asking her to type in uname -a and she tells me that the computer spits out this:

linux localhost.localdomain/2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 #1 THU JUN 2 22:55:56 EDT 2005 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

and the modem is a US Robotics Sportster External Fax/Modem 1998 (canadian) V.90 56 K 005686-03 FC Model 0701

So your FAT32 partition is hda5. Here's your /etc/fstab entry

Replace the /mnt/winshare with whatever path you have. Also note that whatever directory you are mounting into (e.g. /mnt/winshare) should exist.

Now, here's a manual entry (via command-line)
You can first mount manually to see if everthing works, cd to the directory and see if you can view the files/directories there. Once you have that then you can create /etc/fstab entry.

For NTFS partition, I won't suggest writing mode hence,
You'll need to have the nfts rpm installed from linux ntfs project to be able to read ntfs partition.

Hope that helps,
Tux,

Edit: For modem, you can search google.

Bowie Fedora Core 4 is built with NTFS read only mode ( that is they have compiled the kernel that way and its for a purpose)

Linux Distros are built for particular purposes and compiled that way.

But if you wish to make any changes you get the source and compile it to your taste.

Well all this might sound far fetched right now, but you will enjoy along the way with lots of friends who are here to help you out, feel at home.

Its safe to edit your fstab file as said in my earlier post. and thereafter you dont have to bother mounting it everytime cause it will mount automatically during boot process.

Also you can put a link to /mnt/C on your desktop by configuring your desktop.
Press right click
configure desktop
Device icons
(tick) Show device icons
and press ok thats it your all set.
-------------------------------------
Live Linux, Love Linux for I am Home.

sounds good, and I thank you all. damn! Windows people are NEVER this sharing! What's up with that ? What is "normal" ? Which is nature and which is nurture? the linux environment and disposition or that of Windows?

anyway, as I ponder these potentially life-altering questions while sitting by my home computer, I'l now exit windows, to try all this out. wish me luck!

The whole philosophy behind free software/open source is that everybody should have access to the source code and that it should be available easily. Also people should be able to copy, modify and redistribute the software they have. Linux is built on the above philosophy while the commercial (closed source and/or proprietary) software is built using a completely different philosophy. You should visit www.gnu.org, if you haven't already.

Remember though that the correct name (atleast technically) for a Linux system is GNU/Linux and not just Linux. Strictly speaking, Linux is the the operating system kernel written by Linus Torvalds. What makes it a whole operating system is this kernel and some useful programs so that you can actually do some work. Many of these programs are written by GNU foundation and most of them are licensed under GNU foundation's GPL.

Check out this article. I think it is a must read and very informative.

Tux,

Thanks! I'll read ! Yeah, I know the philosophical differences and all, but it's a different thing to EXPERIENCE it in the real world, so thanks!

Here's a summary of what happened this morning, and where I'm at now with the home linux box...

All rpm installs, mounting, etc worked. Wonderful. Even my rxternal modem, didn't need a driver after all, and that worked, but only half way. Read on..

I logged into my network provider's network (a University is my network provider) using the minicom software. That went fine, but I was looking at all the other people logged on , and they were all PPP, and I was CTL or something that noone uses anymore, excpet I'll use it sometime, for something. So that was fine, tooling around in there. But I wanted graphics and actual internet surfing, so I completed the internet config wizard that Fedora or KDE or GNOME or whatever it is that gives this to me.

All was fine, modem detected, etc.

Dial up for PPP now , and I get this error --> exit code 10

which, according to man pages means:

PPP daemon:
10 The PPP negotiation failed, that is, it didn't reach the point
where at least one network protocol (e.g. IP) was running.

talking to the university is of no help, as they don't seem to have user support for linux.

actually, they told me that there is this thing out there called linuxquestions.org .

So here we are again. Suggestions?

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/topic-61224.html

That should help. I have actually never used dial up on Linux so I won't be able to give you any solid answers on that.

I actually got that link with a quick google.com/linux search with keyword - PPP + exit code 10

-Tux

yeah, i saw that too. but doesn't seem like my situation , exactly.

Can you connect to another ISP.
I don't think the problem come from your modem.

i don't know. I don't have another ISP right now, but my wife has a Netzero account. So I'll try with that, but they use their own software for internet connect. nevertheless, I'll try when i get home. (at work, once again.)