Hi, I am new user to Linux and just installed RedHat Linux 7.1 My system has single 20GB disk and it has 2 partitions 18GB NTFS and 2GB FAT. I installed Linux on 2GB partition. While I am installing, I was unable to make the 2GB FAT partition into Linux native file system. Finally I installed linux on FAT partition. I have couple of questions: 1. How to make FAT partition into linux native partition. First of all is it required to have linux native. or I can continue with this. 2. And also I didn't created /boot fs. Every time when I start the system, I need to insert the "Boot Diskette" to start Linux. Is there any way to avoid this. 3. If I run the command "df -k" to see all mounted file systems, I can see only /dev/loop1 only. Does it mean that there is no root file system. But, I gave 1.8GB for /root and 128MB for swap space. Can any one explain why it is not showing /root in "df -l". 4. How to configure the modem (Lucent made). 5. How to configure sound (CR4281). I am not hearing any sound from the speakers. Does the Redhat linux 7.1 provides default sound card drives. If not where can I found them. 6. How to access NTFS file system from linux and vice versa. Please provide any information on these questions.

1) easy way: fdisk /dev/hda and press m for options. Deleted the FAT partition and make a linux native partition. mke2fs -c /dev/hda1 2) because your drive has more than 1024 cyliders, LILO can't boot so you need the disk. Make your linux root partition bootable instead and install LILO in the root of this partition. 3) probably. when you boot from the floppy, make sure to mount your linux partition. 4) winmodem? good luck. there are drivers for some of them out there. Hardware modem: /dev/ttyS0 = COM1, /dev/ttyS3 = COM4. If you're using strange IRQs or COM5+, you'll need to read man setserial and /usr/doc/Linux-HOWTOs/Serial-HOWTO. Beyond this, the /dev/modem device is just a symbolic link to a regular serial device. If you don't know the port but are sure it's standard COM1 - COM4 with IRQ 4 or 3, just trying them and see if you get a hit. 5) Be sure sound is turned on. KDE and Gnome do not do this by default (for some reason). You just need to open the config manager and link system events with sounds. Better yet, try playing a CD. If that doesn't work, cat /proc/modules to see if your sound driver is loaded. In Red Hat, I'm not sure beyond this. 6) NTFS requires a module to be loaded. In Slackware it's in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules. or modprobe ntfs assuming the module is on your system (it should be if you didn't delete it). Afterward, just mount /dev/hda5 /mnt/ntfs -t ntfs. NTFS partitions are read only in linux.