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**Fintan** · Mar 15, 2010, 01:43 AM

Re: biting off more than I can chew.

1.Is fdisk a program used to format a drive or just partition it? or is there much of a difference? reason being the windows formatted drive on the first pc that I want to be able to use for kubuntu. When I select it I only get an option for adding an item or hiding the drive.

I am no expert on fsck but I would sugest usong gparted live CD for all partitionimg tasks:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php

2. How do I share the printer to the other pc's ? I see them through samba but when I select them it says that location doesn't exist, both for kubuntu pc's and win7 pc's. If there is a good tutorial on this please point me to it.

again no expert but this might help you along:
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3108129.0

I hope this helps and good luck

**dibl** · Mar 15, 2010, 04:15 AM

Re: biting off more than I can chew.

WRT dual-booting with Win 7, check this:

http://lifehacker.com/5403100/dual+b...erfect-harmony

**converted tux** · Mar 15, 2010, 06:04 AM

Re: biting off more than I can chew.

Thanks for the resources I will check them out today. and let you guys know how they work out.
One thing wasn't really looking for the partitioning but rather the formatting. Although the partitioning will come in very useful.

Update I got g-parted from the repository and it said it ran successfully. I can no longer see the second drive though. Will poke around some more for the commands to find it in a shell. As for the other info .....
there is a lot to go through so, I will sit back with a few beers and read it over the next few days and try it out as I can. Dibl the site you gave me seems very well thought out and easy to understand, I thank you for that Fintan the thread for the printer sharing will indeed be very informative and I thank you as well. I will post again when I have more results.

**oshunluvr** · Mar 15, 2010, 08:52 AM

Re: biting off more than I can chew.

Originally posted by converted tux

1.Is fdisk a program used to format a drive or just partition it? or is there much of a difference? reason being the windows formatted drive on the first pc that I want to be able to use for kubuntu. When I select it I only get an option for adding an item or hiding the drive.

Fdisk in linux is indeed only a partition editor. It can remove and create partitions and assign partition types (among other things) but filesystem creation (aka formatting) are done by other utilities. Tools like Gparted bring formatting tools and partitioning tools together in one easier-to-use GUI package (for most people

). As far as using a previously windows formatted partition to install kubuntu - generally, unless you want the partition a different size, you can allow the kubuntu installer to format the partition for you.

Originally posted by converted tux

2. How do I share the printer to the other pc's ? I see them through samba but when I select them it says that location doesn't exist, both for kubuntu pc's and win7 pc's. If there is a good tutorial on this please point me to it.

At this point I'd like to suggest you start a couple of new threads - one for each separate issue - and use an issue descriptive Subject line. You get more response and therefore have a better chance of getting your problems resolved. I see four or five different topics in this post.

**converted tux** · Mar 15, 2010, 10:42 AM

Re: biting off more than I can chew.

Thanks oshunluvr I think I will start a few threads, although I was trying not to start ones that pretty much already existed elsewhere, just wanted to be pointed to the better ones. :-X
On another note after rebooting a few times the second hd came up and can now be seen in the left hand column of dolphin, though I apparently don't have the ability to write to it. it is now formatted as ext4? I did not want another version of linux on it, just extra space for kubuntu on the same machine.
Please consider this thread as for the one mounting issue. All others will be handled in other threads.
Thanks.

**GreyGeek** · Mar 15, 2010, 11:22 AM

Re: biting off more than I can chew.

Originally posted by oshunluvr

.....

Originally posted by converted tux

2. How do I share the printer to the other pc's ? I see them through samba but when I select them it says that location doesn't exist, both for kubuntu pc's and win7 pc's. If there is a good tutorial on this please point me to it.

At this point I'd like to suggest you start a couple of new threads - one for each separate issue - and use an issue descriptive Subject line. You get more response and therefore have a better chance of getting your problems resolved. I see four or five different topics in this post.

Good idea. I split the topic a minute ago. Those who added question #2 to their answers for #1 should edit that post on this thread and add their answer to the second thread.

