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Fine Details needed for partitioning & mounts in a legacy laptop with WinXP32 on

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Wombat66

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Many thanks Gold Finger for everything all problems are solved now.
 

 

gold_finger

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Many thanks Gold_Finger , it worked , I am however unable to delete things from it .

If you mean that it won't allow you to delete or put things in "trash", open a terminal and enter the following code to list the contents under that directory.

Change directory (cd) to the new Windows_Data directory
Code: [Select]
cd Windows_Data
List (ls) contents under it showing details and hidden files (files that have names beginning with a period ".")
Code: [Select]
ls -la
Look to see if one of the listings is ".Trash-1000".

If it exists, make sure it is owned by you and not by root.  It will show either "wombat66  wombat66", or "root  root" next to it.  If it shows "root  root", change ownership to you with following command:
Code: [Select]
sudo chown -R wombat66: /home/wombat66/Windows_Data/.Trash-1000
If it does not exist, you need to create it.
Code: [Select]
mkdir /home/wombat66/Windows_Data/.Trash-1000
You should now be able to delete things from that partition.



Is it also possible to do the same for the other main Windows drive ?

Yes, but since that is the Windows system partition, you need to be careful when accessing things there.  You don't want to accidentally delete/change Windows system files.  If you only want occasional temporary access to that partition, it would be best to just access it by clicking it's icon on the desktop or in the file manager whenever you need to do that; rather than having it auto-mounted every time you use Linux Lite.

If you do want frequent access to it, just go through same steps as you did for other partition.  You will need to specify the correct UUID for that partition (see output of blkid command) and use a different mount point name (don't use spaces in the name).  When creating the two new lines for the fstab file, the first one (that begins with a "#") is just a brief description of what the second line is doing.  The second line is the one that actually gets implemented -- use same format as you did before, except substitute the new partition UUID and the new mount point name.



Where should I go to add language options for the keyboard and key combinations to toggle back and forth such as Alt+Shift ?

Check the Help Manual under the "Hardware" heading.
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Wombat66

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Many thanks Gold_Finger , it worked , I am however unable to delete things from it . Is it also possible to do the same for the other main Windows drive ?

The sound problem was solved because I was inadvertently muting the loudspeaker .

Where should I go to add language options for the keyboard and key combinations to toggle back and forth such as Alt+Shift ?

 

 

gold_finger

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The sound problem is fixed

That's good!  If you can, let us know what you did to fix problem.  That might help others when reading through your post looking for similar answer.


Real Player downloads physically the video to the computer and shows its icon on the video screen on passing the mouse over it but lately there are problems with it in Chrome and Firefox and it only works on Internet Explorer8.

Maybe someone else can shed some light on this -- I know nothing about Real Player.


My Data drive has mainly PDF documents and books and spreadsheets and word documents and powerpoint  and copies of internet articles + zipped program sources . I accessed some files yesterday but can I move them to the LL area ? not that it matters .

If you'd like to have the contents of that partition easily accessible from LL and auto-mounted every time you start computer, simply do the following and you'll have access to it in your Home under the directory "Windows_Data":

1. -- Open a terminal and make a new directory called "Windows_Data" in your Home directory.
Code: [Select]
mkdir /home/wombat66/Windows_Data
2. -- Open the fstab file (it directs which partitions are mounted on startup) with your text editor as root.
Code: [Select]
gksu leafpad /etc/fstab(Enter your password when asked -- it will not display in the terminal as you type it.)

3. -- With the file now opened in leafpad, copy the following two lines and paste them to the end of the file.
Code: [Select]
# Mount Windows data partition under /home/wombat66/Windows_Data
UUID=FA3C1CC33C1C7D37   /home/wombat66/Windows_Data   ntfs-3g   defaults,window_names,locale=en_US.utf8   0   0

4. -- Now save the file; then exit the text editor to get back to the terminal.

5. -- Exit the terminal.

6. -- Reboot the computer.

7. -- After reboot you should have access to the files from your Home under the "Windows_Data" directory.


How does one download Skype and to which folder?

Don't use Skype myself, but there are instructions for that in the Help Manual (Menu -> Help Manual) under the "Software" heading (near bottom of page).
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Wombat66

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The sound problem is fixed , Real Player downloads physically the video to the computer and shows its icon on the video screen on passing the mouse over it but lately there are problems with it in Chrome and Firefox and it only works on Internet Explorer8.

My Data drive has mainly PDF documents and books and spreadsheets and word documents and powerpoint  and copies of internet articles + zipped program sources . I accessed some files yesterday but can I move them to the LL area ? not that it matters .
How does one download Skype and to which folder?

