Very Computer

I'm currently using Mandrake 8.1 DE, and I noticed that despite
linux's huge number of utilities, there were a couple essential ones
missing. Specifically, is there a defragger in linux, like there is in
windows? I'm in the habit of defragging my windows drive frequently
(I've dual-booted), but I haven't been able to defrag the linux drive.
And on a similar note, I've noticed that there are some programs that
help free up RAM that is not being used in windows, are there any
similar programs in linux?

Also, I'm sure this has been asked before, but is there any way for me
to access my linux (ext2) drive in windows? I have one hard drive
which I partitioned between the two systems, and would like to be able
to access my linux files while in windows mode.

Thanks, KetoglutaricAcid

you need those programs under windows due to its poor design. no need
for them under Linux.

Quote:> Also, I'm sure this has been asked before, but is there any way for me
> to access my linux (ext2) drive in windows? I have one hard drive
> which I partitioned between the two systems, and would like to be able
> to access my linux files while in windows mode.

afaik there exists an ext2 driver for windows (or at least for ms-dos),
but i don't know where to find it (look at google).

the usual way of sharing files on a Linux/windows dual-boot system is to
have the files you want to share on the windows partition (if you use
NT/2000/XP i would recommend the use of a fat32 partition for this, as
ntfs write support is experimental under Linux) and access them from
Linux by mounting your windows partition.

hth

/Martin

no, there isnt. there is no need for one, because the linux file
systems are designed to minimize fragmentation. and more importantly,
on a multi-tasking, multi-user operating system, fragmented disk
*access* is much more an issue than fragmented files. and linux is
designed to handle that.

Quote:> windows? I'm in the habit of defragging my windows drive frequently
> (I've dual-booted), but I haven't been able to defrag the linux drive.
> And on a similar note, I've noticed that there are some programs that
> help free up RAM that is not being used in windows, are there any
> similar programs in linux?

no, again because linux is designed well. memory management is one of
the most important aspects of an operating system, and the sheer fact
that such a "RAM freer" is at all *possible* on windows shows it's a
badly designed OS. linux is designed to make optimal use of the
available memory.

what you will see is that a linux system uses almost all of the
available RAM. if there is more RAM than is needed for the
applications, the free memory will be used as disk cache: recently
used disk files are stored in RAM. that way, if they're needed again,
they can be accessed quickly. when you fire another app, requiring
more memory, the disk cache will be reduced.

Quote:> Also, I'm sure this has been asked before, but is there any way for me
> to access my linux (ext2) drive in windows? I have one hard drive
> which I partitioned between the two systems, and would like to be able
> to access my linux files while in windows mode.

there is: <http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm>

if you do a google search for `access ext2 from windows' or something,
you'll find more links.

HTH

--
Joost Kremers                           Is er leven op pluto
http://baserv.uci.kun.nl/~jkremers       Kun je dansen op de maan

On Mon, 22 Apr 2002 00:50:27 GMT, mjt

I hear this repeatedly from Linux advocates, that Linux doesn't
require defraging, that the file system "takes care of it."

Reminds me of Microsoft's claims when NTFS was first introduced, that
this new file system didn't need defraging because it's advanced
design made defragmentation "unnecessary." This of course turned out
to be waaay untrue.

Certainly NTFS *is* an advanced file system, supporting journaling,
mount points, compression, encryption, software RAID, etc, all while
maintaining performance levels that are comparable to or in some cases
better than FAT32. Despite all these "advanced" features NTFS still
requires defragging.

Can anybody explain in detail why ext2 doesn't need defraging?

What actual steps does the file system take when writing a file that
mitigate or prevent fragmentation?

--
Bob Young
Sr. Software Engineer
NuCore Technology Inc.
******************************
http://www.nucoretech.com/

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Well, that sounds good. No defragging or anything.
Yes, I think the easiest is to take the suggestion of placing the
files I want to share on the windows partition rather than the linux
one, since my windows drive is mounted automatically when the computer
starts up.

Two more issues:
(1) How do I mount an audio CD in my drive? I can read data CDs no
prob, and mount them using 'iso9660', but when I try to mount an audio
CD this way it gives the standard 'wrong fs, damaged, or mounted too
many times'.
(2) When I first installed mandrake, I told the computer to boot to
text&network mode. The command-line mode under mandrake was very nice,
had a nice size, and had features (I hope this was intentional) such
as slowing down how quickly the computer printed to the monitor so I
could pause 'ls' with 'ctrl-s', etc. When I reinstalled mandrake, with
a slightly different configuration, the text mode had a much lower
resolution (i.e., fewer columns/row per page), and didn't slow down
the printing to the screen at all. How do I change this option?

To listen to CD, you do not mount. Mounting is used to read file
systems. If you want to listen, you must connect to the device
directly using /dev/hdc (in my laptop, /dev/hdc represents the ATAPI
CDROM drive). Depending on your player, you must specify the device it
uses:
say you have a console player named foobar
#foobar /dev/hdc
this would load up the player using that cd device.
Why not mount? Well, mounting means using a device to read data that
is supposed to become part of the file system (/, the root tree). Yes,
to use a CDROM with an app/data on it, you need to mount it so you can
manipulate the data using the file abstraction layer. Audion CDs do
not have a file system, but are rather direct writes onto the CD of a
CDDA (Compact Disk Digital Audio) format. To read, the system must
simply pull the bits one by one (called a stream) from the device.
Remember, in UNIX, everything is a file, including devices.

Quote:> (2) When I first installed mandrake, I told the computer to boot to
> text&network mode. The command-line mode under mandrake was very nice,
> had a nice size, and had features (I hope this was intentional) such
> as slowing down how quickly the computer printed to the monitor so I
> could pause 'ls' with 'ctrl-s', etc. When I reinstalled mandrake, with
> a slightly different configuration, the text mode had a much lower
> resolution (i.e., fewer columns/row per page), and didn't slow down
> the printing to the screen at all. How do I change this option?

This probably has to do with framebuffer support. Not sure, never used
this. Sorry.

Excuse my lecturing, just trying to introduce you to *N*X, and you
seem to be anewbie. No disrespect intended :0)

Alex

to choose the number of columns/rows on the console, add
vga = ask
to you /etc/lilo.conf, and run lilo. then at boot time you'll be able to
choose the number of columns/rows used.
once you know which one you want, you can put it in lilo.conf vga = #,
where # is the number you choose (you'll get more info doing a man
lilo.conf)
this option must however be supported by your kernel.

hth

Martin