**oshunluvr** · Mar 15, 2010, 11:50 AM

Re: biting off more than I can chew.

Well, first we need to figure out by what you mean as not "seeing" the drive.

If you're booted into kubuntu, open a console and type "sudo fdisk -l" You should then get a list of all drive "devices" on your system. This may include any sd cards readers and other stuff. Your first hard drive should be listed as "/dev/sda", your second as "/dev/sdb" and so on. With each hard drive will be a partition list. One of mine looks like this:

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0005b9ee

  Device Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1        1     131   1052226  82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2  *     132     182   409657+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3       183    60801  486922117+  5 Extended
/dev/sda5       183    2271  16779861  83 Linux
/dev/sda6      2272    2793   4192933+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7      2794    3315   4192933+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda8      3316    8537  41945683+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda9      8538    9059   4192933+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda10      9060    9581   4192933+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda11      9582    60801  411424618+ 83 Linux

Yours will undoubtedly have less entries than mine.

FYI - in case you don't know how linux works with drive partitions...

Windows uses drive letters and assigns them to partitions based on the order in which they're accessed by the OS (FYI: Windows can only access 1 PRIMARY partition at a time, linux does not have this limitation). Windows won't boot from a LOGICAL partition (This may be different with Windows 7).

Linux assigns letters to each physical device and device numbers to the partitions.

Three hard drives on a system would then be /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, and /dev/sdc.

Partition numbers 1 through 4 are used for PRIMARY partitions and you can only have four on a disk. In order to have more than 4 partitions, you must make one the the PRIMARY partitions an EXTENDED partition which then holds any number of LOGICAL partitions. Linux then numbers the LOGICAL partitions beginning at 5, reserving 1-4 for the primary partitions. Linux will boot from any partition, primary or logical.

So - your hard drive will likely look like:

/dev/sda1 ----> First Primary
/dev/sda2 ----> Second Primary (Extended)
/dev/sda5 ----> First Logical

This is a typical basic windows style partitioning scheme. For your use, you would format /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda5. Once you've partitioned and formatted your partitions, they must then be mounted to access them. Once mounted, that's when you can use the space to install or save file or whatever.

In review, the steps to access a hard drive:
1. Partition
2. Format
3. Mount
There are various tools and methods to do these three steps.

Not to make this more confusing for you, I recommend at least three partitions for a stable linux install and four is better.

I do my installs this way:
Partition 1 : Swap - 1 to 4gb (matching RAM size of system)
Partition 2 : Windows (if you're dual booting)
Partition 3 : Extended
Partition 5: "/" aka root (your linux OS)
Partition 6: "/home"
Partition 7: "/tmp" (optional)
Note the partition numbers tell you if it's a PRIMARY or LOGICAL partition.

Why do it this way you ask?
SWAP: Unless you have lots of RAM and do very little with your computer, you will likely use swap space sometime. Windows uses a swap file, linux defaults to use a swap partition (somewhat faster access). It is reported having swap as the first partition is slightly faster than anywhere else on the drive.

Windows: IF you're dual booting Windows will need a Primary partition near the front of the drive.

/ (aka root): The place to install linux

/home: A separate home partition will protect your personal settings and files from a re-install of your OS and is slightly easier to make a backup.

/tmp: If you fill up your root or home partitions you will find yourself unable to boot up or log into your system. Most often this is caused by large or many tmp files filling up all your space. This is a fairly common problem. You can somewhat avoid this by having a separate tmp partition.

NOTE: These partitions can be spread amongst as many drives as you wish. In fact, having /, /tmp and /home on different drives can be slightly quicker and swap space will benefit from being spread out across all your drives.

ALSO NOTE: Linux needs no where near the space windows does. You can install and run kubuntu and a healthy amount of programs in less than 8gb. If you have a separate /home and /tmp it could be smaller. I usually use 16gb for root, 32gb for /tmp, 2gb for swap, and the rest for /home.

