question:
1- when i run fdisk as root i get an error, fdisk doesnt exist ? yet i can use the gui hardware manager tool in Fedora Core 4 to see all the harddrives in the system.
what do u have to do to run fdisk? (also i log into shell as root).

2- i can mount my ntfs drive and run videos that i have on it from the command line using
vlc filename

but if open the application and then try to browse to the location where i have my files /mnt/windows , i do not see anything or get an error (yet i can still run them manually).
I have tried using the gui tool to log into the system as root (meaning i am logged in as my user, then i seelct that option and the root password box pops up). but that doesnt seem to work even though the little ion in the systray indicates that i am logged into the system as root temporarily.

thanks,
Schitzo1978

By GUI hardware manager tool, do you mean qtparted or gparted? Because GUI hardware manager does not mean Disk partitioning tool (I've not used Fedora for a long time so I may be wrong).

Try running (as root)
That may be because you are mounting the ntfs partition as root and the ordinary user (you) may not have enough permissions. You can mount ntfs drive via /etc/fstab file automatically (as user) during boot time and then run vlc player for any media files.

Tux,

can u please specify how to have the ntfs disk mounted automatically at boot time so that my regular user account can access it anytime ?

also can this be done for multiple ntfs partitions or only one at a time, please specify.
schitzo1978

Well, you would need to do some text editing. I suggest you first make a directory anywhere you like...I generally do it in /mnt directory...Here's what I would do

Replace <user>, <group> with appropriate user & group you have.

Open up your favorite text editor (if you don't have one yet, use gedit. remember you have to open gedit as root user.
fstab file is the file that is read at boot time to mount any partitions listed there. You would have to know your device name (e.g /dev/hda1 or /dev/hdb1 or whatever). Since Linux has only experimental ntfs write support, my advice would be mount ntfs as read-only. Add the following line to /etc/fstab accordingly.

Then just open up your terminal and
You'll have your hard drive mounted, next time you restart, it will be mounted automatically.

Yes can be done for as many partitions as you have.

My advice,
Read up on Linux...about filesystems, how it is laid out, what goes where? Also get to use man pages and search (google, LQ) for answers. Read the postings here. The above commands that I've used all have man (manual) page where you can learn more options. Get a decent book on Linux and immerse yourself.

e.g
man mount
man chmod
man chown
man mkdir
man man

Good luck,
Tux,

ok thanks, tried it and it works great.
i am guess that if you want to have another ntfs disk or partition mounted you need a seperate mount mpoint for each one.

so
/mnt/windows
/mnt/windows1 ?

i tried mounting a second disk from the same mount point, but it jsut seems to forget about the first mount. It works well with the 2 mount points.
Is there a way to have mulitple ntfs disks mounted into 1 mount point?
thanks,
Eric.

No, i don't think it's possible for 2 devices to share a mount point.

Like you tried, 2 mount points is the way to do it, it's really not that inconvienient.

Not a problem...

Yep you need separate mount points.
Yes

No. You need separate mount points. If you want to mount everything in one place then you would have to delete the existing nfts partitions...combine the data and then mount it...I am sure you don't want to do that or do you?

Tux,

i updated my kernel using yum and my system doesnt seem to recognize ntfs anymore.
I originally setup the system to automatically mount 2 ntfs partitions (one drive and one partition) and this would give me access immediately to my media files on another drive.
After updating the kernel it seems that my Fedore Core 4 doesnt recognize NTFS anymore even it i try to run mount /dev/hdc1 /mnt/windows manually, it tells me that it doesnt recognize ntfs.

I have tried using yum to update the kernel module but it doesnt seem to work.
i use the comand (same command i used originally), but get the following!!!!

[root@localhost ~]# yum install kernel-module-ntfs-$(uname -r)
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Parsing package install arguments
No Match for argument: kernel-module-ntfs-2.6.15-1.1831_FC4
Nothing to do

can anyone point me to the right direction???
also i used yumex to see if i could install this package, i found it i installed it but it didnt change, so i went beck into yumex after a reboot and removed the package, now when i update in yumex i dont see that package listed anymore !!???
Schitzo1978
Montreal

Well, since you updated your kernel, you also need to install the ntfs module for your upgraded kernel. Once you do that, system would mount the partitions automatically as before.

Look at the link below,

http://www.linux-ntfs.org/content/view/129/65/

You can download the rpm from there and install it. Make sure you pick one with a right kernel version.

Tux,