Few Qestions For Linux...

[keef247]

1, How do i view ntfs drives on unbuntu as when the latest iso is downloaded in the next hour or so i'm going to reformat and run that for awhile untill main rig is up and running... so i'll be wanting to access my music and vids on my ide drive and my 2 sata drives all in ntfs... how do i do this please? drives are weston digital and if you need exact model details just ask.

2, i have i CHEAP Aiptek DV cam thats a shoddy dv camcorder thing and a webcam all in one ...erm prolly not possible BUT might be... can i use this under ubuntu as a webcam on skype for linux? and how. its this cam i think its called "pocket dv digital camera, its the same as the one in this pic but black and silver i think that one might be slightly different model... any suggestions on a driver for linux would be genious as cheapy aiptek dont release much details as its very old...


3, How do i install skype for linux is it easy i havent read into it yet as just getting ready for linux...

thanks alot for any insight or suggestions to my querys.

[kalniel]

1. It's a simple case of mounting it in the fstab - it'll probably do it all automatically on install. I don't recommend you write to ntfs under linux though.

[directhex]

1, How do i view ntfs drives on unbuntu as when the latest iso is downloaded in the next hour or so i'm going to reformat and run that for awhile untill main rig is up and running... so i'll be wanting to access my music and vids on my ide drive and my 2 sata drives all in ntfs... how do i do this please? drives are weston digital and if you need exact model details just ask.

ubuntu 6.06 has read-only support for NTFS built in. just go into Places/Computer/yourwindowsdrivewhateveritscalled

2, i have i CHEAP Aiptek DV cam thats a shoddy dv camcorder thing and a webcam all in one ...erm prolly not possible BUT might be... can i use this under ubuntu as a webcam on skype for linux? and how. its this cam i think its called "pocket dv digital camera, its the same as the one in this pic but black and silver i think that one might be slightly different model... any suggestions on a driver for linux would be genious as cheapy aiptek dont release much details as its very old...

open a terminal window. type:

sudo aptitude install module-assistant
sudo m-a a-i spca5xx

that ought to make it just work - if not, type:

sudo bash
echo spca5xx >> /etc/modules

and reboot.

no promises, mind.

3, How do i install skype for linux is it easy i havent read into it yet as just getting ready for linux...

click the link, and open with GDebi (the default): http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-deb

[directhex]

1. It's a simple case of mounting it in the fstab - it'll probably do it all automatically on install. I don't recommend you write to ntfs under linux though.

works fine, as of the latest drivers (which aren't in ubuntu). see http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=83065

[kalniel]

Ooh that's new

Nice. Though I still don't recommend most users mount it read+write as it's quite easy to delete windows files in linux with nary a warning. Better to have a non-system data partition for that (which is still best to have as FAT32 until that becomes non-beta)

[keef247]

cheers.
does this apply to my sata drives aswell?

[directhex]

cheers.
does this apply to my sata drives aswell?

sata's no problem

[keef247]

cheers directhex your a big help.

[directhex]

cheers directhex your a big help.

a little more detail, just so there's no confusion:

there's no "standard" sata driver for any OS. for windows, for example, you need a driver for silicon image controllers, a driver for via controllers, a driver for promise controllers, etc etc etc. the same applies on linux.

ubuntu comes with a 2.6.15 kernel, which includes drivers for the following sata controller brands:

• sata_mv - Marvell SATA
• sata_nv - NVidia NForce integrated SATA
• sata_promise - Promise TX2/TX4/TX4000 SATA
• sata_qstor - Pacific Digital QStor SATA
• sata_sil - Silicon Image 3x12 series SATA
• sata_sil24 - Silicon Image 3124/3132 series SATA
• sata_sis - SiS integrated SATA
• sata_svw - Intel ServerWorks/Apple K2 SATA
• sata_sx4 - Promise SX4 SATA
• sata_uli - ULi integrated SATA
• sata_via - VIA integrated SATA
• sata_vsc - Vitesse VSC7174 SATA
• ahci - "Generic" SATA support, including new Intel chipsets
• ata_piix - Intel ICH5/ICH6/ICH7 support for slightly older chipsets

the correct driver will be loaded as required, as long as it's capable of using the hardware in question (i.e. if the hardware is too new to be mentioned in the supplied drivers, it cannot be used until you install a new kernel)

that's the long explanation. the short version still applies - I use SATA on my work machines and at home - but it explains things in a little more depth

