Linux Cannot access /dev/hda ?

Just installed Fedora FC3, and keep getting thise error. As far as I can tell, everything is working (installed programs, internet etc), but I can't see any of my partitions on my hard drive. I'm a total linux noob, are these of any use?

hda1 = windows install, ntfs
hda2 = Fedora FC3, ext3
hda3 = swap
<Then there's ~80GB of (as yet) unformatted space at the end of the drive>

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# mount
/dev/hda2 on / type ext3 (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# /etc/fstab
bash: /etc/fstab: Permission denied

 

odd,. I'm not sure why root would be denied permission to /etc/fstab unless that's just a badly worded error. /etc/fstab is not an executable file - just text. Try "cat /etc/fstab" and see if you get any output. As far as mounting the ntfs partition, you'll want to do:
mkdir /mnt/windir
mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/windir

You can add a line to you fstab that will mount that partition on boot if you find out that you do have permission and that's a bad error like I'm thinking.

 

As SeT said the permission denied error is because you are trying to execute a non executable file. So just cat-ing it should do the job. When are you getting the 'cannot access /dev/hda' error? Sounds like you may be trying to mount /dev/hda (the entire drive) rather than /dev/hdaX (a partition on the drive)...

 

Thanks for the help

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/fstab
# This file is edited by fstab-sync - see 'man fstab-sync' for details
LABEL=/                 /                       ext3    defaults        1 1
none                    /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0
none                    /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0
none                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0
none                    /sys                    sysfs   defaults        0 0
LABEL=SWAP-hda3         swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
/dev/hdc                /media/cdrecorder       auto    pamconsole,fscontext=system_u:object_r:removable_t,ro,exec,noauto,managed 0 0

I get the error message when I try to browse to /dev/hda or hda1, hda2 etc. As I said, I'm a linux noob, so I don't really know if I should be doing that. I wasn't lieing when I said I had problems with linux & partitioning

EDIT: This also seems odd to me

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# mkdir /mnt/windir
[root@localhost ~]# mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 mnt/windir
mount: mount point mnt/windir does not exist

Also, a quick one: How do I change from GNOME to KDE?

 

As you seems to have found out now, in Linux you have to mount a partition before you can use it. The best way to think of it is that /dev/hda1 is the physical drive, and then to use it, you need to mount it in /mnt/whatever.

Oh and the reason your mount command didn't work is you need an extra '/', try this:

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/windir

Then you should be able to access your Windows stuff from /mnt/windir.

 

your fstab doesn't seem to contain any references to your /dev/hdaX things. You probably need to alter it (probably best to read the man pages or google, its a bit complicated to explain).

If you want to mount /dev/hda2 you need to

a)create somewhere for it mount
b)mount it (you can alter fstab to mount it automatically)

So, you could try

#mkdir /mnt/GIVE_IT_A_NAME
#mount -t ext3 /dev/hda2 /mnt/GIVE_IT_A_NAME

then you should be able to

#cd /mnt/GIVE_IT_A_NAME

and browse normally. Note that normal users won't be able to access these drives unless you give them permission. That's what fstab is for!!

Here is mine:

Code:

# <fs>                  <mountpoint>    <type>          <opts>                  <dump/pass>

# NOTE: If your BOOT partition is ReiserFS, add the notail option to opts.
/dev/hda2               /boot           ext2            noauto,noatime          1 1
/dev/hda4               /               reiserfs        noatime                 0 0
/dev/hda3               none            swap            sw                      0 0
#/dev/cdroms/cdrom0     /mnt/cdrom      iso9660         noauto,ro               0 0
/dev/cdrom              /mnt/dvd        iso9660         noauto,ro,user          0 0
/dev/cdroms/cdrom1      /mnt/cdrom      iso9660         noauto,ro,user          0 0

/dev/hda1               /mnt/c          vfat            noatime,user,uid=1000,gid=100 0 0
/dev/hdb1               /mnt/d          vfat            noatime,user,uid=1000,gid=100 0 0
# NOTE: The next line is critical for boot!
none                    /proc           proc            defaults                0 0

# glibc 2.2 and above expects tmpfs to be mounted at /dev/shm for
# POSIX shared memory (shm_open, shm_unlink).
# (tmpfs is a dynamically expandable/shrinkable ramdisk, and will
#  use almost no memory if not populated with files)
# Adding the following line to /etc/fstab should take care of this:

none                    /dev/shm        tmpfs           defaults                0 0
/dev/fd0        /mnt/floppy      ext2    noauto          0 0

HTH

Oh, and changing from Gnome to KDE can be fairly trivial, or a bit more complicated. If you are using GDM as your login manager then on the "Session" option you should be able to select KDE...

