Fedora Core/XP dual boot config & mounting secondary HDD

[spyderv1.2]

Two part question. Newly using Linux Fedora Core.

1. Editing GRUB boot loader.
Upon booting PC, Linux Fedora Core splash screen appears, I have 3 seconds to press any key to get default boot options screen, from which I am successfully able to enter XP. I was just wondering if there is a way to automatically default to boot into boot options screen, instead of having to press a key to choose an Operating System. Picky, I know...I've only been able to alter this to a certain amount of time through the GRUB config GUI utility.

2. I definitely can't seem to mount my secondary hard drive so that I can access it through Linux. I ran "cat /proc/partitions" and found that my secondary HDD is vfat, /dev/hdb. I created a folder inside of the root to read "Stuff". I then ran the following command in the terminal "mount -t vfat /dev/hdb /Stuff". Also, I modified /etc/fstab and inserted an entry to read:
/dev/hdb /Stuff vfat defaults 1 1
The problem I'm having is that upon entering the command into Terminal, I receive an error that too many filesystems/partitions exist on this hard drive. I have XP (one partition), and Linux as 3 seperate partitions, to include: "/", "swap", "/usr".

here is the result of cat /proc/partitions:

[root@localhost ~]# cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name

3 0 39082680 hda
3 1 9213246 hda1
3 2 7164990 hda2
3 3 16563015 hda3
3 4 1 hda4
3 5 5116671 hda5
3 64 245117376 hdb
3 65 1 hdb1
3 69 245103673 hdb5

Here is the result when I try mount -t vfat /dev/hdb /Stuff:

[root@localhost ~]# mount -t vfat /dev/hdb /Stuff
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdb,
or too many mounted file systems

I also tried to mount hdb5, with the same result. I also tried to mount hdb1, with a slightly different result, as if it were trying to hint something at my noob brain that I couldn't comprehend...

[root@localhost ~]# mount -t vfat /dev/hdb1 /Stuff
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdb1,
or too many mounted file systems
(aren't you trying to mount an extended partition,
instead of some logical partition inside?)

Any help on this matter is greatly appreciated!

[Skiboy]

Post the out out put of fdisk -l and sfdisk -l.

[spyderv1.2]

Post the out out put of fdisk -l and sfdisk -l.

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 1147 9213246 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 1148 2039 7164990 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda3 * 2803 4864 16563015 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda4 2040 2802 6128797+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 2040 2676 5116671 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/hdb: 251.0 GB, 251000193024 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30515 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 2 30515 245103705 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdb5 2 30515 245103673+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

[root@localhost ~]# sfdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 77545 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors/track
Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary.
DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently.
Warning: The partition table looks like it was made
for C/H/S=*/255/63 (instead of 77545/16/63).
For this listing I'll assume that geometry.
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 0+ 1146 1147- 9213246 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 1147 2038 892 7164990 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda3 * 2802 4863 2062 16563015 7 HPFS/NTFS
start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,254,63) found (1023,0,1)
/dev/hda4 2039 2801 763 6128797+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 2039+ 2675 637- 5116671 83 Linux
Warning: start=63 - this looks like a partition rather than
the entire disk. Using fdisk on it is probably meaningless.
[Use the --force option if you really want this]

[devils casper]

1. Editing GRUB boot loader.
Upon booting PC, Linux Fedora Core splash screen appears, I have 3 seconds to press any key to get default boot options screen, from which I am successfully able to enter XP. I was just wondering if there is a way to automatically default to boot into boot options screen, instead of having to press a key to choose an Operating System. Picky, I know...I've only been able to alter this to a certain amount of time through the GRUB config GUI utility.

login as root and open /boot/grub/grub.conf file. look for line 'hiddenmenu'. put # sign before it. GRUB menu will appear without press any key on next boot.

2. Fedora doesn't support NTFS read access out of box. install kmod-ntfs to enable NTFS read access.

yum -y install kmod-ntfs

for NTFS read/write access, check this link.





Casper

[spyderv1.2]

login as root and open /boot/grub/grub.conf file. look for line 'hiddenmenu'. put # sign before it. GRUB menu will appear without press any key on next boot.

2. Fedora doesn't support NTFS read access out of box. install kmod-ntfs to enable NTFS read access.

yum -y install kmod-ntfs

for NTFS read/write access, check this link.





Casper

I successfully altered GRUB...so we've got that one knocked out. I'm still having problems with the secondary HDD. I tried 3 different commands in Terminal to allow NTFS, but none worked. Here is the result:

[root@localhost ~]# yum -y install kmod-ntfs
Setting up Install Process
Setting up Repos
base 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00
updates-released 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
Reading repository metadata in from local files
base : ################################################## 2622/2622
updates-re: ################################################## 910/910
Parsing package install arguments
No Match for argument: kmod-ntfs
Nothing to do

**********************
[root@localhost ~]# yum -y install ntfs
Setting up Install Process
Setting up Repos
http://fedora.gtlib.cc.gatech.edu/pu...ta/repomd.xml: [Errno 4] IOError: HTTP Error 404: Not Found
Trying other mirror.
base 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00
http://fedora-mirror.dkuug.dk/linux/...ta/repomd.xml: [Errno 4] IOError: HTTP Error 404: Not Found
Trying other mirror.
updates-released 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
Reading repository metadata in from local files
base : ################################################## 2622/2622
updates-re: ################################################## 910/910
Parsing package install arguments
No Match for argument: ntfs
Nothing to do

***********************

[root@localhost ~]# yum -y install ntfs3-g
Setting up Install Process
Setting up Repos
base 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00
updates-released 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
Reading repository metadata in from local files
base : ################################################## 2622/2622
updates-re: ################################################## 910/910
Parsing package install arguments
No Match for argument: ntfs3-g
Nothing to do

*****

So, all seem to have produced an error result. As in fact seemingly proved by this output:

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

Any ideas?

[Juan Pablo]

You need the Livna repo enabled

As root
rpm -Uvh http://www.fedorafaq.org/yum http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-6.rpm

Check this for a lor of useful stuff http://www.fedorafaq.org

[spyderv1.2]

Fixed!

I had to download and install FUSE http://fuse.sourceforge.net/ before I could get NTFS-3G to properly install...which I still couldn't do through terminal with yum. I got it from http://wiki.linux-ntfs.org/doku.php?id=ntfs-3g and used the instructions on that page to mount the drive. Also, turns out my secondary HDD is /dev/hdb5...

Thanks very much to everyone who contributed...this seriously feels like a great accomplishment...so much that I got up and danced when I found it was successful...lol.

Again, thanks!

-Spyder

[devils casper]

Well Done !!






Casper