Mounting

I have a large drive containing both MP3s and my photographs. I have previously mounted the whole disk into the arbitrarily named /HDD-directory in /home. You need root privileges to mount:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /home/adder1972/HDD

I decided I wanted to replace my HDD-directory with a /MP3 and a /Pictures directory.

I discovered the "mount --bind"-command, which according to the man-pages enables you to "Remount a subtree somewhere else (so that its contents are available in both places)."

So, I made my two new directories, and now I mount my large harddrive like this:

sudo mount --bind /media/sda1/Pictures /home/adder1972/Pictures
sudo mount --bind /media/sda1/MP3 /home/adder1972/MP3

Modifying /etc/fstab (*see note) would allow for automounting these directories. The way to do this is by adding:

/media/sda1/Pictures /home/adder1972/Pictures none bind 0 0
/media/sda1/MP3 /home/adder1972/MP3 none bind 0 0

at the end of fstab. Since the "bind" command only re-mounts part of your drive, you cannot remove the original command to mount your drive, which is already in your fstab, i.e.:

/dev/sda1 /media/sda1 none 0 0

Run mount -a to have it take effect immediately.


* Note: Always remember to backup/copy the file you want to modify.
In order to edit fstab, type

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

at the command line (if you are using the "gedit" text editor).

Ubuntu widescreen resolution 1440x900

I have bought a new Samsung SyncMaster 940BW. To get the correct resolution in Ubuntu, I had to edit my xorg.conf-file.

I found the correct settings in the Ubuntu Forums.

Remember to back up your old xorg.conf-file before editing.

xorg.conf is located in /etc/X11

Arch Linux 2007.8

I have started trying out Arch Linux. Really fun to try out a Linux distro that makes you install and tweak nearly everything. It takes quite a lot of time and reading to get going, but it is really rewarding.

I have tried to install it on my main Linux-box, but I am having some issues with my network-settings. However, in VirtualBox it runs really well.

I have used four great resources for my install:

• The Arch Linux Wiki
• The Linux Install Podcast, episode 37: Arch Linux part 1
• The Linux Install Podcast, episode 38: Arch Linux part 2
  
• Linux Reality Podcast, episode 70: Arch Linux

I had a lot of challenges installing Arch. You need to do a lot of manual configuring to get it to work properly. However, it gives you a great insight into how the OS works.

Edit: I've solved the network issue on my main box, thanks to Ed Labonte's comment at the end of his Linux Install Podcast, part 1.