Code: [Select]
wombat66@wombat66-ESPRIMO-Mobile-V6505:~$
wombat66@wombat66-ESPRIMO-Mobile-V6505:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for wombat66:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe4e1e4e1

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *          63   163846934    81923436    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2       163846996   488396799   162274902    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5       163846998   317444399    76798701    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6       317446144   484282367    83418112   83  Linux
/dev/sda7       484284416   488396799     2056192   82  Linux swap / Solaris
wombat66@wombat66-ESPRIMO-Mobile-V6505:~$
wombat66@wombat66-ESPRIMO-Mobile-V6505:~$ sudo blkid -c/dev/null
/dev/sda1: UUID="04A8A5B1A8A5A1A2" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda5: UUID="FA3C1CC33C1C7D37" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda6: UUID="20e0ed07-4311-4cf5-83c6-496ddd3ea5af" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda7: UUID="77fc3697-15d9-4466-b55c-a8b477df3cd4" TYPE="swap"
/dev/zram0: UUID="6e46d4b5-6f08-4ca8-9982-6551fe8dc931" TYPE="swap"
wombat66@wombat66-ESPRIMO-Mobile-V6505:~$
wombat66@wombat66-ESPRIMO-Mobile-V6505:~$ cat/etc/fstab
bash: cat/etc/fstab: No such file or directory
wombat66@wombat66-ESPRIMO-Mobile-V6505:~$
wombat66@wombat66-ESPRIMO-Mobile-V6505:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' 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    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
# / was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=20e0ed07-4311-4cf5-83c6-496ddd3ea5af /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=77fc3697-15d9-4466-b55c-a8b477df3cd4 none            swap    sw              0       0
wombat66@wombat66-ESPRIMO-Mobile-V6505:~$
 

 

gold_finger

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Glad to here you're up and running.

Re:  Sound -- have a look in the "Hardware" section of the Help Manual.  There's a section for sound configuration -- see if that helps.  (Access Help Manual from either the main Menu, or it's bookmark in Firefox.)  If you continue to have sound problems, make a new post specifically about that to attract views of people that know how to fix that type of problem.

Re: Downloading Videos -- not sure what you mean by "downloading"?  Do you mean being able to watch them online, or do you mean downloading a copy of the video to your hard drive for later viewing?  If you are not talking about downloading youtube videos, give us an example link to a video site you are trying to download from.  Haven't used Real Player myself in about 15 years, so have no idea what "icon" you are talking about.  If you are talking about downloading youtube videos, here's an addon that works well for that:  Video DownloadHelper.  Again, if this doesn't solve your problem, make a new post specifically about downloading videos -- others probably know more than I do on that.


REGARDING YOUR NEW INSTALLATION:

Just out of curiosity, because you were worried about possible negative affects of prior install attempts, can you open a terminal and post back the following command output so I can see how the partition structure looks?
Code: [Select]
sudo fdisk -l
Code: [Select]
sudo blkid -c /dev/null
Code: [Select]
cat /etc/fstab
Also, have you tried accessing and/or do you want access to that NTFS data partition?  If so, I can use the above output to get you setup for that.
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Wombat66

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UPDATE :

I have successfully installed LL alongside Win XP as Logical Partitions on deleted E drive in SDA 6 with a Swap Drive of 1.96 Ggb.
I have one minor problem

1. I can see videos on Youtube but there is no sound and the loudspeaker is not muted , in fact a few days ago I had from the USB raised the volume and made it 120% instead of 44% and this was perfect ,  but today the sound is not there .

2. What do I need to do to download a video as I do not see a Real Player icon on moving the mouse on the screen ?.

Many thanks Gold-Finger for your guidance .
 

 

Wombat66

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Many thanks Gold Finger for the advice ,

I will follow the easy way as I have a phobia of playing around with computers . There is one problem at the back of my mind though and that is after I started playing around with the instructions of the other person and quitting installation about 10 times now Linux gives me only 2 choices .............the choice of installing alongside Win XP is no longer there , will that situation change back after I delete E drive and will that choice of installing alongside windows reappear ?
 

 

gold_finger

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Everything should be fairly simple.  If you don't need more room for windows then leave C: & D: drives as they are.  You will be able to access either of those two partitions from Linux Lite if you want to.  Since you're planning on eventually moving (or copying) the data on D: to another computer and possibly even wiping out Windows on this one, there's no sense in creating any additional NTFS partition.  You've got plenty of room left on the C: drive if you need more space for Windows data.

Easiest and best bet is to just boot into Windows and delete the E: partition.  Don't create any Linux partitions.  Don't create any partitions.  Just delete E: and leave it as empty, unused, unpartitioned space.

