Newbie has questions
Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Newbie has questions
started by: HotDog
Posted by HotDog on Jan. 04 2004,22:16
I'm a total newbie to both Linux and DSL. I'm running DSL from a CD, version 0.5.0. I figured out how to read and write to my second D: hard drive but not the C: drive. I presume there must be a way. How do I do it? I can't get an app, say Nedit, to write directly to D: -- I have to save to ramdisk, then use mount.app to copy the file from ramdisk to the HD. This works but it's awkward. Can Nedit or Ted save directly to my HD while DSL is running as a live CD?
Is there any way I can get new apps while running DSL from CD? Am I restricted to what is on the CD?
Booting up, DSL correctly identifies my sound card, yet I have no sound in Fluxbox. XMMS goes through the motions but silence. It's only finding music on the D: drive and it does not find my second CD ROM drive. Can I play a CD in my second CD ROM drive while keeping the DSL CD in the primary CD ROM drive?
Thanks.
Posted by CappyCaffeine on Jan. 05 2004,04:05
I can see that you are a newbie (Beginner seems like a nicer term) since you are still referring to your drives in Windows speak. (C: and D:) This terminology is not used in linux since it is pretty non specific excpet that C comes before D in the alphabet. For example you can have a single hard drive with a C partition and a D partition, I.E. a split drive. I am assuming you have 2 hard drives, each formatted as a single partition, thus C: "drive" and D: "drive".. In Linux all devices (drives, ports (serial, parallel, USB), video, sound ) are considered files and are organized into directories. All the devices are in the /dev directory (/dev/dsp is typically device for digital sound processor (sound card), /dev/tty00 is typically your first serial port, and in that terminology hard drives are designated as follows:First IDE Hard Drive on first IDE port: /dev/hda
First partition on first hard drive: /dev/hda1 (usually the Windows C: partition)
Second partition on first hard drive: /dev/hda2
Second IDE hard drive on first IDE port: /dev/hdb
First Partition on second hard drive: /dev/hdb1
Second partition on second hard drive: /dev/hdb2
etc..
Since your CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-+RW, etc are on the IDE channels :
First device on SECOND IDE port: /dev/hdc
(typically your CD-ROM/R/RW, blah blah blah)
Second device on your second IDE port: /dev/hdd
(another CD-ROM/R/RW, blah)
So.. with that foundation look at a file called /etc/fstab
you will find a line looking something like this:
/dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 auto noauto,user,defaults 0 0
so, using what we know above, First argument is the first partition on first hard drive, second argument is the "mount point" (in linux you don't really write to the device directly, only to the mounted directory, it has to do with permissions, security, etc..), third argument tells linux to automagically figure out the type of file structure (FAT, FAT32, NTFS, HPFS, EXT2, ReiserFS, there are a bunch), fourth gives some info about basic mounting options such as do it on boot or wait till it is manually done and who gets permission.
Linux can READ NTFS but not WRITE to NTFS. There are beta drivers to allow both reading and writing, but it typically trashes the NTFS partition, so I don't reccomend it.
Linux can read and write to FAT32 partitions (Win98 and below, WinXP supports it but most systems are NTFS)
If your /dev/hda1 and /dev/hdb1 are FAT32, DSL should have created a /mnt/hda1 and /mnt/hdb1 directory.
This is where you will find your windows files.
use the mount.app to mount your hda1 and hdb1 partitions then navigate to /mnt/hda1 or /mnt/hdb1 to read and write to those partitions.
Hope this helps!
Cappy
Posted by davide on Jan. 05 2004,15:16
I happened to read this post and...wow!Cappy I don't know if you're a teacher..but you should be!
your post is a masterpiece! simple and complete!
Posted by HotDog on Jan. 05 2004,22:30
Cappy:So.. with that foundation look at a file called /etc/fstab
you will find a line looking something like this:
/dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 auto noauto,user,defaults 0 0
HotDog:
There is no such line.
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0622 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/auto/floppy auto user,noauto,exec,umask=000 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/auto/cdrom auto user,noauto,exec,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/auto/cdrom1 auto user,noauto,exec,ro 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/usbdrive auto user,noauto,exec,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /mnt/hdb1 auto noauto,user,exec 0 0
Bear in mind that this file is burned into the
distribution CD and cannot be changed. (I'm
running a live-CD DSL.)
Cappy:
If your /dev/hda1 and /dev/hdb1 are FAT32, DSL should have created a /mnt/hda1 and /mnt/hdb1 directory.
This is where you will find your windows files.
HotDog:
There is no /mnt/hda1 directory.
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0622 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/auto/floppy auto user,noauto,exec,umask=000 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/auto/cdrom auto user,noauto,exec,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/auto/cdrom1 auto user,noauto,exec,ro 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/usbdrive auto user,noauto,exec,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /mnt/hdb1 auto noauto,user,exec 0 0
Bear in mind that this file is burned into the
distribution CD and cannot be changed. (I'm
running a live-CD DSL.)
During boot up the system reports both drives,
a Western Digital and a Maxtor.
Cappy:
use the mount.app to mount your hda1 and hdb1 partitions then navigate to /mnt/hda1 or /mnt/hdb1 to read and write to those partitions.
HotDog:
I was doing this with /mnt/hdb1 before I posted
my questions here. As I said, I found /mnt/hdb1
but not /mnt/hda1.
My first question remains unanswered.
I can't get an app, say Nedit, to write directly to D: -- I have to
save to ramdisk, then use mount.app to copy the file from ramdisk to
the HD. This works but it's awkward. Can Nedit or Ted save directly to
my HD while DSL is running as a live CD?
How can I save directly to /hdb1 from an editor?
The only file app where it appears is mount.app.
There are problems with running DSL as a live-CD.
For example, the wvdial.cnf cannot even be read
from the CD, must less changed. I did it by work-
arounds, saving it to the floppy, but only because
I'd had twenty years of experience with DOS. Still
the modem isn't working since the only wvdial.cnf
file read is the one burned into the CD.
It just occurred to me that I could be wrong, that
those files while burned into the CD may have been
copied into RAM where they could be changed. If so,
where are they? And how do I get permission to read
and write? Root? I must boot up as "Knoppix restore"
to use my own configuration.
Thanks.
HotDog
Posted by CappyCaffeine on Jan. 06 2004,03:58
You are right that the /etc/fstab is written to the ramdisk since it is generated specifically for your hardware on boot.I believe that if you wish to write to hdb1 change the line denoting /dev/hdb1 to the following:
/dev/hdb1 /mnt/hdb1 auto noauto,user,exec,rw,umask=000 0 0
and then give it a whirl.
what format is hda1 in? If it is in NTFS, I don't think DSL automatically mounts it.
BTW: I forgot to mention that fluxbox does not have any sound associated with it.
Cappy
Posted by CappyCaffeine on Jan. 06 2004,04:02
BTW: Does your second CD-ROM have an audio cable connected to your soundcard/motherboard? If not, I am not sure that you can play an audio CD in this distribution. Some distributions and Windows convert the audio files on an audio CD to PCM or WAV format on the fly in order to get it to your sound card and then your speakers.For example, the basic CD player in previous versions of windows only put the CDRom into a simple cd player mode, audio output was via the audio cables on the back of the CDROM that piped it to your soundcard and then to the speakers.. no processing was really involved.
Cappy
Posted by ixogn on Jan. 18 2004,03:28
Cappy:i am a newbie too,
i happen to see your post,
it is really very helpful,
thx!