Hi there.
Thanks for the info. Yes, now if I could just remember my admin password! :-(

I still can't get Linux to boot. I reinstalled and I am getting the same error massages as before. Is there a good site to learn Linux command line commands from?
At least then I could post the contents of the menu.list file.

On another note, after fixing the xp mbr, could I unhook my other HDD's then install Linux as if it was the only OS. Then hook them back up again latter? Or would Linux spit the dummy when I did?
TIA.
-Adrian

"On another note, after fixing the xp mbr, could I unhook my other HDD's then install Linux as if it was the only OS. Then hook them back up again latter? Or would Linux spit the dummy when I did?"

Yep, you can get away with that, but you might have to unplug each HD anytime you want to change, if you do it this way. Which isn't a bad thing, especially if you stick with one OS for an extended period of time as you said. It's the easiest way to do it, but can be a pain in the butt.

If you never set an admin password for windows, try just hitting enter when that comes up, it might just go by it, like it did for me.

What makes you think I would nave to do that? I would have thought that once it was set-up, then each mbr would only contain the data for booting that one OS. Unless the Linux boot loader searches for other OSes every time it starts?

I think I tried just hitting enter. I read somewhere about a default password that is "space enter" which I haven't tried yet. But I think the disk I loaded xp from may have been an image disk. I read that they store the passwords in a different place than where the recovery console expects to find them. So even if you get the PW right it still says you didn't.

There is some M$hotfix but you have to actually ring them to get it, and they may or may not charge you US$70 (depending on whether you can lie convincingly enough<g>) which they can shove. I found a "home" addition on a genuine M$ cd. If all else fails I will install that.
Thanks m8,
-Adrian

I sheepishly forgot that you were using the bios to reset the primary booting drive.

It should work, fine.

Good luck with the windows admin password.

In terms of getting Linux installed, try another distro, such as Ubuntu.

Since you are using an old version of Mandrake, it is possible that it is having problems with your hardware. Ubuntu should be able to detect both Windows, and hopefully boot itself

--Ian

Well thanks Ian, that's what I did with no probs what so ever. Ubantu ran from the cd (which they sent me for free) then I installed it, after which it downloaded and installed 134 updates. Everything worked right from the beginning. No configuring or searching for drivers, it just works. I still can't quite believe it! :-)

I did unhook my other hard drives so I don't have to get a boot menu each time I restart. My er... better half is addicted to Pretty Good Solitaire and I don't as yet know if there is an X version of that. She wouldn't appreciate having to remember to pick another OS in the few seconds you get to do it.

I know you can change the time you get to choose, but I would have to learn how first. In fact there are lots of things I have to learn, to get things just how I want them (I will teach her how to do this stuff latter). But that's okay with me. Installing Seamonkey is one of them. Nothing I haven't done before in dos (cd, mkdir, etc.) though really.

I have read that X can read fat32 partitions, but it doesn't seem to want to. It sees the drives but can't
access them. Is there something I have to do first? (now don't be like that! <g> ) I was hoping to be able to copy over my seamonkey email as well as mail and newsgroup settings.

Anyway thanks for the suggestions and general help Ian and everyone.

-Adrian

It isn't X that reads the fat32 partitions, but a driver that's part of the Linux kernel. You need to mount them first. What are the contents of your /etc/fstab file?

Thanks for your reply.

Please note, I have 3 hdd's and 1 cdd installed as follows;
Primary Master: 40 GIG (with XP installed, fat32)
Primary Slave: CD-ROM Drive
Secondary master: 6 GIG (with ubantu installed)
Secondary Slave: 2 GIG, 1-5 GIG, 500MB (3 Partitions, 98se installed on first [2 GIG] partition, all fat32)

I guess not having the 40 GIG and the 4 GIG drives hooked up when I installed X may have stuffed things up a bit. Is there a way of rebuilding this file automatically or does it have to be done by hand?

The the contents of my fstab file is below.

# /etc/partition: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/dc1 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/dc5 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/db /media/db0 db,is9660 user,nato 0 0

TIA.
-Adrian
--
The best cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree.
-Spike Mulligan

all you have to do is find out where they are mapped to,probably /dev/dc2 /dev/dc3 or something... do a fdisk -l as root and it'll show what devices you have, then just add them into the /etc/fstab file through any text editor, following the format you see... device - mountpoint - filesystem type - append - 0 0

check out man fstab for some good info

Adrian: I think you are unclear about some Linux terminology.

X - the windowing system
Linux - the kernel
Linux Distro - the set of software, including the kernel, X Windows, Desktop Environment and everything else.

As for solitaire games, try Kpatience or AislRiot. Both of these come with most Linux distros.

--Ian

Thanks for that Deus

After a bit of stuffing around trying to gain root privileges, I found that ubantu uses "sudo" to do that. Then after more reading I modified fstab to read;

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hdc1 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hdc5 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdb /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hda1 /media/windows vfat umask=0000 0 0
/dev/hdd1 /media/windows vfat umask=0000 0 0
/dev/hdd5 /media/windows vfat umask=0000 0 0
/dev/hdd6 /media/windows vfat umask=0000 0 0


Which had the effect of giving me access to the last partition (500MB, it even has a shortcut on the desktop) on the secondary slave drive, but none of the others (that I didn't have before).

This is what I have in fdisk -l:

sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 4865 39078081 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/hdc: 4311 MB, 4311982080 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 524 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdc1 * 1 498 4000153+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdc2 499 524 208845 5 Extended
/dev/hdc5 499 524 208813+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/hdd: 4310 MB, 4310433792 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 524 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdd1 * 1 261 2096451 b W95 FAT32
/dev/hdd2 262 523 2104515 5 Extended
/dev/hdd5 262 460 1598436 b W95 FAT32
/dev/hdd6 461 523 506016 6 FAT16


There is probably something very obvious to you about what I have done wrong, but not as yet to me. :-) But I am learning. I guess it's problems like this that is good for a nubie to learn.

TIA
-Adrian

Thanks Ian, yes I was a bit unclear about all that. I thought that X was short hand for LinuX not the GUI. So what is the shell referred to as? is it bash? and I don't quite understand the GNU bit. :-)

TIA
-Adrian

The shell is usually referred to as the terminal or bash (there are other terminals that you can use, CSH for example).

but the way you have your fstab set up, the reason all the partitons aren't showing up is because you have them all mounted to the same place!
if you change the mount points to all be something different, they should all show up fine.

Hay thanks Deus, that worked!
They were in the file browser before, just not mountable.

I was wondering how much extra memory having all of them mounted would use? It does seem to slow down the boot process a bit.

The other strange thing I don't understand is why fdisk says I have 6 partitions on a disk I thought I only had 3 on? Is it something to do with boot sectors for each partition or something?

I guess I should go and join in a ubantu forum now, as most of my questions will be distro related.

Thanks so much for all your (and everyone else) help.
Now I am off to explore the world of linux packages.

-Adrian

It's not that it takes extra memory to mount them (it does, but it's miniscule), it's just the time to mount the drives. Normally it's unnoticable, but when you're mounting five drives at once it can add a hair second's worth of time to booting.

as for the 6 partitions, I have no idea. Might be swap partitions and resuce partitions (I have one on my computer).