If you look at your hard drive screenshot you'll notice that drives D: & E: are surrounded by a green border.  That's an "extended partition" which houses the two logical partitions -- D: & E:.  After you delete the E: partition, look to see if that green border still extends to the end of the disk -- now enclosing the D: logical partition and the empty space from where E: was.  If that's the case -- then you're Linux Lite installation will automatically be two logical partitions inside of that extended partition after the D: drive partition.  If, for some reason, Windows shrinks that green border to fit only around D:, just leave it that way and your Linux installation will then create two primary partitions for itself (which is fine).  If you choose to do partitioning manually (see below), just keep this in mind so you know whether the partitions will be logical or primary.

Once E: has been deleted, shut down Windows and boot computer with your Linux installation DVD/USB.  Start the installation and when you get to the "Installation Type" screen, tell it to install "Alongside Windows".  It will then automatically use that freed-up space from the deleted partition and create a Root and Swap partition for itself.  It will decide the ideal size for Swap (most likely between 2-4GB) and do that for you -- so don't worry about that.  It will install it boot loader to the MBR (master boot record) of the drive and take over duty of booting computer, giving you the choice of booting either Windows or Linux Lite when you restart after installation.

That's the easy way to do the installation.

BUT ... if you do plan on using that NTFS data partition (D: drive) from within Linux Lite, you have two choices.
  • Partition manually from within the installer and also tell the installer to make a mount point for the D: drive (/dev/sda5).
  • Go ahead with the "Alongside Windows" automatic installation and sort out adding an entry for the NTFS partition afterwards.

If you want to go with option #1, read through this post to get a general idea of how to make the partitions during the installation and how to set the mount points for them.  (Its a different Linux distro, but steps are essentially the same.)  You're still only going to make a Root (mount point = "/") and Swap (no mount point) partition, but you will need to also highlight and "Change" /dev/sda5.  When you do that, leave partition type, size and location as they already are.  Choose "NTFS" for file system type ("Use as" box) and in the "Mount point" box you will need to choose a place in the file system for that partition to be mounted (where it will show-up for you to use).  DO NOT CHECK BOX TO FORMAT /dev/sda5!!!

I think best place to mount it would be in your Home directory, so type this as the mount point:  /home/username/WindowsData.  Substitute your actual user name (all lowercase letters) in place of "username".  Also, you can name it something else other than "WindowsData" if you want to.  (Just don't use spaces in the name.  You can substitute "-", "_", "." in place of spaces if you want.

Sizes for your two new partitions:
  • Root = all free space from deleted E: drive except 3GB for swap.
  • Swap = 3GB


That's it -- go ahead and install now.  After your first boot into the installed Linux Lite, run the Update manager (Menu -> Install Updates) to download any updates to the system first.  Then, if you want instructions on mounting the NTFS partition (Windows D: drive), post back with output from these commands run in a terminal:
Code: [Select]
sudo fdisk -l
Code: [Select]
sudo blkid
Code: [Select]
cat /etc/fstab
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Wombat66

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Gold Finger :
I am posting what you requested below .  I do not want extra space for Windows as in fact I will gradually migrate most of the data in the full up drive to another computer and perhaps will rarely rely on Windows .
My decision is to have the virtually empty drive entirely for Linux and I wonder if 1 Ggb for Linux Swap is OK or if I could boost my RAM effectiveness by having more for Linux Swap.
Code: [Select]
/dev/sda6       317444463   488375999    85465768+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdb: 8011 MB, 8011087872 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 7639 cylinders, total 15646656 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5be546df

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           0     1409023      704512   17  Hidden HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb1: 721 MB, 721420288 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 688 cylinders, total 1409024 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5be546df

     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1p1   *           0     1409023      704512   17  Hidden HPFS/NTFS
linux@linux:~$
____________________________________________________________________________

linux@linux:~$ sudo blkid
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda1: UUID="04A8A5B1A8A5A1A2" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda5: UUID="FA3C1CC33C1C7D37" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda6: UUID="7C0425E204259FDE" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="Linux Lite 1.0.8 32-bit" TYPE="iso9660"
linux@linux:~$

[attachment deleted by admin]
 

 

Wombat66

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Many thanks Goldfinger and Rob for your reply I will deal with what you raised later today and post my thoughts
 

 

gold_finger

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I have a 2009 Fujitsu Esprimo Mobile 250 Gb  and 2 Gb Ram and 3 USB's and a DVD. 
Win XP 32  Sp3 has C drive , sda 1   84Gb  NTFS and D drive 78 Gb  sda 5 which is full of documents mainly,  NTFS and E: drive sda 6 which is 88 Gb and NTFS and which I have emptied of all but less than 1 Gb of stuff in order to put Linux Lite 1.08 on it .

I have 30 Gb  free space in drive C for my XP work.
I have been told to 1. Delete drive E , sda 6 and create 2 logical partitions  ONE of 50Ggb NTFS and the Second Linux /ext4 root partition + Linux Swap space of 1-2 Ggb and to leave about 8-10 Ggb of unallocated space for windows .

