Operating Systems > Linux and UNIX

Ok im ready to go to Linux, I need to know something though....

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choasforages:
ok for the gui face of linux. there are several graphical environments for linux. to find the one that is the easyest to use your are going to have to try them. however the two gui that stand out the most are kde and gnome. kde and gnome will remind you a first of the windows gui. they are also both ultra-costimizable.

and for partitioning. most major "consumer" distro includeds partiioning tools built into the installer. mandrake from what i hear can autamaticly resize fat partions/*fat is the filesystem that windows uses*/ if you are interested, you might want to go to a book store and pick up a book on linux. even though most linux books are a year or so old. they still contain alot of good information. also if your aim  is to learn to be a "power user" you might want to pick up a book on unix.
o and another thing. if something doesn't work at first keep on looking on google or ask here. most of the time the "major problem" is some really simple configureation mistake that some of us here have made also/*ive got a few good stories on the XFree86 configure file*/. i hope you enjoy learning linux and using it.

[ June 20, 2002: Message edited by: choasforages ]

lazygamer:
Hmmm ok im slowly learning more. I've read up on the partition thing at the Redhat site.

Now what if I have partitions for Linux and Windows? Linux doesn't use the C,D,E etc. system of paritions, so can I still access C,D,E with Linux or the linux partition while in Windows or Dos?

I have an 8GB harddrive and a 40GB harddrive. I was thinking I might want to put Linux on the 8GB.

Im still confused though. It sounds like you would make one giant Linux partition(well it appears to look like one normally), but when using Linux you have several partitions. Is this correct?


Ok now what about booting. For something like Mandrake or Redhat, when you install it will it automatically put a boot option at the startup menu, right alongside my W98/XP boot options(I hope it does)? I honestly am not exactly familar on how to modify that menu.  

choasforages:
you can read the windows drives from linux there not labeled and A,B,C,D,E,ETC,ETC you can get a book to explian the intricatcys of the UNIX filesystem, here my best shot at it.

ok think about an upside down cristmas tree starting a
/
then think abou the first few branchs at the top like
/usr
/tmp
/etc
/boot
/mnt
/home
/var
 and all the other directorys in /

then think about the dirctery below that like
/usr/X11R6
/usr/bin
/usr/lib
/usr/local
/usr/share
/etc/X11
/boot/grub
/mnt/cdrom
/mnt/cdrom1
/mnt/windows_drive

then think about all the third tire directy

/usr/X11R6/bin
/usr/X11R6/lib
/mnt/cdrom/Baseq3
/mnt/windows_drive/half-life
/etc/X11/xdm
/home/lazygamer/p0rn

then think about fourth tire directy and fith and so on.

windows can't read linux filesystem's and drives cause there not in the fat or ntfs file system. its in either ext3, rieserfs, jfs, or xfs filesystems ask if you need explaination/*and i read that you know that the linux fs is diffirernt, i just need a post to point people to later   :D  */

lazygamer:
Ah I see, so somewhere down the line on the "upside down Christmas tree" it lists the standard FAT32 files, correct?

/home/lazygamer/p0rn

Ah yes, great directory.  ;)

voidmain:
A, B, C, D is an M$ thing.  I don't know of any other operating system that uses stupid letters to address a file system.   In Linux (and all other forms of UNIX) you have to "mount" all of the partitions you want to be able to access.  When you mount those partitions, you mount it on a directory, any directory you choose.  Just create the directory and mount the filesystem on it.  And you can mount DOS/Windows partitions as well.  

You can put your entire Linux install on one large partition, and this is what I prefer for desktops/laptops (not for servers). Traditionally in UNIX you would have several partitions.  A small one for the root "/" where you create all your other directories to mount all of your other partitions.  You might have a partition mounted on "/home" (where user home directories and files go), one on "/usr" (where most of the Operating system files go),  one for "/var" (log files and the like go here). There are reasons for setting it up this way but it is beyond the scope of your question.  

Most systems have a "/mnt" directory with several subdirectories used for mounting miscelaneous file systems like the floppy, the CD-ROM, etc.  You could create a directory under "/mnt" to mount your C: drive for instance. You might call it "/mnt/c", then "/mnt/d", "/mnt/e" etc.  If your C:, D:, E: drives are all FAT32 you would mount the partition with the "vfat" type in Linux with a command something like:

# mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/c -t vfat

The above assumes that your C: drive is on the first partition on the first IDE Hard drive.  The second partition would be "/dev/hda2", third "/dev/hda3" etc.  If the partition you want to mount is the second partition on the second IDE drive you would use "/dev/hdb2" to address the physical parition.

If you mounted your DOS/Windows partitions as described above you would find your "C:\WINDOWS" directory under "/mnt/c/windows".

Now, you can have it automatically mount those filesystems at boot time by adding them to the "/etc/fstab" file, otherwise you will have to manually mount them every time you boot Linux.

Does that help any?

[ June 23, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]

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