Reading FAT32 partitons from Mandrake

[Force Flow]

All I want to know is: can I?

[Evil-Lab-Monkey]

Yes, when you install it it should automatically detect your FAT32 partitions and mount them to your installation. You'll be able to get at them through Mandrakes version of Windows Explorer.

[jglen490]

Yes. And the neat thing is you can mount FAT32 as read/write. Do this in your fstab file. Read all about it in man mount.

[Force Flow]

Evil-Lab-Monkey, I couldn't find my FAT32 drives when I went to "open" in different progs.

jglen490, Where's the "fstab" file? What's "manmount"?

[jglen490]

One of the most important things you can ever do for yourself when doing something new (such as taking on a new and different OS) is to study it first, or at least early in your new experience. Please understand that this is no slam on you, but you need to get a good book or you need to do some lurking and learning.

The fstab file exists in your /etc directory and is used by Linux to mount various filesystems at boot time. The man files are "reference books" that come with every Linux distribution. You can look up syntax and other info on every Linux command by typing in:

man

at the command line or in a terminal. If I may, I would like to suggest two good books -- among many good books -- that may help you with your learning. One is Running Linux which gives very good info about running your new OS, the other is Linux In A Nutshell which is an excellent command reference book. Both are published by O'Reilly.

[Force Flow]

Lol, I don't usually start off by reading manuals. I usually toy around with the prog/ O/S, then I go to the manual.

Whatever, maybe I'm jumping the gun a little on this thing. Linux is completely different from anything I've ever used.

Is the console used much, even though it is a GUI O/S?

[jglen490]

I usually toy around with the prog/ O/S, then I go to the manual.

And there's nothing wrong with that whatsoever . The thing is that Linux is not like anything else and certainly not like Windoze, it is a complete and coherent OS. Therefore SOME homework is very useful.

Linux is completely different from anything I've ever used.

Bingo!! But it is a really great experience when that experience is done on its own merits.

Is the console used much, even though it is a GUI O/S?

The greatest things about linux are its flexibility and power. Linux is not strictly a GUI OS, although a GUI/desktop/window manager will certainly help in your experience with the OS. Linux is very much a command line OS and that is where so much of the power lies. It is not strictly a command line OS, either.

When I fire up my laptop, I find myself first at the command line. It's not absolutely necessary that I do that, but there are quite often things that I will do there. Then I will go to a more visual window manager interface -- in my case IceWM, although occasionally I jump into KDE if I need an eye candy fix -- and then do most of my normal processing. Even then, I have a terminal up. This Linux is truly a thing of beauty, with fists of steel !!

[aym]

Hi force_flow2002, check out this link:
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...ighlight=fstab

[Force Flow]

Thanks, aym_7 I'll see if that does it. I'll be back if I get stuck

[OOPS!]

I think your question is not quite that complicated. When you opened your file manager did you go to /mnt file? Mandrake will show all your dectected mountable drives there. Only if the drive isn't detected or you have problems with supermount should you mess with the fstab file.

OOPS!

[Force Flow]

Ah. Okay. I'll check that first, then. Thanks.

Lol, it's always best to do the easiest thing first

[jglen490]

Originally posted by force_flow2002 Ah. Okay. I'll check that first, then. Thanks. Lol, it's always best to do the easiest thing first

Actually, it's always best to LEARN about the basics first !!

[bailey]

like I said, you got guts


I think it would not have drivers for half the hardware in my system.

[Force Flow]

Mandrake found drivers for everything but my 56K modem. I think I found it, though. I just need to install it.

btw, it (mandrake) seems to be starting to mess with my other O/S's and my other O/S's seem to messing with Mandrake. I'll need to remove it and try again.

[Evil-Lab-Monkey]

It's better than you think. If it's got an XP driver it's got a Mandrake driver as a general rule.

[bailey]

do you think that my sony dvd500ux and my ati aiw 8500 128ddr
would work too,