How you partition really depends on how you want to use computer.  Don't know why someone told you to make an NTFS partition -- usually you'd do that to have a partition that could be shared for storing data you'll  want access to from both Windows and Linux.  (Windows can't use Linux formatted partitions, but Linux can use Windows formatted ones.)  You stated already that you have what sounds like an NTFS partition for data files (drive D:); so I'm not sure that you would need to create another one unless you had something specific in mind for it.

Sounds like you have a second data partition (drive E:) which you've emptied to make room for Linux.  (As N4RPS said, it that little bit of data left on it is anything you need, copy it off somewhere else before deleting the partition.)  If there is not much room left on the "D: drive" partition, then that may be why someone told you to make another NTFS partition.  However, in that situation, you can just expand the size of the D: drive after the E: drive is deleted and not bother making another partition.  Or, if you really did want another NTFS partition, don't delete E:, just shrink it to make room for Linux.  (No point in deleting it, then recreating it.)

I have no idea why you were told to keep 8-10GB unallocated space for Windows.  Do you?  That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Let us know how you want to use computer.  Do you want all Windows and Linux data separated; or will you want to have access to some or all data files from both OS's?

At this point, if you haven't done anything yet, boot into Windows and take a screenshot of the partitions as shown under disk management section.  Post that screenshot back here for us to see.  Then boot up with the live LL disk and open a terminal window.  Copy/Paste the following commands into a terminal one at a time and hit enter after each:
Code: [Select]
sudo fdisk -l
Code: [Select]
sudo blkid
The two commands will display information about the current partition structure on your drive.

Highlight/Copy the entire output, then paste it back here for us to see.  When typing your reply, hit the "#" button on forum interface.  It will insert two code blocks -- [ code ] ... [ /code ] -- into your reply area.  Paste the terminal output between the two code blocks.  That makes it easier for us to read.


While waiting for replies back:
*  Create backup copy of important files on any partitions -- good to have just in case you make mistake, power goes out, etc.
*  Make Win XP recovery CD/DVD if you don't already have one.
« Last Edit: April 27, 2014, 04:43:53 PM by gold_finger »
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N4RPS

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Hello!

gold_finger is our resident partitioning expert, and his tutorials are excellent. Nonetheless, I WILL tell you THIS:

EVERYTHING you want to keep id that 'less than 1 GB' HAS to be moved OFF your drive E: BEFORE you delete that partition, because you'll lose all the data you have left there if you don't. Also, if you resize any of your Windows partitions, boot into XP after you do, so that XP can run a CHKDSK on the resized NTFS partitions.

You sound like you have your partitioning scheme pretty well thought out. 30 GB + a 2 GB swap area will be plenty for a beginner's Linux Lite system. If you have another hard drive (or an external one), and you CAN, back up what you have now using Redo Backup before changing ANYTHING. That way, you can restore what you had if something goes wrong.

As a rule of thumb, I choose to resize and define my partitions - including the swap area - by using the Partition Editor (GPartEd) on the LiveCD BEFORE performing the actual installation. That way, I already have my partitioning structure set up when I run the installer, and only have to tell the installer to format the Linux Lite partition, set the mount point as / (root), and to also install GRUB on sda...

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

 



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Wombat66

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I have a 2009 Fujitsu Esprimo Mobile 250 Gb  and 2 Gb Ram and 3 USB's and a DVD. 
Win XP 32  Sp3 has C drive , sda 1   84Gb  NTFS and D drive 78 Gb  sda 5 which is full of documents mainly,  NTFS and E: drive sda 6 which is 88 Gb and NTFS and which I have emptied of all but less than 1 Gb of stuff in order to put Linux Lite 1.08 on it .

I have 30 Gb  free space in drive C for my XP work.
I have been told to 1. Delete drive E , sda 6 and create 2 logical partitions  ONE of 50Ggb NTFS and the Second Linux /ext4 root partition + Linux Swap space of 1-2 Ggb and to leave about 8-10 Ggb of unallocated space for windows .

I am unsure  what to do
1. I will select the "something else option"   2. I will select  sda 6 then a) Do I format the whole  E   drive?   b) When I select 50Ggb for the NTFS partition do I select DOS or Windows in the mount menu?  c) What will that NTFS partition be used for ?  With XP or with Linux?  d) To do this I must write it to disc and there is no undoing after that point .  e) Linux Swap has to be 1-2 Ggb or can I make it more to improve my RAM ability? which is 2Ggb?....It seems my /ext4 Linux partition will be about 25-27 Ggb.I need to know also what MOUNTING is or does and f) What names do I give the partitions and mounts . 
The Linux Lite OS Installation guide is inadequate and does not explain what to do with these issues .
I would appreciate your guidance there.
 

 

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