux Mint.

just curious, have you tried mounting one of the CDs manually, versus letting the desktop/file manager, etc, doing it? something like:

sudo mount -v -t iso9960 -o ro /dev/sr0 /media/cdrom

Well, the short answer to "How to enable joliet fs support" is - recompile your kernel. But that may not be necessary, it might already be enabled. If it isn't, maybe there is a kernel package for your Linux distro that contains that module (I think Joliet is an MS extension to ISO9660). But first, try to confirm whether or not it is enabled already.

Run this command to see if this file exists on your system:

ls /proc/config.gz

cat /proc/config.gz|gunzip|grep -i joliet

If that file is not in /proc, you can also try this command to see if a static copy of your kernel config exists in /boot:

ls /boot/config-`uname -r`

cat /boot/config-`uname -r`|grep -i joliet

If you do indeed have Joliet support, I'm not sure what is going on. If you have neither of those files, maybe an Ubuntu pro here can help you determine whether or not you already have support.

If you definitely do NOT have support enabled, then you need to either recompile your kernel, or find a Linux distro that already has support built into the kernel provided (as I mentioned, Fedora apparently does).

One other thing to note, Joliet/ISO9960 support can either built into the kernel, or built separately, as a module. Look in this directory for filesystems supported by your kernel:

/lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/fs

In there you might see a directory named iso9660. If so, you can try this command and see what happens:

modprobe iso9660

If you decide to recompile your kernel, don't be too daunted - it's not so gory these days and we can help.

EDIT:
I just booted Kubuntu 10.10 Live and sure enough, there does appear to be Joliet support built into the kernel. To try and emulate your problem, I attempted to create an ISO image with Joliet extensions, then I burned it to CD. I was able to mount it in the Kubuntu system, though. Perhaps you could explain more precisely how you've written these CDs - ie., what OS, what app did you use, etc.

i just gave up and used gedit - never used fileutil tho. if i get time...

EDIT: or, it can be done right in vim, i've just learned. cool. this is one of several ways to do it w/vim that worked for me:

vim -me -e -c ":hardcopy >%.ps" -c ":q" test.sh

lp -d COLOR_PRINTER_NAME test.sh.ps

Hey,

Someone once showed me a simple command line way to print a file of code (Perl, Bash, etc.) on a color printer that honored the syntax highlighting. I have since forgotten it - anyone know what this might have been?

thx