Computers still have a long way to come

On a new RHEL5.1 installation, I want to install screen. yum is borked. So, my next step is to figure out which cd it is on. At least you can use the file image of a cd as a virtual cd drive.

[root@hamzy2 mnt]# mount -t iso /home/tmp/RHEL5.1-Server-20070822.1-i386-disc1-ftp.iso /mnt/tmp/
mount: unknown filesystem type 'iso'
mount: maybe you meant 'iso9660'?

Okay, it prints out an error. But it seems to be a popular error and has a suggestion.

[root@hamzy2 mnt]# mount -t iso9660 /home/tmp/RHEL5.1-Server-20070822.1-i386-disc1-ftp.iso /mnt/tmp/
mount: /home/tmp/RHEL5.1-Server-20070822.1-i386-disc1-ftp.iso is not a block device (maybe try `-o loop'?)

Grrr! Okay, there are two popular mistakes that it recognizes enough to give you an alternative but not enough to actually do it for you. And you do not actually have to specify the file system type because it magically auto-detects it. So why can't it do some more auto-detection?