Dapper Dan

I have been using Linux for almost 2 years. I have 7 Linux boxes I look after, 5 under my direct administration, and 2 for friends that are dual booting. One of the Linux machines at my radio station, the one in the main studio, has a small leftover fat32 partition at hda1 that we've been using to store daily and weekly logs, and daily news. We've been doing all our logs and news from computer since last July. That's 6 months worth of day to day broadcast information that is not only important for our records, but we are required to keep by the Federal Communications Commission as well. By law, the FCC expects us to keep these records on hand in case they need to review our Public Service Announcements, logs of Emergency Alert Tests being transmitted and received, etc. Last night I had a little time, and decided to transfer those files from 2003, which over the last few days I had collected into one big file, via FTP to our business office just down the hall, for burning and storing to cdrom. I pulled up Krusader, a GUI front end for FTP transfer, and began the process of transferring the files to the office. About 20 seconds into the transfer, everything stopped. After a few seconds of staring blankly at the inactive monitor, I started checking. My worst nightmare became reality. There were no files in the fat32 partition and no files transferred to the office machine. I desperately searched both boxes high and low, without finding so much as even a scrap left over of all that information. Gone. Zilch. Nada. nothing... This experience has left me dazed and numbed. So much so, that I'm not really sure how to act. I'm too upset to be angry. I just feel numbed and empty. We have transfered every daily log, weekly schedule, and every daily newscast to the studio machine via FTP since last July. Not once have we ever experienced anything of this nature. Not once have we lost even a bite of information during transfer from ext3 to ext3. I know now that I made a huge mistake by transferring and storing all those files from the studio's /home partition to that fat32 partition at hda1. In one moment, 6 months worth of broadcast information ceased to exist. Had I stored those files on and ext3 partition instead, I'm certain they would now be transfered, burned to cd-r and shelved for posterity. So. even after exclusively running Linux OS for over 6 months, Microsoft still takes a chunk out of my ass. A parting shot if you will. This time, a big one. I will now nuke and pave that fat32 partition into an ext3, but those files are lost forever. Admiral LSD told us on another thread that fat32 was a lousy file system that is responsible for much of the problems Windows users suffer. I knew fat32 sucked, but until now, I had no idea how much. I've learned three things from this disastrous experience. 1. Always transfer files and back them up on a daily, or weekly basis. 2. Never move files from one machine to another, copy them instead. Once copied, then delete from the other machine. 3. Failing or succeeding in 1 and 2 , never, but NEVER store anything of importance or value under a fat32 file system.

I wouldn't know first hand, but I found this for you..

What distro are you using..?

Which distro are you using?

Well, there's mplayer, ogle and xine and others. Each has it's fans..

If you look in Configure/Mandrake Control Center/Security, you should see an icon for "Firewall."

Oh. I see. What distro are you using? Most have a built in firewall that is very easy to configure..

Hi Blaktyger, take a look at this..

That's great news!! Tell me how you did it!

When it asks for user, type "root." Then use your password when asked. Once you're in as root, you can configure your users and passwords from the menu.

It didn't like something in your present configuration and you had unmet dependencies with GLIB. Just run the installer in the Mandrake Control Center. You should have no problems, provided you have the first three MDK. 9.2 disks which the installer will beg for.

Trying to install the tarball is doing it the hard way. Mandrake has a file management system that will allow you to install it, if it isn't already. Did you open a terminal and type: xmms [enter] I thought xmms was a "default" player that got installed. If not, in the menu go to "Configure" then "Mandrake Control Center" and look for "Software Management" at the bottom left. Then look for 'install software' and type in that box: xmms and tell it to install. It should solve all those maddening dependancies for you. Good Luck.

Yeah you're right, it's because of Mandrake 9.2... ...just kidding!! Seriously, I've not used totem for playing mp3. Isn't it a movie player? If you just want to listen to mp3s, in my opinion, you can't beat Xmms. You'll have to install the xmms-mp3 plugin though. I beleive there is also an xmms plugin to listen to regular cd music as well.

A friend of mine just installed Morphix-Gnome on his pc and he didn't create a swap. This wouldn't be a problem since he's running 512 ram, but there's a program he needs that will not install without a swap. Morphix comes with fdisk. Can he now create a swap in any way, or is it pretty much going to have to be a nuke and pave job to get it? Thanks

Quote: Well since i know my way around linux a little i think i should reinstall morphix and fix what i need to.... what do u think Dan.. Since you've not yet really configured it, yes, I think a complete nuke and pave would be the path of least resistance at this point. Back up your Windows though!! Be sure tro create a / partition, a swap (1 gig if you have the space) and a /home partition. Be sure to use ext3. Don't use ext2!!

fdisk should give you a way to create that blank space as a swap. When you installed Morphix to cd, did you use ext2, ext3 or rieserFS as a file system?

You are trying to run either MDK 9.1 or 9.2 right? There have been sooo many post here about not being able to get a gui with those versions! It is this same reason that I switched to RH 9. Try typing as root: kdm [enter] If nothing works that way, try: startx [enter] Please tell me what errors you are getting. Does it keep trying to start X and finally gives up? From a terminal as root, try running: XFdrake [enter] Try different setups, and see if you can get one to work for you. What type video card are you using??

Gosh, this is a tough one for me.. Soundblaster usually works real well with Linux, but you'll have to tell me more about the usb part. What does that mean exactly?

I'm afraid I can't help you there. You did so well using fdisk to install Morphix, I was willing to bet you could just figure it out! If you decide it's too daunting to use fdisk to make that last partition a swap, let me ask.. If you are dual booting, is there a complete install of Trespasser on your Windows? If so, it may be easier to just cross over into your Windows partition and run it, or copy it over to Linux, and then run with Winex3. Which version of Windows are you using?

As root: fdisk /dev/hda [enter] Then: m [enter] for options. That should get you started. Good Luck!

An easier way might be to go on to MDK 9.2, if it is that important to you. From my experience, there were very few apps or programs I would have traded if, in order to get them, I would have had to leave the stability of 9.0 for the problems I experienced with 9.2..

Lou, you should then be able to use Partition Magic to create a swap partition at the end of your drive in that space. Do you have a copy of PM? You didn't seem to have any problem using fdisk though. If you are comfortable using that, then give it a go..

He's dual booting. If he's got a copy of Partition Magic, could he then resize the last partition with a fairly minimal chance of data loss? I've never resized a Linux partition after install, so I'm in the dark here. ;(

Hi tlentine77. Check this thread out. I believe it may point you in the right direction.