HDD/Video problems

[gsanvic]

hi all,

Knewbie here.

anyway, after successfully burning the 3.3-en ISO on a cd, i gave knoppix live a run, and while i'm impressed, i still want to explore before installing on my HDD.

i'm having trouble with:

1) video. my knoppix screen has this 2-inch border all around it, the same behavior it shows when i use 800x600 under windows. however, at boot-up (with the penguin on the top left corner), the display is at 1024x768. i've tried using "knoppix fb1024x768 screen=1024x768 vert=60" already, but all it did was let the computer recognize the 1024x768 mode, but it still uses 800x600.

2) hard disk. i'm having trouble with the HDD. it doesn't seem to be mounted at all. when i used "knoppix dma" (with all the options above), the HDD was detected, and given "DMA acceleration", but still i couldn't mount it. the error message i get from the shell when i type "mount /dev/hda vfat" is that "only root can do that". any workaround? i want to try saving my config there, not on the floppy.

TIA.

[softwaretester]

cut.. paste..

Maybe the noddc option would help.

[gsanvic]

thank you!

that solved my display problem. now, about the hard disk ... :-S

[Markus]

You should mount it as root. If you type "sudo" without quotes in front of the mount command it executes that command with root privileges. Typing just "sudo su" makes you root until you exit from it with ctrl-d. If you need a password for root, type "passwd" after su:ing and type in a password (twice). You can also use a root terminal from K-menu -> Knoppix -> Root Shell.

[gsanvic]

Markus:

i used the root shell like you said (makes things easier), but i can't seem to get the HDD mounted.

maybe i'm doing it the wrong way, but here are the commands i've tried:

mount -t vfat /dev/hda
mount /dev/hda /mnt/hda

but the HDD still can't be mounted. the funny thing is, the /dev/hda option comes out when i try saving my Knoppix Configuration, but it doesn't save. the error message goes something like:

mount: you must specify the filesystem

any ideas?

[gsanvic]

i also tried:

mount /dev/hda /mnt/hda -t vfat
mount /dev/hda /mnt/hda -t autofs

but an error message came out:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda, or too many mounted filesystems

all i have mounted (i think) are the cdrom and floppy. no devices on pcmcia or usb.

[OErjan]

try the comand below

sudo mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1

you have to name the partition it should mount. in this case i guess 1.
post output from the command below and i can explain furter.

sudo fdisk -l

to me it looks like this (for you most likely very dfferently).

and

root# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 20.0 GB, 20003880960 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2584 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/hda1 1 2 15088+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 * 3 426 3205408+ b NTFS
/dev/hda3 427 1002 4354560 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 1003 2584 11959920 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 1003 1072 529168+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda6 1073 1878 6093328+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 1879 2584 5337328+ b W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sda: 16 MB, 16384000 bytes
4 heads, 32 sectors/track, 250 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 128 * 512 = 65536 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 250 15984 4 FAT16 <32M

this means that hda2 is my windows partition. but my hda7 is the one i use to write files that i want acessible in both linux and Win.
weirdly enough i have not used the XP since i bought computer so i do not even know if it works.

[Markus]

You could also try "sudo mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1" if it's FAT and hda1, as said find out by doing "fdisk -l" as root. No need to put in the "sudo" part in a root shell.

[gsanvic]

ok. i tried what you guys said. i used the root shell, and this is the output of

fdisk -l

(i still don't know how to copy from a shell window! )

Disk /dev/hda 20.0 GB, 20003880960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2432 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device   Boot	Start	End	Blocks	  Id	System
/dev/hda1 *	    1	2432	19535008+  c	W95 FAT32 (LBA)

then i tried

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1

and i got

mount:error while guessing filesystem type
mount: mount point /mnt/hda1 does not exist

then i tried

mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1

and got

mount: mount point /mnt/hda1 does not exist

do i need to "define" a mount point, or something?

[OErjan]

to copy from a shell mark the text, move to the window you want the text in put the marker where you desire the text to be and click both right and left simultaniously (or mousewheel only on my logitech).

now to the mounting

the mount point is the directory you want the files to be in, must be empty.
the command

mkdir /mnt/hda1

will make that dinrectory (hda1 in dir /mnt), could be called /mnt/c or whatever (just change te mount to /mnt/c) or just /c even

mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1

should now work just fine.