just installed FC3, linux first timer, some questions

[Ultraman Heng 0]

i'm running a compaq presario laptop with a 37gb HDD split into 4 partitions.

 

1 - 7gb - winxp

2 - 7gb - fc3 (root)

3 - 20gb - vfat partition (usr/var/ E: )

4 - 100mb - boot

5 - 900mb - swap (448mb ram)

 

i spent the entire day reading the forums and it was suggested that the shared drive be a vfat partition, but no one ever mentioned where to mount it to, druid would only let me mount it on usr/var/ or something like that. it's now filled with all these folders making it really messy, can i move them to the fc3 partition? how should i do it?

 

and after that, where should i mount the vfat partition to? and how to go about doing that too?

 

could anyone also point me out to any links for setting up home networks, desktop customisations and just overall linux tips?

 

[danleff 0]

I think that you may have misunderstood the partitioning scheme to set up your system.

 

You do not set up the mount point for a fat32 partition during installation, only the partitions that you will use for Linux. This will not work.

 

1 - 7gb - winxp

2 - 7gb - fc3 (root)

3 - 20gb - vfat partition (usr/var/ E: )

4 - 100mb - boot

5 - 900mb - swap (448mb ram)

 

 

/usr/var can not be set up in this manner. When you speak of a share partition that is fat32, what you want is a partition that you can share Linux and Windows files in. Why not try a simple partitioning scheme first. To explain;

 

 

1 - 7gb - winxp # is your XP installation

 

2 - 7gb - fc3 (root) # which is the / designation during an install.

 

3 - 20gb - vfat partition # this does not get a Linux partition mount point during the install. This will be your shared partition, not part of the Linux install. /usr/var is a part of the Linux install, which is why you have the problem.

 

4 - 100mb - boot # this is optional. Did you set up Grub or Lilo on the MBR, or to this partition?

 

5 - 900mb - swap (448mb ram) # this is fine

 

I would start over, since you apparently tried to install /usr/var to a fat 32 partition. Are you able to boot right now to both XP and Linux?

 

Partition your system, as follows, if this is your first Linux install;

 

1 - 7gb - winxp #leave this alone

2. - 100 mb - /boot

2 - 7gig - fc3 (root)

3. 900 mb - swap

4 - 10 gig - /home

5. - ~ 10 gig fat32 not mounted as /, or /home, or as /usr/var.

 

 

 

[Ultraman Heng 0]

thanks for the reply.

 

what's the 4th /home partition for?

does it have to be that large?

 

grub should be on the MBR if i remember right.

[Ultraman Heng 0]

ok i just reinstalled FC3 as you said, xp, boot, fc3, swap.

but now i have a 20gb unpartitioned space sitting there that i can't touch.

 

how should i get that formatted into vfat?

 

--

 

ok i just tried to create that vfat partition from the instructions on this page

 

but the new partition was of a very small size, infact, only 1 sector; 4864-4864

 

i think the problem is that while hda1 is the win xp partition, hda2 is an extended win95 FAT partition where hda 5 6 7 are all a part of this partition. i noticed that their sector numbers are all within hda2.

 

hda2 starts from 915 and ends at 4863.

hda5 6 7 are between 915 - 1837.

 

when i created those partitions during the linux installations, should i have made them primary partitions?

[Edited by ultraman heng on 2005-02-11 09:18:29]

 

[danleff 0]

This is OK. Shoot, I got so into the Linux partitions that i neglected the vfat. This is still fine. there are two ways that you can do this to reclaim the unused space(actually three). Let me post some more when I have some time later this evening.

 

The /home partition does not have to be that large, but this is where you are going to place any files or packages that you download or files that you create in Linux. I always find that having sufficient space on the home drive is useful.

 

You now have 1 primary partition and one extended, where your Linux partitions are logical partitions within the extended space. This is fine.

 

Now, I recommend that you make your next partition a primary vfat. You can do this via the FC3 install disk again, or by using another partitioning utility like PartitionMagic or 7 Tools Partition Manager, a free XP environment partitioning utility. I will post more later.

[Ultraman Heng 0]

i tried partitioning using the install disk, all it did was do a reinstall of FC3 where i didn't even get the chance to make any changes.

 

i tried using the winxp CD, but it wouldn't boot, the blue screend doesn't appear, it just remains blank.

 

i didn't really want to ask this here, but how exactly do you connect FC3 to a win xp file sharing network without internet sharing?

 

all my search results were either all linux to linux conenctions, or setting up of a linux host.

[Edited by ultraman heng on 2005-02-13 00:33:40]

 

[Ultraman Heng 0]

i managed to create the vfat partition, but it's a logical partition, not a primary one. is that going to affect anything?

 

--

i went into xp and formatted it as fat32, enabled sharing and it works on the network.

 

but in fc3 i can't write to it unless i'm in the root account. i tried changing the permissions in root but it wouldn't let me, saying i don't have the necessary permissions.

 

i also want to get it to mount at boot, but i'm not sure how. i'm looking at the fstab file now but i don't understand a thing.

 

here're some screenshots.

 

http://www.project-h.per.sg/img/misc/store.jpg

http://www.project-h.per.sg/img/misc/fdisk.jpg

http://www.project-h.per.sg/img/misc/fstab.jpg

[Edited by ultraman heng on 2005-02-13 02:38:44]

 

[Edited by ultraman heng on 2005-02-13 02:39:02]

 

[Ultraman Heng 0]

what should i put in fstab to get it to auto mount?