3 problems/annoyances with Linux:

[Trifid]

The first is one of my hard drives is not detected by it. It is a 250GB SATAII drive formatted to NTFS and nearly full that contains all my media (Music and videos) and is completely undetected by Fedora, (was the same for Ubuntu). I have a identical drive with Vista on that was connected during the install of Fedora which I can access just fine. Anything I need to do when adding a drive?

[root@MSHOME ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xcfcdcfcd

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 25 200781 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 26 9729 77947380 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbf786fa2

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 30402 244196352 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2052474d

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 ? 410 119791 958924038+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdc2 ? 121585 234786 909287957+ 43 Unknown
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdc3 ? 14052 14052 5 72 Unknown
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdc4 164483 164486 25945 0 Empty
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/dm-0: 77.6 GB, 77678510080 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9443 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-1: 2080 MB, 2080374784 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 252 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x30307800

Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table
[root@MSHOME ~]#

The extra drive I believe is SDC, but I only have one partition on there in Windows.

The second is sound. My M-audio 2496 is detected under sound, but not pulse audio volume control. No sound is outputted from it. The test sounds come out of my headphones connected to my onboard (ASUS A8N-SLI) when the 2496 is selected, but only using ALSA. When installing the m-audio drivers I get this error:

[root@MSHOME ~]# rpm -i oss-linux-v4.0-1016.i386.rpm
package oss-linux-v4.0-1016.i386 is already installed
[root@MSHOME ~]# rpm -e oss-linux-v4.0-1016.i386.rpm
error: package oss-linux-v4.0-1016.i386.rpm is not installed

Anything you can suggest? Edit: It appears now that I do not have the correct audio device (dsp2 instead of dsp). How do I force it to change over in CLI?

Thanks for the help.


And finally, multi monitor supports is terrible out of the box. Anyway to improve it?
I have 2 screens, a 19" secondary on the left which I like to throw windows to, i.e. Pidgin, music player, useful pop-ups. and then a 24" on the right as a primary. I don't mind the 2 Gnome bars, but the 19" one is terrible slow (along with right click on any windows on this screen. The 24" has a weird problem with a lack of top bar: http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/3448/screenshotko0.png to close/move the window. This appears to happen after a restart with desktop effects enabled. What can I do to improve/fix this? Fixed that one. All it required was

nvidia-xconfig --twinview

I would like to zoom out on the cube though. Makes it quite hard to rotate with 2 screens.

 

[Swanster]

Hi, for the second problem, try getting/running "envy24control"; I think it comes with alsa, so you may have it installed already. Go to the "Analog volume" tab in it, and set them all to max. After that, either goto monitor PCM's, and make sure they're unmuted, and at a decent volume, or goto "Patchbay / router" and set H/W out 1&2 to PCM.
That *should* give some sound.

As for the 1 & 3 problem, sorry, I have no idea!
Except to say that for the first problem, something looks very wrong indeed... Is the drive raided, or on a differant controller?

 

[Trifid]

Nope, hasn't fixed it. The only way I have got anything out of the M-audio was by "cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf> /dev/dsp".

I had the same problem on Ubuntu and fixed it by changing the device in a file but I can't for the life of me find it...

I think my HDD needs a format tbh. The drive was raided previously but is now not and formatted back to NTFS (slow format).

 

[Trifid]

I have disabled onboard in the BIOS and the soundcard works in Fedora but pulse audio volume control doesn't detect the card or any streams while playing music.

I would like to get the card working while onboard is active though (for headphones).

 

[jack.mitchell]

for your hard drive try mounting it through the command line, this will show any errors when mounting. If it mounts it correctly and everything works fine and dandy then search in google for adding a ntfs drive to your fstab file. If not post back the errors, and also search for forcing an ntfs drive to mount, this sometimes needs to be done due to windows shutting down incorrectly and messing up the file system flags.

 

[Dj_Jestar]

First problem seems to not be a problem? /dev/sdb1 is your 250GB ntfs partition.. open a terminal and type this:

mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 /mnt/<somefolder>

where <somefolder> is an existing folder that you wish to call it (perhaps media?)

Second problem is you are attempting to install an OSS (Open Sound System) package, which is not ALSA.. it's possible to have ALSA confiugred to support the OSS API, so look into that.

3rd problem I don't know about with nVidia, but fo ATi I use RandR to configure my monitors.

