hey. ive instaled linux redhat 9 on my laptop (dell inspiron 1100).

need drivers for screen (intell 845xxx)
need broadband drivers

if i could get these drivers onto my linux partition then i could use linux all the time instead of dual booting win xp/linux.

so being new to linux , i found out earlier today that i had to mount/unmout hardware to use them eg cd-rom's flappys etc.

all i need to be able to do is access my winxp partition so i can get my broadband drivers.

searching on google, i found two methods of gaining access to my winxp partition.

1) using linux config via the console.
problem : don't have linux config installed
2) using the fstab / mtab files to mount my partition into the /mnt/c folder.
problem: partition doesn't exist in these files/or at least i can't see it.

so i thought i'd use my usb hard drive to access the drivers.
success : i found the usb info in the mtab file
problem : when i try to mount it using :

# mount -t vfat /proc/bus/usb /mnt/usb

it sais : wrong fs type, bad oiption, bad superblock on /dev/hdc1 etc

so if anyone can give me any help accessing my winxp partition or my usb key i would be eternally gratefull.

My Mtab file :

/dev/hdc5 / ext 3 rw 0 0
none /proc proc rw 0 0
usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs rw 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts rw 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso 9660 ro,nosuid,nodev,user=XXXXXX 0 0


My fstab file :

LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 etc
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660,noauto etc

thanks for reading this long problem,

steady

ps, my winxp partition is ntfs

you'll have trouble for writing on ntfs. the kernel doesn't support it. it's still experimental.
if you want to get write access on ntfs, you must compile a new kernel with the option for writing on ntfs.
currently, read access is available on ntfs.

for your usb hard drive, try this : http://www.linux-france.org/article/...l/usb-storage/
i'm sorry, it's only in french but the commands are easily visible. don't worry about the distribution, i think it will work.

Redhat does not include NTFS support (its read only) in its default kernel. You can down load the necessary files here:
http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/
For write support you can use captive. Just google for the website.

You can find lots of info on mounting USB devices by searching this website. You need to create a mount point i.e. directory using the mkdir command and add an entry in the /etc/fstab file. BTW never edit the mtab file. This is used by the OS to keep track of mounted filesystems. You USB device should be /dev/sda1 if it is only USB, SCSI, firewire present on your system.