New to Linux.

Have been trying out Fedora Core 4 burned from d/l'd ISO files for a few days.

Lots of problems encountered - quite likely mainly due to my inexperience.

Current setup:

Dual boot with W2K (two NTFS and one FAT32 drive partitions.

Fedora install: "everything" option in a 50 gb partition.

Two biggest problems:

1 - although the hardware browser sees the FAT32 parition I can'y find a way to moubt it.

2 - Can't figure out how to burn a cd. I put the files into the CD CREATOR but .. then what?

Third problem - and potentially a huge one - can't view any t[e of video file. This is bad since I belong to a couple of forums dedicated to computer animation. Kind of hard to give advice if I can't watch the anims.

Any help will be appreciated -

As I said - most or maybe all of the problems are probably due to my inexperience. I have a couple of books on order - but it looks like they won't arrive for 5-6 more weeks (they were listed as 'in stock' when I ordered but two hours later they were listed as 'on backorder')

Any help will be appreciated -

As I said - most or maybe all of the problems are probably due to my inexperience. I have a couple of books on order - but it lloks like they won't arrive for 5-6 more weeks (they were listed as'in stock' when I ordered but two hours later they were listed as 'on backorder')

Thanks

byte_fx

New to Linux.

Have been trying out Fedora Core 4 burned from d/l'd ISO files for a few days.

Lots of problems encountered - quite likely mainly due to my inexperience.

Current setup:

Dual boot with W2K (two NTFS and one FAT32 drive partitions.)

Fedora install: "everything" option in a 50 gb partition.

Two biggest problems:

1 - although the hardware browser sees the FAT32 parition I can't find a way to mount it.

2 - Can't figure out how to burn a cd. I put the files into the CD CREATOR but .. then what?

Third problem - and potentially a huge one - can't view any type of video file. This is bad since I belong to a couple of forums dedicated to computer animation. Kind of hard to give advice if I can't watch the anims.

Any help will be appreciated -

As I said - most or maybe all of the problems are probably due to my inexperience. I have a couple of books on order - but it looks like they won't arrive for 5-6 more weeks (they were listed as 'in stock' when I ordered but two hours later they were listed as 'on backorder')

Any help will be appreciated -

Thanks

byte_fx

ps - I also posted this in the Installation section but figured it should be here instead

You might want to start here;

http://www.fedorafaq.org/



peace V

As far as mounting a fat32 partition, you need to know where that partition is located on your hard drive (or if it is on another hard drive). For example: your FC4 partition may be called hda1, and your fat32 partition may be hda2, if they are on the same hard drive. If the fat32 partition is on a different hard drive, it might be called hdb1 or something like that (you can look at /etc/fstab in a text editor to find the name of your fat32 partition, it will be shown as 'vfat').

Since you installed 'everything' on FC4, consider using k3b, which you can use to burn both CD's and DVD's (if you have a DVD player). It is very user-friendly.

As for your video, consider installing mplayer. it can play many different video formats.

Thanks bushidozen -

I'll check that mplayer out. And thanks for the tip on k3b as well.

I'm now on the fifth nuke/repave/w2k install/core 4 install in less than 24 hours so that's why I checked the 'everything' box during core 4 install.

Without it I couldn't install any rpm's. etc.

Anyway - disk layout as follows (using hardware browser)

/dev/hda
hda1 ntfs
---
hda2
hda5 ntfs
hda6 fat32
hda7 ext3
hda8 LVM Physical Volume

I spent a couple of weeks browsing about mounting the fat32 drive but basically found a lot of different command structures - none of which seemed to work if the various forum posts can be believed.

It seems there are at least two different commands - one is mount ... don't remember the other - but everyone seemed to be trying different modifiers to the basic command.

I've already tried a few but none worked.

I'm willing to keep trying differerent syntax's if anyone can offer any.

Have a feeling it's going be a long 5-6 weeks til the books get here. There's so much stuff to learn.

Thanks again.

byte_fx

'mount' is the command that you want to use.

Assuming that you don't change your fat32 partition when you reinstall Windows and FC4, do the following in Fedora:

1. make a directory that you will use to reference the fat32 partition (you can call it whatever you want)
2. use 'mount' to mount the partition.*
You should now be able to access the partition. When you are done using the partion, you can unmount it by using:
(notice that it is 'umount' not 'unmount').

*edit. Sorry, typed that wrong

mplayer is the bees knees.

It rocks so hard.

I automount my fat32 partitions into folders named for my drive letters in Windows. So my main d drive mounts to a folder called d.

I found a really good tutorial when I started...not sure where it was now...maybe here. I'll take a look when I get home from work.

At the least I'll post the command I added to automount the drive with the proper permissions (I made a special group for those that could access it and put myself in it.)

byte_fx:

If you want to automount your fat32 partition so that you can access it as soon as you start FC4 without having to type commands, you will need to edit your /etc/fstab file with something like:
'/dev/hda6' is where your fat32 partition is.

'/home/my_big_fat32_file' is where the partition will be mounted to (therefore this could be any file you choose. Just make sure to place the full path here).

'vfat' (another name for fat32) is the type of filesystem the partition is.

'auto' tells linux to mount the partition automatically.

'user' says that all users (not just root) can access the partition.

'rw' says that the partition can be read from and written to.

'0 0' refers to the dump and fsck options, respectively.

If you wish to mess with the options more, click here.

this is question about mplayer so i thought i would ask here real fast does mplayer play a cd without having to do anything else? if not is there a player that when u put cd in it plays like windows media?

No, you usually have to open mplayer and tell it to "open" the CD. however FC4 comes with a CD player that auto-plays an audio CD for you.

do you know the name of it? ive looked on what i have installed and nothing like that so i would need name to get it from yum.

It is called 'gnome-cd'. If you installed it on FC4, it should show up as 'CD Player'

thank you ill check it out.

Both threads have been merged - please do not post the same question in more than one forum.

Thanks for the tips.

Still having problems with viewing vids.

Now on the 11th nuke and repave since last post - forewall seems pretty useless - no apparent way to block specific addresses.

Firefox similar - if I google something like .... just anything .... and follow any of the links I'll soon get a new page that's ad related. Not a popup - just a new page that opns as though I clicked a link and it opened in the same window. Example - serch for motherboard - fairly soon the browser will forward me to anandatech/s page regarding that mb.

Really sucks.

Managed to install xine - once. It'd only play in 13 color mood - useless.

"Installed" mplayer once - I yse quote marks because even though it apparently installed ok - along with codecs amd some skins - couldn't get it to play it to play anything. Nada.

Beginning to think Linux - or at least Fedora is - is pretty much useless for web stuff. Not to mention very unsecure and far more prone to hacking than Windows - which is saying something.

Btw - why the heck do I have to log in every time I bllink an eye??

So far I've had to log in 3 times just so I can type this - betcha I'll have to log in several more times before it'll be posted.