Sam

 

Sorry, I don't understand that

@Trigger:

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/windir
mount: fs type ntfs not supported by kernel

 

Hmm, that good be bad news. Try using 'auto' instead of 'ntfs' in that mount command. If that doesn't work, it may be that you don't have NTFS support in your Kernel, alas I haven't used FC3, so couldn't confirm this.

If that is the case, you will need to recompile your kernel. Which can be a bit of a slog but you get a great sense of achivement when done! Good luck!

 

iirc with fedora/redhat there is a update/patching thing kinda like yast so there may be an ntfs support patch for the kernel

 

The kernel probably won't need to be patched, it just will need ntfs modules compiled. Linux doesn't have very good ntfs support to be honest, and trying to write to an ntfs partition is not a good idea at all. Better to use fat32 if possible.

Tom, what I mean about GDM is the graphical login manager for Gnome. How do you login to your account at the moment? Does x start up automatically and you have a graphical login screen or do you just get a command prompt and then you type startx? If its graphical, there should be a "session" button. If you have kde installed then it should be available.

Cheers

Sam

 

Thanks, I'm on KDE now, which is slightly more familiar to me, always good

The thing is with ntfs, it works fine with knoppix. I could read all the files without even mounting anything manually. That was on version 2.4 of the kernel too, whereas this is 2.6 I think. So I'm sure it must have ntfs support. I am going to have a fat32 partition at the end of the drive (for media stuff), so that's cool. I don't need to access the windows partition from linux, but I know that I should be able to. It's a principle sort of thing...

@ Trigger - I still get the same message using the "auto" switch

I need to format the existing space at the end of the drive into FAT32, and I'll see if I have more luck mounting that. Windows won't format into FAT32 (it'll only do NTFS) and fdisk won't format it into a version that windows understands. I know I could use partition magic from within windows, but that doesn't understand ext3 partitions and always crashes when I try and start it. So I need a small program that can format empty space into FAT32. Any ideas?

 

What version of windows are you using? I'm sure you can format things into fat32 because I've done it before. Anyway, can you not just use fdisk from within your linux install? That will definitely let you do it.

As for ntfs support, you need to make sure the kernel has had the right modules built into it. The option will be there but not included by default in order to keep the kernel size down. You will need to find a guide to how to recompile your kernel---it's easier than it sounds.

If you want to look at what options the kernel has then you can do this (which will also be the first few steps in compiling the kernel. Be careful not to save anything unless you know what you are doing)

#cd /usr/src/linux
#make menuconfig

The ntfs thing will be hidden in there somewhere- I think "file system support" is one of the top level menus...

Sam

Sam

 

WinXP Pro. When I click on the D: drive in explorer, it tells me it needs formatting (even though it IS formatted into fat32 via fdisk). Hennyway, when I say "yes, i'll format it", it only gives the option for ntfs.

Doesn't work

 

Can you not use the format command from the command prompt in xp? I think that should let you do fat.

I had a wee google and it appears FC3 doesn't come with any kernel sources, which is why you can't recompile it. Have a look at these:

http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-fc3.shtml#kernelsrc
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-kernel-fc3.shtml

And see if that helps.

Cheers
Sam

 

Additionally, this post seems to suggest that all you need for ntfs support in FC3 is the right rpm. Probably easier than recompiling the kernel
http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?p=149025#post149025

Sam

 

According to wikipedia, FC3 doesn't come with NTFS enabled

As Uncle said, you can download an RPM for it.

To find out which RPM you want to download, check your kernel version with this:

Code:

$ uname -r

 

WindowsXP won't partition FAT32 larger than 32GB, and partition magic won't work on account of the linux partitions

 

Use fdisk from within fedora?

Sam

 

I fear fdisk will only create the partition; to format it you want something like:

Code:

$ mkfs -t vfat -F 32 /dev/hdaX

 

Ahh, good point. It's been a while

Sam