A few questions from another newbie
Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: A few questions from another newbie
started by: Tenks
Posted by Tenks on May 19 2006,05:11
I'm a big newbie to linux and am running into a few problems...My main problem is that within linux, I'm trying to view files on my usb pendrive and don't know how! (not used to the emelFM program and Linux's file system)
I know that my usb devices are on sdb and not sda. I guess my main questions are:
Do I have to mount the device in order to read from it (like files from a pendrive)? I think I know how to mount via another topic that I happen to see.
Where would sdb be in emelFM? Like what is the directory location? (example /dev/sdb?)
Basically, how do I view files on my usb pendrive?
thx
Posted by meo on May 19 2006,06:21
Hi Tenks!Open Emelfm and doubleclick on mnt in the right pane. You should then see sdb. Doubleclick on it and you should be able to see the contents.
Have fun,
meo
Posted by cbagger01 on May 20 2006,20:48
Unless you are booting from the same USB pendrive.Then you can find the files at:
/cdrom
Normally, to mount an additional thumbdrive, you would do this:
Open emelfm
Navigate to /mnt
Right-Click on the mountpoint (in your case "sdb1").
Choose "Mount" from the Right-click menu.
When finished using the drive, go back to /mnt
Right-Click on "sdb1" and choose "Unmount" from the menu.
Then you can safely unplug your thumbdrive.
Posted by Philosophicles on June 06 2006,00:44
Apologies for bumping this topic, but it seemed more sense than starting a new one... I've spent a while trying to find an answer, and not come up with anything yet, so thought I'd bother the forum people 
. Hi, by the way!I'm not a complete linux newbie, so I feel a bit silly for asking this, but:
Let's assume I've installed DSL on my pendrive. I then boot a PC into WinXP, with the pendrive not connected. Once in XP, I insert the pendrive. Will XP recognise the drive in the same way it would without DSL present, or has DSL changed the filesystem in some way to make the drive only recogniseable to a linux OS?
Essentially, I need to be able to use it like a NORMAL pendrive, for carrying files between home/work PCs, (some of which run XP and some of which run Linux), as a completely separate function to being a bootable drive for problem-solving etc. This is probably a very dumb question, one way or the other, but I have really struggled to find an answer!
Posted by mikshaw on June 06 2006,04:25
If the pendrive is formatted as ext2 or ext3 you will not be able to use it in windows without adding software to read linux partitions.If it's partitioned with 2 or more partitions, the primary partition must be a format that can be read with windows, either natively or with the additional software mentioned above. Any additional partitions will not be seen by windows regardless of the filesystem of that partition.
If the pendrive has a single fat 16 or fat 32 partition you should have no trouble reading and writing in windows.
Posted by Philosophicles on June 06 2006,13:52
So can DSL install onto a FAT32 partition? I'm thinking no...
Posted by cbagger01 on June 06 2006,21:54
DSL can be frugal or poorman's install on a FAT32 partition.But a full hard disk install must be done on a Linux partition like EXT2 or EXT3
Posted by u2musicmike on June 08 2006,19:13
I have a HD install of DSL 2.2 and a pendrive install of DSL 2.3 and I was going to move some files from my harddrive to my pendrive. I shouldn't have put the pendrive in before booting because this must have confused DSL 2.2 and I didn't have any icons and the video changed. After removing the pendrive I had to use the icon tool, xvesa, and restore hda2 to get back like it was. The only good thing about this is when I booted the pendrive on another machine it had all of my home/dsl files from the HD install.