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Thread ID: 65822	2006-02-01 05:18:00	installing Linux	jupiter1 (2578)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
425983	2006-02-14 08:41:00	Hi Guys, It must be obvious by now why I want to migrate to Linux. Course, I could always go back to win 3.11 or 95. At least they were more solid and securer than the what I've got at the moment :-((( (and I could fix any prob's that I did get). Phil. It cetainly is not obvious to me why you want to go to linux. If so then why try to dual boot? Why not back up all important documents from your Win2000 installation and install Linux on hda? Your immediate problem is you are trying to install Linux and it does not work the way you expected. Secondly you started with Win2K Pro and Linux Fedora and now it looks like you are putting Mepis on. Sorry for me being confused. Ex Haze. If you wanna fix the MBR, and happen to have a floppy disk drive, then hop onto www.bootdisk.com (http://www.bootdisk.com/), download a MS-DOS 6.22 bootdisk, write it to a floppy. And how exactly will a MS-DOS 6.22 boot disk fix the master boot record on a NTFS partition? I'm even more confused.	Sweep (90)
425984	2006-02-14 09:21:00	And how exactly will a MS-DOS 6.22 boot disk fix the master boot record on a NTFS partition? I'm even more confused. Essentially Jupiter has done the same thing with the w2k (ah, don't you love that monicker) CD, fixmbr and/or fixboot. I think the ref to Mepis was only my suggestion of it as a live Linux CD. Not a bad choice though. When I had similar issues, looked at my boot sector and MBR, via a boot CD, which had reference to boot/LILO still pointing at hdb, where no LILO was (BTW, the newer version of the OS changed to Grub), for which I didn't have the knowledge/bravery to try to edit (pretty arcane stuff in there). Once I did the paralel installation of win2k, I used a utility called dskprobe.exe to have a look at much the same info in a slightly different format, and there the reference to booting from hdb remained, this time I attempted to edit it, but nothing useful seemed to stick, hence wipe > reinstall. Nasty thought number two for the evening, you have something similar lurking in your boot sector. Why it is protected I don't know or can't remember, I don't remember which :D ).	Murray P (44)
425985	2006-02-14 09:38:00	And how exactly will a MS-DOS 6.22 boot disk fix the master boot record on a NTFS partition? I'm even more confused. AFAIK, the MBR doesn't pertain to any particular disk format, be it FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, and others. This means that even the archaic fdisk can still fix the MBR of an NTFS formatted hard drive. For more information, look no further than a very reliable source: Microsoft (support.microsoft.com)	Haze (3028)
425986	2006-02-18 08:31:00	Hi Guys, Finally got Linux Fedora in and working. Like I said earlier, the installation of grub corrupted my backup version of win2k on hdd g and no ammount of fdisk mbr etc. or windows repairing could fix this. Consequently I installe Fedora on this drive after formatting the 8.4 gig has fat32 and transfering my working files. Fedora does now work, kind of. It can only see the HDD that it is installed on but can not see any other of the fat32 drives. Fedora has also made its self the default op system so I have to go through 2 boot menus. At least I'm a bit closer ! Cheers, Phil	jupiter1 (2578)
425987	2006-02-18 20:45:00	Hi Guys, I now have a working Fedora install but have two minor problems left to solve. 1. The dual boot works but defaults to Fedora and only gives me 2 seconds to opt for the other op system. 2. The Fedora install can not see my other (8.4 Gig) HDD which is formatted in FAT32 style. How do I fix these two items please ? Phil.	jupiter1 (2578)
425988	2006-02-18 21:03:00	For the boot issue: Open up a terminal (console) window, and at the $ prompt enter in this: su - [press enter] (note the space between the su and the dash) Enter in roots password at the prompt, then enter in this: gedit /etc/grub.conf Wait for a second or two, and a window will appear with the contents of your grub.conf. This window is the editor program called gedit. You will see Fedora and your Windows (probably called "other") listed beside the word "title". The very first entry line which starts with "title" is number 1, the second entry starting with "title" is number 2 and so on. So, if you look to where it says: default=1 This is specifing that the operating system (or kernel version) given under Title 1 is the default. Change that 1 to a 2 if that is where your Windows (Other) entry appears. This will make Windows the default OS to boot Where it says: timeout=5 That is the time in seconds that the bootloader will give you before booting the default OS. Just change that to 10 or 15, or whatever time you would like it to give up before booting the default OS automatically. Once you have done your editing of the grub.conf, click Save and then close the window. You will see the changes when you next boot up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your FAT32 partition, if you could enter into the same terminal window while still as root (root has the # prompt while a normal user has a $ prompt) this command: fdisk -l (note that is a lowercase L) Post back here with that information (if you just highlight the text with the mouse and then click the middle (scroll wheel) button of the mouse, it will paste whatever you selected. Now also enter in this command and again post back here with the output: cat /etc/fstab The command "cat" just lists the contents of the fstab file, a good way of viewing the contents of a file without the risk of accidently making a change in it. :)	Jen (38)
