Chris Tyler - Fedora Linux

0 Empty 1e Hidden W95 FAT1 80 Old Minix be Solaris boot

1 FAT12 24 NEC DOS 81 Minix / old Lin bf Solaris

2 XENIX root 39 Plan 9 82 Linux swap / So c1 DRDOS/sec (FAT-

...(snip)...

9 AIX bootable 4f QNX4.x 3rd part 8e Linux LVM df BootIt

a OS/2 Boot Manag 50 OnTrack DM 93 Amoeba e1 DOS access

b W95 FAT32 51 OnTrack DM6 Aux 94 Amoeba BBT e3 DOS R/O

c W95 FAT32 (LBA)52 CP/M 9f BSD/OS e4 SpeedStor

e W95 FAT16 (LBA) 53 OnTrack DM6 Aux a0 IBM Thinkpad hi eb BeOS fs

...(snip)...

1c Hidden W95 FAT3 75 PC/IX

Hex code (type L to list codes): c

Changed system type of partition 1 to c (W95 FAT32 (LBA))

Command (m for help): t

Partition number (1-4): 2

Hex code (type L to list codes): c

Changed system type of partition 2 to c (W95 FAT32 (LBA))

Write (save) and exit:

Command (m for help): w

The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl( ) to re-read partition table.

Syncing disks.

The partition type used, c , indicates that the partition will contain a FAT filesystem. This enables compatibility with Windows and Mac OS X systems and is also necessary for most camera flash-memory cards and digital music players.

Once the partitions have been created, they can be formatted with mkfs :

# mkfs -t vfat -n spreadsheet -F 32 /dev/sdb1

mkdosfs 2.10 (22 Sep 2003)

# mkfs -t vfat -n database -F 3 2 /dev/sdb2

mkdosfs 2.10 (22 Sep 2003)

You may need to remove and reinsert the drive to force the kernel to load the new partition table before you can format the partitions.

The option -F 32 forces the use of 32-bit file allocation tables, which is not strictly necessary for drives under 512 MB in size but is required for larger drives and matches the filesystem type assigned to the partition by the previous fdisk command. The -n labelname option sets the filesystem label, which will be used to determine the mount points for the filesystem.

If you have ever used your USB drive without a partition table (formatting /dev/sda instead of /dev/sda1 , for example), erase the master boot record (MBR) before partitioning to prevent udev from later detecting the drive as unpartitioned and mounting it incorrectly:

# dd bs=1k count=1 if=/dev/zero of= /dev/sdb

You can use ext2 or any other filesystem on a USB storage device, but that will reduce compatibility with other systems. To format the partition /dev/sdb2 with an ext3 filesystem:

# mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdb2

Automatically mounted storage media are mounted to the directory /media/ if the filesystem has a volume label, or to /media/disk<-N > if there is no volume label, where <-N> is a sequentially assigned number (the first disk mounted is simply called /media/disk ).

When you're in runlevel 3 (character mode), your USB storage devices won't be automatically mounted. You can still use USB storage; you just have to mount it by hand:

# mkdir /mnt/usbdisk1

# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbdisk1

The SCSI disk IDs are sequentially assigned (the first USB disk found since boot is /dev/sda , the second is /dev/sdb , and so forth) but you may need to experiment to find the right value.

When you're done with the storage device, unmount it before unplugging it:

# umount /mnt/usbdisk1

The unmount command is spelled umount ; there's only one n .

 The USB Implementors Forum, Inc. (USB standards): http://www.usb.org/home

 The Linux USB project: http://www.linux-usb.org/

 The Udev project: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev.html

 Fedora documentation on Udev: http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/udev/

 The GNOME and KDE online manuals

Notebook systems are becoming more like desktop systems with each generation, and many notebooks have CPU, memory, disk, and video capabilities that make them true desktop replacements. But the compact, mobile nature of notebooks requires more complex configurations in order to handle power management, mobile networking, and frequently changing hardware configurations.

Many of the topics in this chapter apply to both desktop and notebook systems (and, to a lesser extent, server systems), but become more complex in a mobile environment.

When you're on the go, you have to carry your power with you. Notebook power management therefore receives a lot more attention than desktop power management, even though attention to these issues on the desktop can result in significant savings in electrical costs, system wear, and heat production.

For many years, power-management interfaces have been proprietary and required custom software supplied by the hardware vendor in order to function well (even when they purportedly adhered to industry standards). The situation is slowly improving, and Fedora contains good tools for power management on well-behaved systems.

Fedora uses the Advanced Configuation and Power Interface (ACPI) specification to monitor and manage the current power configuration. This approach requires support from the motherboard and CPU as well as the operating system; fortunately, most systems built in the last decade have some level of ACPI support, though many BIOS implementations are nonstandard.

Fedora's main power-management tool is gnome-power-manager . You can access the gnome-power-manager configuration window using the menu option System→Preferences→More Preferences→Power Management.

Fedora Core does not include the KDE ACPI modules. However, you can use gnome-power-manager in KDE by starting it manually: press Alt-F2 or open a terminal, and type:

$ gnome-power-manager

A second power-management icon will appear in the KDE panel. You can disable KDE's icon through the Control Center menu option; go to Power Control→Laptop Battery and deselect the checkbox labeled "Show battery monitor."

gnome-power-manager will automatically be started next time you enter KDE.

The same program controls the power-management icon in the panel bar, which may or may not appear depending on the system configuration (it will usually appear by default on a system that has a battery, including most notebooks, but will not appear by default on a system with no battery). The symbol used for the icon will change according to the power supply: it will show a battery when discharging the battery, a battery plus a power cord when charging the battery, or just a power cord on a system with no battery. You can access the gnome-power-manager configuration window by right-clicking on the icon and selecting Preferences.