A few questions regarding Linux

[Crownie]

I have been using Windows XP for sometime now, and have recently configured my system to dual boot both XP and Fedora Core 3. This is my third attempt at this since some time ago after Installing Fedora Core 2 I ran into a common bug which basically stuffed my MBR etc and I lost everything. Third time, everything has run smoothly I can boot into both OS's. I am total noob to Linux based systems and have a few questions that I am hoping users can help me out on:

Firstly, I cannot get my USB cable modem to work in Fedora. I have probed google etc and cannot find any easy to understand information on this issue.

Seconodly, I wish to play mp3's in Fedora and I'm having trouble finding support to play these files.

Regards,
Matt.

[masterofpuppets]

You shouldn't use any driver dependant USB devices on Linux cos most of them are designed for Winblows. You'd be better off getting an ethernet modem/router and connecting with that. It works just like a network too. Some routers have an HTTP based configuration which you can access from an IP address where you can setup ports, connections, etc. I recommend connection setups like that to most newbies. As for MP3's, is your soundcard supported by the kernel? What sound card do you have? The fedora website should have compatability information for most modern (and old) hardware. If you soundcard is working in Linux, and you are just wondering what to open MP3's with, find a little program called XMMS which comes with alot of Linux distributions. It's basicly Unix's version of Winamp. Oh, and if you want to keep your MBR clean and working, I would get a second disk, put the Linux disk as Primary Master or SATA1. Fedora should come with a boot manager called GRUB. You can set it up to have Windows on the list with some config editing which is quite easy. There should be some guides on the net. I don't work with systems that use GRUB so I can't tell you how to edit the config, but a quick Google search will help :)

[Tilmitt]

I'm running Fedora 3 too, how do i access my NTFS partition from it? It has all my mp3's etc

[smokey]

You can't reliably access an NTFS partition from Linux. It's possible to do it, but your data's integrity is highly questionable afterward.

[JohnFish]

no you can access (read) ntfs partitions but you cant write safely.

Tilmitt, if ntfs is supported by the kernel (i mean if you have it enabled) then a simple:
mount /dev/hd<X><P> <mountpoint> where X is the disk number (0 if its primary master, 1 if primary slave etc) of the disk containing all your mp3s and P is the partition number. So if you want access all your files existing in the primary master drive, first partition from a folder called local dummy then:

mount /dev/hda1 ./dummy
then cd dummy and you have all your mp3s

[Tatuya]

www.fedorafaq.org is a good source of some easy tutorials that allow you to learn how Fedora Core 3 works and what is what.

[sn34ky]

You can also set linux up to automaticly mount the windows partitions at system startup.
You can edit your file at: /etc/fstab
Just add these lines:

/dev/hdb1 /windows/d ntfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda1 /windows/c ntfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda2 /windows/e ntfs defaults 0 0

The /dev/hdaX are the partitions on the drive and the /windows/X folders are where they are mounted.
You have to create these folders up front.

If it doesnt work you can install the ntfs module for your kernel.
To do this you open up a console and enter: yum list available
Yum will then list all available packages, find the one called: kernel-module-ntfs-XXXXX
The x's stand for your kernel version.

Good luck