**converted tux** · Mar 15, 2010, 12:43 PM

Re: biting off more than I can chew -FDISK

Wow thats a lot of good info. thanks oshunluvr.
this is what I have now after fidling with some things. And before seeing your latest post.

Code:

bryan@Photoframe:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x21ccb32b

  Device Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1  *      1   120121  964871901  83 Linux
/dev/sda2     120122   121601  11888100  5 Extended
/dev/sda5     120122   121601  11888068+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x333c333b

  Device Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdb1        1    30401  244196001  83 Linux
bryan@Photoframe:~$

Also when I go into dolphin and select the new drive it from the places listing to the left it comes up as /root/media/more_pics
and the properties show it as belonging to root, so I cant write to it without being a superuser in this situation? I clearly need to correct this but how?

**Snowhog** · Mar 15, 2010, 01:00 PM

Re: biting off more than I can chew -FDISK

Show us your /etc/fsab file.

Internal HDs, if not identified in fstab, will be owned by root when accessed. If you wish to 'own' it, you need to identify it in your fstab file in the same way that your first HD is.

**oshunluvr** · Mar 15, 2010, 01:06 PM

Re: biting off more than I can chew -FDISK

Slight typo there snowhog: the file is /etc/fstab

An fstab entry follows the format:

DEVICE MOUNTPOINT TYPE OPTIONS

and will look something like:

UUID=ebffb916-98b7-4f9c-85c5-4a91796710d1 /mnt/install0 ext4 errors=remount-ro,noauto,users 0 0

or

/dev/sdb1 /mnt/install0 ext4 errors=remount-ro,noauto,users 0 0

**Snowhog** · Mar 15, 2010, 01:09 PM

Re: biting off more than I can chew -FDISK

Originally posted by oshunluvr

Slight typo there snowhog: the file is /etc/fstab

:P Yup. Either I haven't had enough coffee yet, or I've had to much.

**converted tux** · Mar 15, 2010, 01:30 PM

Re: biting off more than I can chew -FDISK

Ok so I repartitioned the drive and it now looks like this.

Code:

bryan@Photoframe:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x21ccb32b

  Device Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1  *      1   120121  964871901  83 Linux
/dev/sda2     120122   121601  11888100  5 Extended
/dev/sda5     120122   121601  11888068+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x333c333b

  Device Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdb1        1     503   4040316  82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb2       504    30401  240155685  5 Extended
/dev/sdb5       504    4905  35359033+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb6      4906    10004  40957686  83 Linux
/dev/sdb7      10005    30401  163838871  83 Linux
bryan@Photoframe:~$

and the item you guys wanted to see looks like this

Code:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>  <type> <options>    <dump> <pass>
proc      /proc      proc  defaults    0    0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=6638e0e3-c43e-4c92-8554-28c6a208730e /        ext4  errors=remount-ro 0    1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=391b5b1b-6ebd-41ff-850d-b99ac7c97dc7 none      swap  sw       0    0
/dev/scd0    /media/cdrom0  udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0    0

**Snowhog** · Mar 15, 2010, 01:36 PM

Re: biting off more than I can chew -FDISK

Okay. In order to provide you with the info needed to write the extra fstab entry, please post the results of:

Code:

sudo blkid | grep sdb

**converted tux** · Mar 15, 2010, 01:59 PM

Re: biting off more than I can chew -FDISK

And here is the result

Code:

bryan@Photoframe:~$ sudo blkid | grep sdb
[sudo] password for bryan:
/dev/sdb1: UUID="b3d3c571-147c-42ee-9492-65f81f59d57a" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sdb5: LABEL="/" UUID="6a14a8af-81d5-4c4f-bff4-4f9f104e0059" TYPE="ext2"
/dev/sdb6: LABEL="/home" UUID="d48c8599-af06-452d-a409-341de52e96d7" TYPE="ext2"
/dev/sdb7: LABEL="/tmp" UUID="3492ac21-4237-474e-ba0f-bdf27c169b08" TYPE="ext2"
bryan@Photoframe:~$

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[solved] biting off more than I can chew -FDISK

[solved] biting off more than I can chew -FDISK

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