>> SH> Also I could not delete the empty directories by using the "rd"
>> SH> command.
>> why not use linux to delete ?!?
>> or run scandisk on the partition to clean remainings of LFNs ?!?
> I haven't yet learned enough about Linux to know how to go about
> doing this. I have been thinking about running scandisk. I can't
> do that right now because the computer that I installed OpenLinux
> on is located far away. I will not be able to go there and use that
> computer frequently.
I am astonished by this method Caldera has chosen in order to install
Linux. Red Hat is able to install itself on an empty disk, containing all
the tools necessary to partition it.
One the culprits making problems to DR-DOS is the "Recycled" directory
(hidden). I've got a FAT16 partition on my second hard drive, created using
Linux. I have installed DR-DOS on it. This is the only partition DR-DOS
sees, assigning the letter "C" to it. Win 98 sees it too, and labels it as
"D". Whenever I copy something or delete something from D: using Windows,
the "Recycled" folder is automatically created. Immediatly after that,
DR-DOS starts grumbling, so I have to delete that directory using Dos
Navigator and its direct drive access facility.
In order to access the DOS partition using Linux, the following steps are
required:
1. Get to the command line. This can be acomplished in more than one way
a) If you're in KDE2 browse the start menu and seek for a terminal
program . Run it and you'll get the command prompt (namely the "bash"
prompt.)
b) Look on the taskbar for an icon showing a screen with a fan
attached (KDE2 only). Click on it and voila!
c) Look for "Run program" or something like that in the KDE start
menu on the taskbar. Type "xterm" or "rxvt" or "kterm".
d) Last but not least, try pressing CTRL+ALT+F1 or CTRl+ALT+F2 or any
of these right to F7. Eventually you'll get some good old text login
prompt. You can switch back to X-Window at any time by pressing most
probably CTRL+ALT+F7. This depends on how your system is configured.
2. In Linux your first hard drive unit is named "hda" if IDE, or "sda" if
SCSI. Your second one is named "hdb" or "sdb" respectively. The first
floppy is "fd0", the second is "fd1"
As you may know already, a HD may contain up to four primary partitions.
They are named "hda1","hda2" up to "hda4" or "hdb1", "hdb2" etc. Logical
partitions are assigned numbers from "5" upwards.(hda5, hda6 etc.).
Let's suppose the following example:
Someone intended to allocate its drive half for the use of DOS and half
for the use of Linux. He used DOS Fdisk (allowing him to create only one
DOS primary partition). He created such a DOS primary partition (C:) as big
as a quarter of his drive. He created an extended DOS partition occupying
next quarter. Inside it, he placed three logical partitions.(D:,E:,F). The
remaining half was to be for Linux. He installed Linux, creating first a
swap partition, and then the root partition.
C: (primary DOS) is hda1 in Linux
The extended DOS partition is hda2 in Linux. As a container for three
logical partitions it can't be used as it is, neither in DOS, nor in Linux.
D: will be hda5
E: will be hda6
F: will be hda7
Linux swap is hda3 (a primary partition in our case)
And finally the root partition is hda4.
At boot time, the Linux root partition on your hard drive is *mounted*.
This means ,among other things, it is assigned a name in the Linux
directory tree. in the particular case of the root partition, its name is
"/" or the *root* of all your directories. Any other disk partition can be
mounted in order to be seen as a subdirectory in your directory tree.
(Probably your CD-ROM is seen as "/cdrom" or "/mnt/cdrom". Linux recognizes
a lot of filesystems, including FAT16 and FAT32, and such partitions are to
be mounted easily.
3. Run "man cfdisk" or "man fdisk" command and read carefully.
4a. You have to be root to execute the following jobs. If you are not type
"su" and give the root password.
4. Run "/sbin/fdisk" or, better "/sbin/cfdisk" *just to identify* your
partitions. Let's suppose your DOS partition is "hda1".
5. Create a new directory with a name of your choice with the command
"mkdir" anywhere you like, preferably in the "/mnt" subdirectory.( Example:
"cd /mnt" "mkdir dos_c"). Let's name it "/mnt/dos_c" for now on. Don't go
inside the subdirectory, yet. (anyway, it's empty)
6. Run "man mount" and read about the "mount" command
7. Finally, mount your DOS partition. "mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos_c"
for Win9x partitions (your case), or "mount -t msdos /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos_c"
for plain DOS.
6 Switch to the "/mnt/dos_c" subdirectory. Miracle! all your DOS stuff is
there!
8 See "man fstab" and then take a look at "/etc/fstab" file to see which
partitions are mounted at boot time and where.
9. See "/etc/mtab" to see which partitions are currently mounted and where.
Gosh! I'd better start writing a book about Linux, but I'm afraid it should
take a lifetime to complete it. :-)
Cristian Burneci
