On Wed, 10 Jul 2002 12:19, civileme wrote: > Adrian Burd wrote: > >>>>>>"et" == et <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > > et> On Tuesday 09 July 2002 04:50 pm, you wrote: > > >> I'm just wondering, but does one ever get a reply from Mandrake > > >> Support? I purchased a Mandrake 8.2 boxed set which is means to > > >> have online support. I went to the website and filled out the > > >> forms and put in a request. That was 4 days ago. Should I give > > >> up or wait some more? Has anyone else had any experience with > > >> Mandrake support? > > >> > > >> Thanks > > > > et> My bet was for some reason they could not reply (like a typo > > et> in your e-mail address) but what was the problem.... > > > >I've double checked that and I got a standard reply back by email when > >I registered, so I don't think it can be that. I'll check again though. > > > > > > et> we would all love to have a real problem to chew on... > > > >Well, I asked here a couple of days back and got a couple of replies which > >didn't work out unfortunately. > > > >The problems is this: > > > >System: Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop > > > >I put Mandrake 8.2 Powerpack edition on it as the sole OS (no dual > >booting this baby - though I might put VMWare on it later). I must say > >that the install was seamless (it even had a pretty recent NVIDIA > >driver). > > > >The machine came with a CD-ROM installed and a module bay which can > >house a CD-RW, a ZIP-250 or a Floppy. I installed Mandrake with the > >CD-RW installed. > > > >If I shutdown, take out the CD-RW and put in say, the ZIP drive, and > >reboot, I cannot access the zip drive and attempting to do so hangs > >the process (though fortunately not the machine). > > > >So, the problem of the day is, how to get the machine to recognize > >when I plug in a different piece of hardware into the module bay and > >have that piece of hardware work. Any ideas? > > > >Thanks for all your help. > > > >Adrian > > > > > > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > >Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? > >Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com > > Hmm, > > Well, your devices and filesystems must be set up in /etc/fstab. devfs > will mount what is there except that the ZIP and the CDRW and the Floppy > may all be sharing an ide designation., like /dev/hdc. > > so, when you boot with CDRW, the append line of your boot should contain > > hdc=ide-scsi (I am guessing on the hdc--never seen a Dell 8100 which > has other multiple issues with mandrake 8.2 regarding powersaving and > failure to wake up, thanks to a broken BIOS, but you can get the device > designator from /etc/lilo.conf > > to enable scsi emulation for the CDRW. ide-scsi works only for CDs, > DVDs, and CDRWs as does the ide-cd module. > > ide-floppy would handle the floppy unless it were a genuine floppy > interface (There would be a second plug in the bay) > > and ide-scsi of course won't work with the ZIP250. > > OK what you have is a device that is not set up to be switched by > hotplug or devfs, but which uses a customized version of windows which > is set to detect and adjust to whatever is plugged in. > > You can do that with linux, but it is no small task. You need separate > boots for each case and not enough of the system is in at boot to do the > autodetection and adjustment, so you have to set up the boots yourself > and select the one appropriate to your installation. Once you have > booted one of the three, there needs to be a script called before > /etc/fstab is read which commonts out all but one of the lines below... > > /mnt/zip /mnt/zip supermount dev=/dev/hdc4,fs=auto,sync,unhide 0 0 > /mnt/cdrom /mnt/cdrom supermount > dev=/dev/scd0,fs=iso9660,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0 > /mnt/floppy /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,sync,unhide 0 0 > > That third line assumes that the floppy does have a separate connector > in the bay and is a genuine floppy interface. > > Well only ONE of those lines can be present in the /etc/fstab that is > read, so before it is read, in the file > > /etc/rc.sysinit > > You need to call a routine (which should reside as a root-executable in > /sbin, because that is all that is accessible when it is called) > which does the surgery on the file /etc/fstab. > > Now this needs to be done before any other filesystems are mounted but > after / is remounted read/write. > > That is very difficult to achieve, because all that is available is the > shell or a binary at that time, and this is not an easy shell script. > > An alternative is to keep all three commented out in /etc/fstab and have > /etc/rc.local call a script which uncomments the appropriate line and > also asks for a mount which forces the /etc/fstab entry to promote to > the supermount table. > > I have a sample here which was used to dual-boot a cantankerous CDRW > that did not want to play audio CDs under SCSI emulation. The > principles should apply to the sort of script you need. There would be > a couple of hours coding and testing _with_your_machine_ to make sure it > works corectly. > > #!/usr/bin/env python > ################################################################ > # Flipper program for dualbooting bad CDRWs one as audio > # the other as burner > # Copyright 2002 by Civileme@mandrakesoft INC > # Licensed under GNU GPL2 See www.fsf.org for license details > # FREE SOFTWARE > ################################################################# > > import os > import sys > import string > import popen2 > def complain(streeng): > print > print streeng > print > print 'What do you want me to do with that?' > print > sys.exit(1) > print 'Welcome to dualbootRW' > jade=open('/etc/fstab','r') > pearl=open('/etc/extab','w') > J=jade.readlines() > ix=popen2.Popen3('/sbin/lsmod | grep ide-scsi') > G=ix.fromchild.readline() > if string.find(G,"ide-scsi")<0: > idecd=1 > else: > idecd=0 > for X in J: > i=string.find(X,"/mnt/cdrom") > if i>=0: > if i==0: > X="#"+X # Add the commenting out so they start same > if idecd==1: > if string.find(X,"/dev/scd")<0: #audio and not the scd line > X=X[1:] #uncomment > else: #burner boot > if string.find(X,"/dev/scd")>=0: # burner and found burner line > X=X[1:] > pearl.write(X) > > pearl.close() > os.system('mv /etc/fstab /etc/fstab~') > os.system('mv /etc/extab /etc/fstab') > os.system('mount /mnt/cdrom') > > # end of program dualbootRW > > > Now you know why support did not answer. This is a little more involved > than what is covered by support, and they would hate to be the bearers > of such bad news.. If you want a cause, blame the manufacturer, who > made these very non-standard dodges to fit everything into a little box > then covered the non-standardness with windows driver software and by > preinstalling the system already configured. > > Civileme
This may be a newbie question in itself instead of an answer. What about a lilo stanza for each? It would not be hot pluggable but it would do at a pinch. -- Michael
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