[keef247]

mmm my crappy cam is even working.one thing thats not is my sata drives are detected as standard (haven't run any commands yet) but when i click on them i get "unable to mount the selected volume." then when I go on "show more details" I get the following "error: device /dev/sdb1 is not removable, error:could not execute pmount" this is a sata drive as i forgot to mention my asus a7n8x-x does not have sata so i have this and an ide drive plugged into a sata/ide pci card...the ide recieves the same style error... any ideas?
there is a bootup menu for the sata/ide card i could maybe go into or do i have to just try one of the above commands?
cheers for all your help so far.
oh and btw i think it must have been a windows problem in previous restart spazzes *touches wood* cause this is perfect.i'm even thinking of running it as my main os when i get a new socketA board at end of the week.

[directhex]

one thing thats not is my sata drives are detected as standard (haven't run any commands yet) but when i click on them i get "unable to mount the selected volume." then when I go on "show more details" I get the following "error: device /dev/sdb1 is not removable, error:could not execute pmount" this is a sata drive as i forgot to mention my asus a7n8x-x does not have sata so i have this and an ide drive plugged into a sata/ide pci card...the ide recieves the same style error... any ideas?

open a terminal, run the following:

sudo bash
echo "/dev/sdb1" >> /etc/pmount.allow

double-clicking the drive will mount it somewhere in /media - you can put a shortcut on your desktop if you like.

there seems to be a bug with non-removable devices and gnome and pmount all combined - double-clicking removable drives opens their contents in a new window, but not fixed drives.

[directhex]

i've crafted a better solution. i'll upload it this evening.

[keef247]

nah im now getting this mate
error: device /dev/sdc1 is not removable

error: could not execute pmount
remember these are on a sata/ide card but surely fact their appearing means its compatable with linux right?

[keef247]

the sata/ide card is http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-Port-SATA-RA...QQcmdZViewItem
might help.dunno where i could get drivers....any help?
cheers

[directhex]

first i'll explain the problems, and the solutions.

gnome uses a tool called "pmount" to 'mount' storage devices into arbitrary places in the /media folder. there are two problems here. firstly, pmount only allows you to mount devices which have been plugged in through USB. that's the error you're seeing - the override is to add the device name to pmount's override file, /etc/pmount.allow. in your case, the device is "/dev/sdc1", so you'd do the following:

sudo gedit /etc/pmount.allow

then add "/dev/sdc1" without any speech marks, one line per drive. add all your NTFS drives to this list, save, and quit. "sudo fdisk -l" will give a list of all partitions on a system, and the file system they use.

the second problem is that Gnome only knows whether a drive is already mounted or not (i.e. whether double-clicking should open a window or mount a drive first) from a system service called "hal". there's a bug in the version of hal supplied with Ubuntu 6.06, in that it doesn't make a note of partitions mounted using a mechanism called "FUSE" (i'll explain at a later date). the short answer here is: you need a newer version of hal, which is patched to understand FUSE partitions. What you really want here is for some enterprising soul to create a patched package for you...

do the following:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

add the following line, without speech marks: "deb http://apebox.org/badgerexplosion ./"

then run:

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude dist-upgrade

reboot, and you should now be completely sorted for double-clicking on drives in the Computer window to access their contents in a read-only manner. it'll add desktop icons too. I can also help with write access, if desired.

[keef247]

yeah that would be helpful as i wont be rocking my main rig till a weeks time so I'd like to download and save files to the drives borrowed from that rig. btw your explainations are really clear cheers for the help just about to try that.thanks again.