Aha, I am back for the time being.
Accessing your windows hard drive can be a pain in the arse, which (I have to say) is mainly due to the file systems Windows uses (don't worry, I'll save the rant about how crap they are for another time).
If you've mounted your harddrives - cool. Personally, when I made my system, I arranged my HDD's and partitons so that all my windows progs were stored on an NTFS partiton, on the same disc as my Reiser FS Linux partiton.
All my documents are stored on a seperate FAT32 hard drive.
Unfortuately, most installers tend to be of the mid that you want to keep your windows and Linux worlds entirely seperate (this isn't totally stupid; to inexperienced users, it can have very vasty repercussions).
Now, what file system are you using for your documents? I would REALLY suggest you take it our of the windows partiton by the way. If you give yourself write access to your windows drive as your user, you can totally f**k up windows by accident. Move all your docs into a seperate partition (you can do what I did and use partition magic to reformat with data still on the drives, but obviously back up your data!)
Now, to your original problem - as your user login, you have no R/W access to your windows drive, right? I take it you're using windows XP or 2000...
Windows today uses two main file systems - FAT32 and NTFS. FAT32 is used ny Windows ME and older, whilst NTFS is used by windows XP and 2k. Whilst Linux can read NTFS fine, it is unreliable writing to it (this is because M$ won't release any documentation on the file system, so the Linux coders can't find out how the "write" commands function). So giving yourself write access to an NTFS partition is a bad idea.
If your data is on a FAT32 partition, Linux can read and write with no problem at all. But since FAT32 is a rather old format, it doesn't support the "file permisions" system that Linux and other UNIX systems use - so when you install, the installer errs on the side of caution and will only give root read AND write access - all other users won't be able to write.
To make matters worse, because of the way FAT32 is structured, Linux can't make other users gain R/W access just by clicking on the "change file permissions" box. In order to gain access to a FAT32 partition in a user login, you'll need to edit a small config file called fstab (file system table)...
This resides in /etc/fstab, and can be opened in an editor like gedit or whatever. You then need to find the device you are mounting (such as "hda1"), and add a umask string to it - typically umask=0 if you want every user to be able to access the drive and have rwx (read, write, execute) access to it.
The same can be done with an NTFS partition I believe, but obviously with the write access being dodgy you won't want to spend too much time mucing about with it...!
Just post your fstab settings up, and I can show you where to add the umask string if you want.
I'm glad to see you enjoying Linux... even if you just stick to the GUI's, I think you'll find it quite nice. But the real power comes when you start learning how to edit the config files and using the terminal... bwah ha ha ha hah!
Unfortunately, I am still working on that one...
Null, I don't know if you've tried them already, but I have found the USENET community a blast. Post to alt.os.linux.suse (if theer is one), be reasonably polite, and people will often tell you the reason for your problem and more often than not how to solve it. Also, plugging "linux howto *the-thing-you-want-to-do*" will bring back a slew of online howto's.
And now to the individual requests:
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i found a way to put a menu bar across the top of the screen. file, new, desktop, windows. help. Reminds me of the old Mac's i used....... Macs still have that?
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Yeah, both KDE and GNOME (I prefer GNOME myself - KDE tries too hard to be windows IMO) have options for a MacOS 9-esque interface. I don't know how KDE does with this, but I've also seen GNOME desktops that are indistinguishable from OSX (including the dock). This was put in cos lots of PPC users wanted Linux, but they liked the way MacOS did things... so lo it appeared.
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well unfortunatly the cheap ass linux manual doesnt cover this topic.
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Well, the things is SuSE, like most other distributors, makes money from providing support since they can't make it by selling you software... so bundled documentation doesn't tend to be exhasutive. However, a quick google and you're usually overrun with help pages (and there are probably plenty included on the distro CD's as well).
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i still don't understand y u spent u'r money on getting a linux os
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There are a couple of other reasons...
1) The boxed distributions often come with commercial software that ISN'T free... examples include StarOffice 6, and a few other commercial apps. These progs aren't included in the download versions, since SuSE/whoever has to pay to put them in their distributions.
2) Paying for a boxed distro means a small portion of the money you pay goes to SuSE so that they can spend money to improve things like the installers, the menu editors, blah blah blah. I would love to buy a boxed distro if I could afford it, but at the moment I can't (yes yes I know they're only about £40 for the basic versions, but the free version has everything I need for the moment!).
Many distributors also often donate to the FSF (the free software foundation) and other in order so that people can professionally campaign about the benefits of open source programs.
Just as a side note: be very, very careful if you ever have to reinstall Windows from the CD (copying an image from a hidden part of the HD tends to work fine). My friend tried to install XP (erm, legit version honest - he hates windows with a passion, and only uses it for games, and decided to upgrade cos some games were working pants on ME), and the installer nuked his Linux partitions... apparently, XP searches your HDD's and if it find sectors it can't read (i.e. almost every Linux file system there is), it marksthem as "bad" and reformats them, only this doesn't tend to work very well, and often f**ks up the windows install too.
So if windows ever crashes and burns, go in with Linux, hook out all the important files, burn them onto CD, and then try. I would wonder why M$ built an automatic "Linux destroyer" into XP, but I've already used most of my cynicism today.
Damnit, I think I'll start my rant from above. FAT32 and NTFS have a nasty tendency to cr@p out if there is a blip in power, resulting in a corrupt sector. If that sector happens to be a regsitry file, or similar, Windows is fscked.
On the other hand, you can pull the plug out of a Linux box that is writing to disk on a journalling file system (such as the excellent Reiser FS), and it won't care when you reboot. It'll just continue where it left off.
You may also note that Linux doesn't come with a defrag utility.
Linux, little help?
Linear Mode