 

[Trifid]

The drive is SDD (I since connected my backups drive to access my media) atm and appears as unallocated in GParted.

[root@MSHOME Trifid]# mount -t ntfs /dev/sdd /mnt/media
ntfs-3g-mount: failed to access mountpoint /mnt/media: No such file or directory
[root@MSHOME Trifid]#

The sound quality is pretty poor in Fedora i.e. clipping is always obvious accept in the most quietest of music (I listen to classical music mainly to give you an idea of how quiet quiet can be. ). Is there a ASIO style driver available?

 

[Una]

The drive is SDD (I since connected my backups drive to access my media) atm and appears as unallocated in GParted.

Firstly your trying to mount to a directory which does not exist. Do something like

sudo mkdir /mnt/windows 
sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 /mnt/windows

sudo ls /mnt/windows  (to see if you can actually see your windows files)

Now the thing is you won't have access rights to read it as a normal user if you do this. Best way is to modify your /etc/fstab entries (and also make it so it works on boot), I can guide you through that if the above works.

The sound quality is pretty poor in Fedora i.e. clipping is always obvious accept in the most quietest of music (I listen to classical music mainly to give you an idea of how quiet quiet can be. ). Is there a ASIO style driver available?

I would start listening to heavy metal instead.

 

[Trifid]

[root@MSHOME Trifid]# mount -t ntfs /dev/sdd1 /mnt/main
ntfs-3g: Failed to access volume '/dev/sdd1': No such file or directory
Please type '/sbin/mount.ntfs --help' for more information.
[root@MSHOME Trifid]#

The drive needs a format. I will back it up fully and do that sometime in the week.


The clipping isn't so bad when using KDE and Amarok but is still there when the audio has been compressed (as such is the way with modern music). (I don't listen to just classical btw). I keep on getting M-audio 2496 has failed, reverting back to Pulse Audio though. (sound continues to play out of it though).

 

[Una]

[root@MSHOME Trifid]# mount -t ntfs /dev/sdd1 /mnt/main
ntfs-3g: Failed to access volume '/dev/sdd1': No such file or directory
Please type '/sbin/mount.ntfs --help' for more information.
[root@MSHOME Trifid]#

The drive needs a format. I will back it up fully and do that sometime in the week. The clipping isn't so bad when using KDE and Amarok but is still there when the audio has been compressed (as such is the way with modern music). (I don't listen to just classical btw).

You typo'd: /dev/sdb1

No worries, I would totally ditch the classical entirely

 

[MotherMayI]

Have you tried with the ntfs-3g drivers?

 

[Trifid]

I am and they work great on my other 2 drives formatted to NTFS. Just a point of interest really, but when in windows using WD diagnostic tool, it fails to run on the drive saying cable is unplugged and also claims it is formatted in FAT16. Which is impossible as I have a 7GB ISO (and several around the 3.5 to 4GB area) stored on there.

I would like to upload a picture of cycling through the sound devices but it doesn't seem to want to play ball...

 

[Una]

I am and they work great on my other 2 drives formatted to NTFS. Just a point of interest really, but when in windows using WD diagnostic tool, it fails to run on the drive saying cable is unplugged and also claims it is formatted in FAT16. Which is impossible as I have a 7GB ISO (and several around the 3.5 to 4GB area) stored on there.

I would like to upload a picture of cycling through the sound devices but it doesn't seem to want to play ball...

Im kinda lost now, did you try what I said? In your fdisk output you have got two 250gb disks with NTFS partitions /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdc1 (you don't have a /dev/sdd according to that fdisk output). I just assumed you wanted /dev/sdb1 mounted. Your /dev/sdc disk looks a bit screwed up though. I would run a scandisk on it as well.

 

[Trifid]

No, I have a installed my backup drive which contains mostly the same as the one I want to mount (oo err).

[root@MSHOME ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x24505205

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 30400 244187968+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xcfcdcfcd

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 25 200781 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 26 9729 77947380 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/sdc: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbf786fa2

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 30402 244196352 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdd: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2052474d

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 ? 410 119791 958924038+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdd2 ? 121585 234786 909287957+ 43 Unknown
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdd3 ? 14052 14052 5 72 Unknown
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdd4 164483 164486 25945 0 Empty
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/dm-0: 77.6 GB, 77678510080 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9443 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-1: 2080 MB, 2080374784 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 252 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x30307800

Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table