This article is about mounting a CD-ROM disc in single user mode.

1. Start up into single user mode by holding down the "s" key during startup with the disc in the CD-ROM drive. When you reach the # prompt the startup is complete.

2. In order to mount the CD you must determine the device number that Mac OS X Server has assigned to it during startup. There are two possible types of CD-ROM drives: IDE and SCSI. This information is listed while you are starting up into single user mode. Scan the lines of information for "CD-ROM". At the beginning of this line you will see the letters "sd" followed by a number, for example "sd2." This is the device number that Mac OS X Server has assigned to your CD-ROM drive.

3. The next step in mounting your disc is to determine on which slice (partition) the UFS (UNIX file system) information is stored. For example, the UFS slice on the Mac OS X Server Installation disc is on slice a. Other CD-ROMs may vary. To determine which slice your information is on, try mounting slices (a, b, c, etc), or contact the disc's manufacturer.

4. Lastly, you will need a place to mount the disc. You can mount the disc at any directory (mount point). The /tmp directory is usually a good one, or you can create a /mnt directory using the mkdir command.
Example: To mount the Mac OS X Server Installation disc to directory /mnt, use the following command from the single user mode prompt:

mount /dev/sd2a /mnt

The /dev/sd2a directory structure is used because the /dev directory is where information about that device is stored. The /dev directory has many devices already entered. You probably will not need to add any.