God . . .Please help Stanton-Finley create a FC 6 Tut

[David Reed]

I hadn't used UNIX in over 20 years when I bought a magazine that came with a FC5 DVD. I spared no expense -- purchased an extra drive to Install Linux.

After god only knows how many hours trying to sort out a grub problem, "seve" helped me out and pointed me to stanton-finley.

Within a few hours I had almost everything working, rar, unrar, videos, and mp3's.

Recently I thought I'd better get FC6 before I got left behind, and spent the better part of a day creating my dvd set. I boldy went with the x64 Athlon 64 version, figuring it would give me the best performance.

Now, I can't get into my windows partition. Can't mount or boot it. I can't unrar archives, can't play videos, and have a big "FAILED!" in red letters next to my soundcard init message on startup. Needless to say, my attempts to get my Lexmark X1150 printing have gone nowhere. Not surprising, i never got it to work on FC5 either. I could use XP to print, when I had XP.

I have no idea what file system i have, because FC 6 didn't ask me which to use. I chose the default, and don't really know how to determine what I have.

A lot of people have tried to help me, but none of the advice about the the missing windows partition has panned out.

$^#&^%^*&^%^*&R*&*(&%*(&^()&YT*)UY*()&T*FV&^ TUHJRFR *)%

Yeah . . . that's how I feel.

SOmeone posted a thread recently about newbs not reading/searching the database for answers to questions asked repeatedly. I guess a lot of people probably don't. I do, and it hasn't helped.

Many of the solutions are for previous versions. Many of the links are 404's. Some of the advice points readers to messy, complicated, and suspicious sources (THC_SecureDelete)

Oh Great Penguin God of Mercy . . .Please help stanton-finley or someone create a tutorial for FC6

[jim]

What are you asking ? Stan went to a different distro.
mp3 support?
most of what is in the fc5 guide by stan is the same for fc6
try following what is ther for fc5 and if problems arise, post the issue, what you have done, and the attempts to resolve.

[aids]

to be honest with you ..... i just used google for the most part and used part of a install notes from FC5 ...... on another note , you should be greatful that you were able to get FC6 to even install ...... i had to upgrade to it through the package manager and cross my fingers in hopes that it would actually work that way ..... but if you use google you shouldnt have much trouble tracking down bits and pieces of what you might need ....

http://www.geocities.jp/rondonko/fc6notes.html

There are other tutorials out there.

Wayne

[sdowney717]

mp3 on my system play with real player.
Click an mp3 and it starts right on up.

Have you installed real player gold 10.bin yet?

FC7 is basically out, why not just go with it instead of FC6.

I saved what I wanted from FC6 on my windows partiton, then I wiped out my FC6 and installed the FC7 test2 live cd.
Went thru a gazillion updates and it all works well like it did in FC6.
Every few days you will get 50 updates. I keep a partition backup just in case, but so far its good.

can you play these, I hear them fine, just curious.
http://www.live365.com/stations/electricblues

Personally, I don't like RealPlayer, I just keep it around to watch/listen to clips on the BBC site. I think VLC (VideoLan Client) which I forgot to add to the tutorial, is a better choice.
Wayne

[Firewing1]

If you're looking for graphic card, media, limewire setup I have that in my howtos Not quite his full guide, but a start.
BTW - He's switched to ubuntu so I don't think we'll be getting one for F7 either.
Firewing1

[Iron_Mike]

You can try www.mjmwired.net but I doubt it will help with the missing windows partition. But has info on configuring and installing FC6

[bob]

We all miss Stan and I certainly was one of his biggest admirers. He had a flair for writing (check out his poetry, not just his instructions) and also a flair for graphics & color, all of which made his pages something special. Got to thank Wayne for carrying on the tradition and continuing the good instructions and nice color scheme..although I do miss those fedora girls!

Keep in mind too that the FAQ has been helping thousands of members for years now and we should certainly give thanks to Max and Sindre for their efforts. Firewing1's already put in a plug for his great tips. And don't forget these excellent sites:
http://easylinux.info/wiki/Fedora_fc5
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-fc6.html
http://fedorasolved.org/
http://easylinux.info/wiki/Fedora_frog
http://www.fedorafriend.org/

See, while Stan may have found another favorite distro, there's plenty of excellent help at your fingertips.