425989	2006-02-19 03:08:00	Thanks Jen, The fix for the boot problem worked perfectly, many thanks. I have the 2 lots of data for the invisible HDD problem but am having trouble transfering it over to my windows system for reply to you on PressF1. My Linux system is not yet configured for internet or eMail, my next project ! Will keep at this transfer problem as I'm sure I can ace it somehow. Will get back to you. Phil.	jupiter1 (2578)
425990	2006-02-19 03:43:00	Hi Jen, I knew I could do it :-)) PART 1 [phil@localhost ~]$ su - Password: [root@localhost ~]# gedit /etc/grub . conf [root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l Disk /dev/hda: 81 . 9 GB, 81964302336 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 1275 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda2 1276 9964 69794392+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/hda5 1276 9964 69794361 7 HPFS/NTFS Disk /dev/hdb: 8455 MB, 8455200768 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1027 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdb1 * 1 1027 8249346 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) Disk /dev/hdc: 81 . 9 GB, 81964302336 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdc1 * 1 1275 10241406 83 Linux /dev/hdc2 1276 9964 69794392+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/hdc5 1276 9964 69794361 82 Linux swap / Solaris [root@localhost ~]# PART 2 [phil@localhost ~]$ su - Password: [root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/fstab # This file is edited by fstab-sync - see 'man fstab-sync' for details LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1 /dev/devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0 /dev/shm /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 /dev/proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 /dev/sys /sys sysfs defaults 0 0 LABEL=SWAP-hdc5 swap swap defaults 0 0 /dev/fd0 /media/floppy auto pamconsole,exec,noauto,managed 0 0 /dev/hdd /media/cdrecorder auto pamconsole,exec,noauto,managed 0 0 [root@localhost ~]# Gibberish to me but I expect you can make sense of it . Cheers, Phil	jupiter1 (2578)
425991	2006-02-19 04:25:00	Righto, what we are going to do is put an entry into fstab so that it automatically mounts and gives you read/write access to it, then make somewhere for it to be mounted, and finally a shortcut from your home directory to the shared drive. Please observe all spaces and case sensitivity. Open up a terminal window and su - to root again. Enter in: gedit /etc/fstab Insert a new line after this one (actually not sure if it matters what order it appears in, but to be safe) : /dev/fd0 /media/floppy auto pamconsole,exec,noauto,managed 0 0 And put in: /dev/hdb1 /mnt/shared vfat auto,umask=000,user 0 0 Save and close gedit. Now while still as root (#) in the terminal, you need to make a directory called "shared" under the /mnt directory. This is where we specified above that the 8.4 gig FAT32 drive would be mounted. mkdir /mnt/shared Next up, we shall make a shortcut (symlink) to this /mnt/shared directory to save time navigating to each time to find your FAT32 partition. This shortcut will appear as a folder in your /home directory and will take you straight to the shared 8.4 G drive. Still as root, enter in: mkdir /home/phil/shared Then enter in: ln -s /home/phil/shared /mnt/shared (note lowercase L in ln, and white spaces) You will need to reboot your machine for the new fstab entry to be read and the shared drive will be mounted automatically and give you read/write access to it. Try putting some files in the shared 8.4 G drive when in windows and then make sure Linux displays those files after rebooting. Let me know if you have problems.	Jen (38)
425992	2006-02-19 04:46:00	Hi Jen, Thanks for that . I will attempt this change when the house is empty and quiet ! Below is a picture of my final objective for your information . My final objective is to have two systems on the same computer vis:- HDD C and D is one drive on IDE chnl 0 as the master drive . C is 10 Gig with Win 2k on it: D is 70 Gig . with data on it . C & D are formatted as NTFS . HDD G and H is one drive on IDE chnl 1 as the master drive . G is 10 Gig with Linux on it: H is 70 Gig with data on it . G & H are formatted in the Linux format (ext3 ?) . HDD J is one drive on IDE chnl 0 as the slave drive . J is 8 . 4 Gig formatted as FAT32 which I would like to be seen by both Windows and Linux . The CD-RW is on IDE chnl 1 as the slave which I would like to be available to both systems . Drive F is a HP card reader . Drive I is a Iomega Zip 100 drive . Long term I would like both of these to be available to Linux . Even longer term I hope to ditch Windows completely in favour of Linux . Win2k, Excel, Word and Money are the only MS products that I use at this time . I will get back to you once I have done your latest fixes . Regards, Phil H .	jupiter1 (2578)
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