Suse Linux Queries...

[Akshay]

I recently installed Suse Linux 9.3 and have come across some queries. Plz help me...

1. How do I uninstall Suse Linux 9.3 from my system without harming my XP professional?
I have installed Win XP Pro. on c:\ and Suse Linux on f:\. When my system boots up, Grub loader 1.5 starts. How can I let XP set boot options
and not linux? Also the time for making a selection is only 8secs with Suse linux as default option. How can I change the time and set XP as default option?

2. How do I access other drives from Linux (mount option)?
How do I mount other drives in linux i.e. c:\, d:\, e:\ and DVD/CDRW drive
What is the exact command for mounting drives and what does using /dev or any other option do?

3. How do I play mp3 files in Linux?

4. Can I install all the s/w's that come with Digit for Linux? or is it dependent upon the flavor? (couldnt try installing as I could not mount my DVD/CDRW drive)

[adit_sen]

hi..

1. to uninstall linux without harming your winxp, what I do is just delete the
linux partition, the boot up with the winxp cd, go to the recovery console and type 'fixmbr'. that restores the winxp boot menu.

2. there are plenty of ways to mount windows drives, but i would recommend that you get the 'captive-ntfs' rpm from http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/
this would give you both, read and write acces on windows ntfs drives.

3. to play mp3 files you can use any of the mp3 players for linux available out there. i use xmms. u can get it from www.xmms.org

4. I suppose you could install the linux software's that come with digit. in my experience, you can install any linux software on any platfrom, even if its an rpm distibution and you want to install on a debian platform, it can be done with ease.

peace...
aditya

[Akshay]

Thnx adit. The "fixmbr" worked. But for step 2, prb. is accessing other drives in linux or accessing linux frm WinXP. Say I download the s/w. u have recommended... How do I get it to work in linux? how do I copy it to f:\ . I have heard there is some command in linux like mount hd* (* = a or b)\dev or mount hdb \etc or something like that. If such command exists then it will be easier for me access odr drives.

[adit_sen]

ok. this is how you would mount manually. (btw, this is what i do in ubuntu. i'm assuming its the same for suse). all of this should be done as root. and i'm assuming you're windows drives are ntfs and not fat.

first you list your partition table using
fdisk -1

assuming that your windows drive is /dev/hda1, you then type
mkdir /media/windows
mount /dev/hda1 /media/windows -t ntfs -o nls=utf8,umask=0222

this will mount your windows drive in /media/windows.
if you have partitions, repeat the same, with the appropriate /dev/hda#

and to unmount the drive, you type umount /media/windows


Now, if you want to automatically mount the drive each time u boot up, you need to edit the /etc/fstab file.
to do this, first create a backup of your file using
cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab_backup

then edit the file
gedit /etc/fstab

and add the following line at the end of the file
/dev/hda1 /media/windows ntfs nls=utf8,umask=0222 0 0

save the file. then type
mount -a


this should mount your drive


peace...
aditya

[sknowonweb]

unmount /media/windows

Let me correct ur little typo aditya,
Hello Akshay that cmd is
'umount /media/windows' , Not unmount , I struggled with it a lot of time when i learned those things .
And one more important thing is ur present working directory mustnot be /media/windows in any of the terminals for successful unmount.

[adit_sen]

oops...sorry....my mistake...

peace...
aditya

[Akshay]

I use fat32. So are the commands diff. for fat 32 and ntfs? Also I have given myself all the privilages. So am I at root level?

[adit_sen]

for fat...to mount manually you would type
mount /dev/hda1 /media/windows -t vfat -o iocharset=utf8,umask=000

and in the /etc/fstab file you would add
/dev/hda1 /media/windows vfat iocharset=utf8,umask=000 0 0


peace...
aditya

[Akshay]

Hey thnx aditya...

Very useful info. from ur side. But how can I determine at wht level m i and how do i get root level access

Thnx

[mediator]

This is the exact query i posted 1.5 yrs back when i was a noob.
U can find ur level by typing "echo $LOGNAME on $HOSTNAME had uid = $UID" in the terminal. And "su" to get root access.