[David Reed]

Originally Posted by rondonjin

http://www.geocities.jp/rondonko/fc6notes.html

There are other tutorials out there.

Wayne

Thanks, that explains the "Missing Plugins" issue with FireFox - I'm using x86-64, and where 64 bit rpm's are available I've used them.

Thanks to all who answered . . . I've made progress . . .now I have rar/unrar (I think it had something to do with not using livna)

I also have video, but it's a bit cheesy compared to what I had with 5. Depending on the video format, movies play in one of 3 applications, none of which are very robust. I still haven't tried any DVD's.

Issues remaining [in order of importance (if not priority)]:

Windows
Sound
Printing

When I get frustrated, I spend time on the security issue. I want to create encrypted user spaces, fortify the firewall/ports, and explore various "server possibilities" (I love to tinker).

I dug out my collection of Kochan&Wood/Waite Group UNIX texts to help me with the shell. I'm struggling to recall how I used to do things on AT&T SYs V. This process has been complicated by the new LKM's, RPM's, and a myriad of other architectural differences.

Google has been a big help, but my problem is that every article that sounds like it may be a solution, poses new questions, and I google something else. Last night I had about 15 different websites and tut's open. At 2:00 a.m. I couldn't remember how or why i was reading FUSE and CFS when I'd started researching LKM"s. (Also open were pages of tuts on the boot process. )

If I can't sort out the Windows problem, I may re-install FC5 and see if i can get the "old ntfs driver" solution to work again since ntfs-3g won't mount that file systen.

Not sure what I'll work on first today, but I see at least 2 weeks of intense googling, reading, and testing before I have even the slighest clue about what's really going on here.

I retired to write, ski, and have a garden . . . lol

Dave

[JN4OldSchool]

David, I am going to suggest something and I dont want you to take it wrong. You might be better off with another distro. Here it is tail end of FC6 with F7 due out very soon and you are having all these problems. Fedora is a fast moving, constantly updating distro. We all love it for what it is but a lot of us also use other distros for other functions. I dont know what led you to fedora in the first place but have you considered trying something else? Everyone immediatly shouts "ubuntu" but I would suggest debian etch. Zenwalk is also a good solid workhorse of a distro. That is a good analogy actually, Fedora is a thoroughbred race horse. Very fun to play with but also high spirited and finiky. Whereas debian etch is like a Clydesdale. It just pulls strong with no surprises. Being debian it has an astonishingly huge number of packages in it's repos. It has a huge user base with numerous forums and uncountable help pages. Best of all, you really dont have to continually update and upgrade it. Just something to think about, I am sure others in here are going to argue with me and at the end of the day everyone has their opinions. The beauty of Linux is you have all these choices. I just feel Fedora will continue to be a struggle for you. The DVD mounting problem isnt a problem, it is how it's going to be from now on. It is a virtual mountpoint that a lot of apps have a problem with. xorg.conf is going away, everything is supposed to be auto-detected which we all know is going to lead to many problems. The file structure in Fedora differs slightly from mainstream distros causing some problems. 64 bit? I'd forget about it myself...Oh well, I've said enough, just some food for thought...

[David Reed]

Originally Posted by JN4OldSchool

David, I am going to suggest something and I dont want you to take it wrong. You might be better off with another distro. . . . I dont know what led you to fedora in the first place but have you considered trying something else? Everyone immediatly shouts "ubuntu" but I would suggest debian etch. Zenwalk is also a good solid workhorse of a distro. ..

I tried Ubuntu but it crashed when it tried to go graphic (my terminology because my background pre-dates X Windows, I learned 'curses') It had every imaginable ATI card EXCEPT mine.

Then I found a magazine with fedora, and it worked.

