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Old 07-11-2003, 02:11 AM   #1
werley_123
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Registered: Jul 2003
Location: Texas
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Question Linux Newbie! Need Help!


Someone, I beg you, I need help!

I just bought Red Hat Linux 9 yesterday and am currently running it in a Dual OS enviroment with XP pro. I have a few questions about the Dual OS and many about Linux itself.

First, I have a seperate hardrive in my computer with no OS on it. It is loaded with MP3 and all sorts of other crap and is in FAT 32 format. Is there anyway I can access the files on both XP and Red hat?

Next, Linux is suppost to be open sources so you can edit the likeness of the program. How do you go about this and which file (I assume it is a kernal) do I mess with and what program can I use to edit it.

Finally, a friend told me that one could actually edit source codes of other programs (i.e. Kaaza) with a certain program. Is this true and which program does he referre to. (Emacs on both accounts?)

Any insite from the Linux guru's would be greatly apprciated.

 
Old 07-11-2003, 02:26 AM   #2
werley_123
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One more question, pardon my ignorance, I received 3 cd's labled Source Code Cd 1-3 along with the installation disk and document disk, what are those source CD's for? The installation never asked for them and I am completely lost in this mess.
 
Old 07-11-2003, 02:31 AM   #3
slakmagik
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No guru here. Hoo boy.

But the source CDs contain the source to the programs that make up your system. They are the instructions that are compiled by gcc to make executable programs and are what you can edit with a text editor to your liking if you are a programmer. Even if you're not, you can use the source to recompile apps and pass options to the compiler to make more minor modifications.

XP can read FAT no problem. As long as it's enabled in the kernel (and it almost always is) so can Linux. You just need to mount the drive, say as 'mount /dev/hdXN /mnt' where X is the letter (Linux letter) of the drive and N is the number of the partition.
 
Old 07-11-2003, 02:47 AM   #4
werley_123
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how do i go about getting all the stuff off the cd? do i just use the shell and execute them into a new folder?
 
Old 07-11-2003, 02:53 AM   #5
slakmagik
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With RedHat they're probably RPMS, right? So you'd use rpm to copy them to your hard drive, I guess. I'm not real familiar with Red Hat. If you're at a command prompt, try 'man rpm' and, if not, I believe there's some GUI interface and help system for rpm. I mean, I suppose you could just copy them with 'cp' but to use them, I think you need rpm. You wouldn't 'execute' source, but 'copy' it or maybe 'install' it.
 
Old 07-11-2003, 03:09 AM   #6
werley_123
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Ah I see. Well I guess I will just do the old "Trial and Error" bit. If I screw things up that bad I can just reloade the program

Would Emacs be able to handle the job of editing the codes and will Emacs work on the kernal and other programs as well? (once again, I'm a complete and total newbie to linux and apologize for the reduancey in my questioning)
 
Old 07-11-2003, 03:26 AM   #7
slakmagik
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Well, sure. I'm not a big emacs fan but any text editor will handle any source code to varying degrees. I mean, anything that can edit any text can edit source but some editors have syntax highlighting and various mechanisms in their editing commands that make the process clearer or easier. And emacs is integrated with compilers and other tools to make a kind of developer's studio. So that would definitely work if you liked it. And the kernel source is no different, categorically, than anything else.
 
Old 07-14-2003, 10:33 AM   #8
Medic6666
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OMG!

If you really are a n00bie than firstly install RH and use it for a while.

Play around and see where things are, what you have and what you can do.

Then you can worry about editing source code. Compiling is not the easiest thing in the world to start with.

As for changing the look of your desktop, gnome and KDE both allow you to do this with their control panels. You will have to decide which one you prefer (I like KDE), I get the impression that most ppl prefer gnome.

Once you get redhat up and running on the net, get apt-get as this will allow you to update most programs installed on your pc easily and quickly. I did'nt use it when I first install RH and really wished I had now.

Good luck and welcome to the real world.

Medic6666
 
Old 07-14-2003, 01:55 PM   #9
Skyline
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Hi Werly_123

Presumably youve got XP pro and Red Hat 9 on your 1st hard drive and your 2nd hard drive is formatted with FAT32?

For Red Hat 9 to access the files on the second hard drive you need to mount the filesystem from that drive to a mount point in the Red Hat filesystem.

First - create a mount point in Red Hat's /mnt directory

so - open a terminal then

su-Root password

mkdir /mnt/werlysFAT32directory

(You can pick your own directory name in place of werlysFAT32directory )

then

If your 2nd hard drive is on the Primary Slave try

mount -t vfat -o rw /dev/hdb1 /mnt/werlysFAT32directory


If your 2nd hard drive is on the Secondary Master try

mount -t vfat -o rw /dev/hdc1 /mnt/werlysFAT32directory


Then check in your /mnt directory to see if the FAT32 partition is incorporated correctly - if it is then think about putting an entry into /etc/fstab - so it automatically mounts on boot up

Good Luck

Last edited by Skyline; 07-14-2003 at 01:57 PM.
 
  


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