I want my Windows C drive partition to mount at bootup and I also want a separate disk which is a big FAT32 partition (/dev/hdl) to mount at bootup. I want to be able to do everything as a user account which I named "Ted".

Here is my fstab entry for those two areas:

/dev/hdl1 /home/user/My\040Computer vfat umask=0,iocharset=utf8 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom auto umask=0,users,iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,exec 0 0

1. How do I edit these lines to make both automatically mounted so that I can add the music I have in these two partitions to Amarok, the pictures to Picasa, etc...

2. Can I read and write to the NTFS partition with Mandriva 2007.1 ?

3. The DVD burner (/dev/hdc) in Linux is not automounted. Is it better to automount it?

4. How can I set it up so that when I am logged in as "Ted" (a user) I can read and write to both of these areas?

Thanks,

B.

Yes you can. You will need a package like ntfs-3g. If you have your software sources setup, you can use the package manager to install it for you.

No need to automount your dvd burner, as soon as you put a disc in it will mount. There's really no point permanently mounting a device that you're not going to be using continually.

Although your problem is solved may I add 2 cents worth - for Mandriva users, who, like myself, may not be technocrats but would like partitions automatically mounted. I hesitatingly changed from Mandriva to PCLinuxOS and found myself with a very "Mandriva-like" system, so much so that my wife and daughter found it "almost the same" to use.

Automatic mounting of other partitions is just one of a raft of superior features. For those who like Mandriva or are familiar with it as an everyday workhorse and don't want to change, putting in PCLinuxOS would be a wonderfully refreshing "upgrade." Having happily used Mandriva for a couple of years, I do not want to suggest it is not a good distribution but for those not technically minded and who face technical worries, such as the automatic mounting of partitions, here is a simply excellent solution.

Phidor.

Most users new to Mandriva are unaware of the value of the Mandriva Control Center (System > Configuration > Configure your computer in the menu system). When combined with the KDE Control Center (System > Configuration > Control Center in the menu system) there is little you can not manage or configure in your Mandriva Linux installation from the comfort of the GUI.

Open MCC

Select Mount Points in the navigation list (left).

Open the Create, delete and resize hard disk partitions icon (main pane). Note: This tool is the Mandriva partition manager. It can do what the name implies. It should be used with great care.

Select the partition for which the mount point will be set.

If a mount point has already been set for this partition, it will be listed in the Details pane. If the partition is already mounted, the only available choice in the Choose action list will be Unmount. The following steps will assume the partition is not mounted.

Select Mount Point in the Choose action list )left).

Enter the location in the file system where you want to mount the partition (e.g.: /mnt/win-c for the Windows C drive, or /mnt/win-d for the Windows D drive) in the Mount point text entry field. If the directory does not exist, it will be created for you. Each partition must have its own unique mount point (you can not mount two partitions to the same directory). You can mount the partition at the location of your choice in the file system (current best practice is to mount non-removable partitions under /mnt and removable media devices under /media).

Click the OK button (bottom left) to close the dialog.

Click Mount in the Choose action list (left) to mount the partition.

Click Done to close the partition manager. You will be asked if you want to save your changes. Answer yes to mount the partition at boot time in the future.

Yes. You will need to make sure the ntfs-3g package is installed. To simplify set up, you should also install the ntfs-config package. You can use the ntfs configuration utility (System > Configuration > Hardware > NTFS Configuration Tool in the file system) to configure ntfs-3g making your ntfs file system writable in Linux.

Mandriva Linux detects the action when I place a disk in my DVD drive here, then pops up an inquiry dialog permitting me to choose from a list of available actions. Please post the relavent line for your DVD burner from /etc/fstab so we can confirm it is correct. I have a CD-ROM and a DVD burner here. The relavent lines from my /etc/fstab follow: When you set up ntfs-3g with the configuration utility, users should have write access (at least I do here) by default.

If you are unable to write to the fat32 partition, open the partition manager.

Click Unmount in the Choose action list (left) to unmount the partition.

Select Toggle to expert mode.

Click Options in the Choose action list (left).

Check mark user_xattr in the Mount Options list.

Click the OK button to close the dialog.

Click the Mount button to mount the partition.

Click the Done button to close the partition manager. You will be asked if you want to save your changes. Answer yes.

HTH,