I'm a big fan of GUI front-ends. My interests don't really lie in systems programming. I use my PC for writing (OpenOffice of course) and the internet. I watch DVD's and download music. I hate Microsoft and always have, but their crap paid my bills for 20 years. Recently, I played some online hacker challenge/game that required connection libraries in C, ruby, etc. and had a lot of fun banging away on a command-line. That however is just a diversion (it's like solitaire for geeks, and I couldn't get past the buffer overflow level on that damn game anyway)

I want to use GUI desktops/front ends for my blogging and surfing, so I need a solid graphics capable distro with the standard bells & whistles everyone else has on Windows. I absolutely love the way the package manager updates my entire computer, OS and apps, everytime I login. (That's the coolest thing about it)

I may try another distro. Tonight I'll plug that XP drive into another machine and try to fix it from Windows. If that fails I'll go back to FC5 briefly to mount the partition, if that fails I'll burning distro dvd's (after figuring out how) and try some others.

[Dies]

ntfs-3g should work fine, just:

yum install ntfs-3g -y

then make a mount point, add the lines to your fstab, and set SELinux to Permissive or create a new policy so it doesn't interfere at boot time.

Can you please post the contents of your fstab:

su -
cat /etc/fstab

As far as sound, what sound card are you using and what issues are you having, I'm sure someone here can help out with that, same with printing unless you have a Lexmark printer then just give up on it, lol.

[David Reed]

Originally Posted by Dies

ntfs-3g should work fine, just:

yum install ntfs-3g -y

then make a mount point, add the lines to your fstab, and set SELinux to Permissive or create a new policy so it doesn't interfere at boot time.

Can you please post the contents of your fstab:

su -
cat /etc/fstab

As far as sound, what sound card are you using and what issues are you having, I'm sure someone here can help out with that, same with printing unless you have a Lexmark printer then just give up on it, lol.

[root@localhost dave]# yum -y install ntfs-3g -y
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
livna 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00
updates 100% |=========================| 1.2 kB 00:00
core 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00
macromedia 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
extras 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00
Reading repository metadata in from local files
primary.xml.gz 100% |=========================| 1.4 MB 00:04
extras : ################################################## 4358/4358
Parsing package install arguments
Nothing to do
[root@localhost dave]# cat /etc/fstab
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap swap defaults 0 0
[root@localhost dave]# mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda /media/windows
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to startup volume: Invalid argument
Failed to mount '/dev/sda': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sda' doesn't have a valid NTFS.
Maybe you selected the wrong device? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/hda, not /dev/hda1)? Or the other way around?
[root@localhost dave]# fdisk -l
bash: fdisk: command not found
[root@localhost dave]# /sbin/fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9728 78140128+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 14 9729 78043770 8e Linux LVM
[root@localhost dave]#

I tried booting an XP CD and rebuilding the partition table. It completed successfully from all appearances, but gave me a grub> prompt when I rebooted. So I booted the FC 6 disk 1, went to rescue, reinstalled grub, and rebooted.

That got me back into FC, but still wouldn't boot XP.
Still won't mount NTFS partition either

(I can't remember the windows command i used to repair the partition table, I got it from someone in another thread in the installation forum)

Supposedly, if I try to use windows (on another machine) to run scandisk or something with a mangled partition table it will make the problem worse, and I'll never get my windows partition back (and the 100 or so pages of a novel i've been working on)

I know it was stupid to install FC6 and let it touch the mbr of my c drive without backing up that novel, or at least emailing it to myself first. I'm an old fart that has never encountered a software problem I could'nt solve eventually and I frequently fly without a parachute - my ego here has exceeded my skill level I've always scoffed at the ubiquitous "backup first" advice (unless it was someone elses data I was playing with)

The thing about strongly held beliefs is, in spite of mountains of evidence around me, and the dozens of pleas for help on online forums, I'll probably never change.

And yes, my printer is a Lexmark . . .

[Dies]

The device '/dev/sda' doesn't have a valid NTFS.
Maybe you selected the wrong device? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/hda, not /dev/hda1)? Or the other way around?

That's the clue.

ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/windows

or

mount -t ntfs3-g /dev/sda1 /media/windows

should work fine as long as you've created the /media/windows directory.

I didn't know you couldn't boot Windows, post the output of :

su -
cat /boot/grub/grub.conf

Let's see if it's something simple.

If not you can always re-assure yourself that windows is still there by booting from the Windows install disk then choose to use the recovery console and run the following:

fixmbr
fixboot

And if Windows still lives it should boot you into it, if not you can re-install grub from the Fedora install disk.