I recently bought a copy of Red Hat Linux and I want to start editting the program. My friend, who runs linux, said that if I wanted to change the attributes of the actual linux program (i.e. boot up, the look of the windows program, ect.), I would have to edit the kernal, BUT I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE IT IS! And whats worse, I don't know how to load files into the Emacs program. If I could just get pointed in the right direction I'm sure I could learn the rest through trial and error. Any help would be much apprecitated.


By the way, how do you mount a harddrive. I'm running a dual harddrive system but it only reads one harddrive mounted at current.

Allas,one final newbie question....I hear a lot about Slackware and Wine programs. What are they, what do they do, and where can I get them. As you can tell I am hopelessly lost.

to edit files, open up a terminal window.

type...
emacs /path/filename
or a couple other editors that may be installed would be
pico or vi (both used in the same manner) vi is a bit wierd unless ur used to the interface.

Ah I see. Thank you. Anyone have imput on my other questions?

Slackware is another linux distribution like redhat etc. and is considered to be the closest to an actual unix system (translation = not easy for newbies). Wine (Wine is not an Emulator) is a program that lets you run windows programs such as games, MS office etc. ==> also not very easy to configure. Links :

http://www.winehq.com/

http://www.slackware.com/

Also if you wanna edit something while running desktop environment (Gnome/Kde) gedit is way easier. just type
gedit /path/to_your_file

Oh and welcome to linux, hope you have fun!

I recommend you actually learn a bit about Linux before rewriting it, if that's what you mean. Ok... here goes.

The hard drive one is a bit awkward to answer, as it depends on the type of disk (fat32, ext2 / 3, NTFS, whatever). But open your /etc/fstab (using vi or something) and check the entries there. You can add a new entry, say:

/(diskname) /dev/hdb ntfs defaults 0 0

The first bit is the mount location, which you will create with mkdir /(mount location) , the second is the location of the device, here its the second IDE device. The third is the type of drive (i.e. how it's formatted). The fourth defines the parameters used to mount the drive. The last two are for Samba, I think, never used them myself. Phew...

Wine is an implementation of the Windows API under Linux, allowing you to run (some) Windows applications. Check out http://www.winehq.com/ for information.

Slackware is a Linux distribution, not an individual program. Red Hat is a distribution. They're just tailored versions of Linux, really. I like Slackware myself, as it makes you learn a lot, and is fast and stable. It's ok to start on an easier one like Red Hat though. If you want to really learn about Linux, go for Slackware or one of the other "advanced" distros. For Slackware check out http://www.slackware.com/ .

I hope some of this helps, I'm not exactly a guru myself either, so don't take the hard drive stuff as gospel.

http://jgo.local.net/LinuxGuide/linux-mount.html
==>for information about mounting devices.

Hi werley_123

You can find the Red HAt 9 kernel image (vmlinux-2.4.20-8) in the boot directory (/boot) of your ROOT ( / ) partition - However - I wouldn't mess with it just yet - ther's plenty of configuration you can do once your in the Red Hat GUI.

Before you can "Mount" a hard drive - it must be partitioned then a filesystem added to it.

Has your 2nd hard drive got anything on it yet?

If your new to Linux then I would leave Slackware on one side for the moment - you'd probably have more success and have more chance of staying with Linux longer by using Red Hat or Mandrake or another major distribution for starters.

Have fun with them first and then if you still enjoy usign Linux then think about trying Slackware, Debian or even FreeBSD if your feeling adventurous!

Uh, generally the kernel source is kept in /usr/src/linux, which is what he would be looking to edit / configure, right? I've never used Red Hat, so don't pick on me.

The second hardrive does have things on it and it is formated in FAT 32 format which i am told can be read by linux.

In so far as the harddrive goes you can open a terminal window in the graphical user interface (GUI), it is labled Terminal on the menu, and type in at the dollar prompt:

$ hwbrowser

when you press enter the system will ask you for your root password and then launch the hardware browser. This will list all of the detected hardware on your system including drives. This is useful in that it show's you the device name assigned to each detected harddrive (usually something along the lines of "/dev/hdc3" or "/dev/hdd2" etc... Find the device name for the drive that is not mounted and write it down. If you aren't sure which harddrive device is the unmounted one you can open another terminal window and type in "mount" without the quotes of course and you will get a list of all mounted devices, the one you want is the one that is not on that list. (for this example I'm going to assume that the device name is /dev/hdd2). Then exit the hwbrowser program and you should be returned to the prompt on your terminal window.

Your next step is to create a folder under your "/mnt" subdirectory. You do that by typing in each line as such at the dollar prompt:

$ su
password : <enter your root pw here>
$ mkdir /mnt/other_hard_drive

the su give you the ability to run things as the root user, then your mount your hard drive via its device name as such:

$ mount /dev/hdd2 /mnt/other_hard_drive

you should then be able to read the drives contents like so:

$ ls /mnt/other_hard_drive

this should give your a directory listing of the drive.

This is the 5cent simple way to mount a drive there are various options you can use. See the man pages for more information on the mount command. You can see the man pages on any command by typing in "man <commandname>". For example to get the manual pages for the mount command type in this at the prompt:

$man mount

Welcome to Linux, may the dark side never tempt you again.

Hi werley_123

Is your second hard drive a slave on the primary controller or a master on the secondary controller?

First - in Red Hat create a directory that is going to be used as the mount point for the filesystem on the second drive.

Then - go into your /etc directory and find the "fstab" file - open it with an editor.

If your drive's a slave on primary then try inseritng this :

/dev/hdb1 /newdirectory vfat rw,auto,user,unmask=000 0 2 quiet

If your drives a master on secondary then try inserting this :

/dev/hdc1 /newdirectory vfat rw,auto,user,unmask=000 0 2 quiet

IMPORTANT - were I have written "newdirectory", just put the path to the directory that you have just created - ie if you created a directory called "werly" in /mnt - then just put /mnt/werly

Also - make sure there is a space between the first 4 argumants.

Also make sure you get the hdb1 and hdc1 bit right - check were your drive is connected.

thanks guys, got hard drive mounted. still can't get Windows XP to work but that is why i bought Red Hat in the first place