I have 4 partitions on my hard drive. This is because I cannot find a Linux that does everything I want it to do. One has good graphics, but the sound won't work. One has sound but the Network Manager is useless. One has a good Network Manager, but won't work with my nvidia card. And one is called Windoze. You may have gathered that I am not an expert at Linux.

I have the newest mandriva on /dev/sda9. I want to mount the other partitions, but I can't. Maybe I can as root, but I just want to have an icon on the Desktop which I click. Maybe I would then have to enter the root password, but I want rw access to them, to access files in my other home partitions.

Can this be done?

If you want your other partitions to be mounted when you boot into Mandriva, it will be simpler to use the partition manager in the Mandriva Control Center (MCC - Tools > System Tools > Configure your computer in the menu system):

Open MCC

Select Local disks in the Category list (left)

Open the Manage disk partitions icon in the icon list (right)

Click the Continue button when the warning dialog pops up telling you to make backups first. You will not be making any changes to your partitions so - provided you follow direction carefully - you should not need any backups.

Click the Toggle to expert mode button (lower-right)

Select a partition you want to be mounted at boot time in the Hard drive graphic (top)

Click the Mount Point button in the Action List (right)

In the mount point text entry box (top) enter the Mandriva file system location at which you want to mount the partition. A default value will be entered for you, and highlighted, but you can type in any location you want to use. Use a fully qualified path name. For example, if you want to mount a Windows partition in the Windows directory under your user accounts home directory (so no other user will have access to the partition, or you have only one user account), the fully qualified path would be /home/user/windows, provided your user account name is user, and your user account's home directory is located at /home/user. If the mount point does not already exist, it will be created for you.

Click the OK button to close the dialog.

Note: If you mount a Windows partition with an NTFS file system, check that the partition's type is NTFS-3G. If it is not, before mounting the partition, Click the Type button in the Action list (right).
Select NTFS-3G in the file system types list dialog to highlight it.
Click the OK button to change the file system type.

Click the Options button in the Action list (right)

Check-mark the user_xattr option to support "user" extended attributes

Click the OK button (bottom-right) to close the dialog.

Select any other partitions you want mounted at boot time, one at a time, and repeat the process a above.

When you are finished, click the Done button to close and save your changes.

If you made any changes in your partitions mount points, you will be presented with a dialog asking if you want to save the changes. Confirm the changes by clicking the Yes button.

Close MCC

In a file manager, check that any new mount point directories belong to your user account and group. If they do not, open a file manager as root from a terminal window.

In KDE, open a terminal window.
su to root: (su -) - Note: the dash is important!
Start the konqueror file manager: (konqueror /)
Navigate to a partition's mount point directory
ALT-Click the directory, and select properties.
Click the permissions tab.
Enter the desired user and group name.
Check-mark Apply changes to all sub-folders and their contents
Click the OK button to close the properties dialog and save your changes.
Close Konqueror.
Close the root session in the terminal window (CTRL-D)
Check that you have read - write access to any newly mounted partitions:
Create a test file in each mount point directory.
For example, if you have mounted your Windows partition at /home/user/windows, create a test file there with the following command: touch /home/user/windows/test.txt If the file is successfully created, you have full read / write access.
Open a file manager as a regular user.
Navigate to the directory in which you created the test file, and delete it.
If both operations succeed, you are done.
If not, post here for further help.

HTH,

It looks complicated when the instructions are listed, but really it isn't.Just open the MCC and follow along and you'll find its really pretty intuitive...well as intuitive as a new app can be...