Mandriva’s simplicity over Ubuntu

I have been using Ubuntu for quite a few years and do admire its simplicity .Still a lot of simple operations neccessiate googling to find out the appropriate device file  to be edited.And  i wonder ,Ubuntu has been recommended for newbies !!!

Now to Mandriva .Ever since i installed Mandriva 2009 i seemed to like it … some inner feeling even before i began to use it.And as i began to use it , i felt that this is the right kind of OS for newbies who migrate to Linux from Windows. It saves time by integrating most of the controls to the Mandriva control center so that developers could  concentrate on the bigger picture.
A typical example i could point out is the case when i installed a software which i mistook for a Mandriva theme.What it did was to change my boot screen (dual boot selection Windows or Mandriva), replacing it with light colored fonts.I tried to find the appropriate file(a default reflex behaviour i was infected with when i was a ubuntuoer) to replace the default screen. On googling i found that this could be done easily by just selecting the required boot screen under the “boot” option in Mandriva Control Center.Simply stating , Mandriva is the right kind of Linux distro for newbies in Linux . I would be grateful if someone comes up with a nice guide for Mandriva similar to “Ubuntu Kung Fu” .

Mounting Windows partitions in Mandriva

( Always backup before attempting any tweaks. You are solely responsible for the result. The following tweak  worked well in my system and i believe it works fine in your system too. Patience pays ! Dont end up like an impatient guy like the one here. )

Question : I have a dual boot consisting of Windows and Mandriva.In Mandriva , only 2 out of 4 of my Win partitions show up.When i click on the other partition entries in the “Places” menu , i get the following error “cannot get volume.fstype.alternative” . Now how do i mount those partitions ?

Solution : The solution is simple . Before progressing through the mentioned steps , do backup to make up for the rare worst case probabilities.

Open the Mandriva control center (System->Administration->Configure your computer).

Then choose the “Local disks ” option.In that click on “Manage disk partitions“.

You will be shown a window containing all the Win partitions.

Click on the unmounted partition and when you do so , a list of possible operations would be listed to the right of the window .

Choose “Mount point” and in the pop up window that appears , enter /media/anyname . Where “anyname” can be a name of your choice. Repeat this for all the unmounted disks.

Finally when you quit the app , a message will popup  prompting “save the modifications to / etc / fstab ” .Click yes .

Reboot your system and Bingo !  you can now see the all the partitons mounted.

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