New user teething problems

[Pacificus]

I'm new to Mageia and have very little Linux experience. I've just installed Mageia onto a new 4TB HDD and am experiencing a few teething problems. I would be grateful for any solutions offered:

Firstly, my (brand new) 4TB HDD, which I am using as a boot drive, is recognized only as a 2TB HDD. What do I need to do to have the full capacity of the HDD realised in Mageia?

A IDE HDD is properly plugged into my motherboard, and acknowledged in the start-up screen (prior to boot) but is not recognised by the OS. Only my SATA drives are seen. How can I access this IDE drive?

And thirdly, how can I make windows (such as Firefox) full-screen by dragging them to the top of the screen, and exit full-screen by dragging them away from the top of the screen?

Thanks for any help.

[djennings]

Welcome. I hope I can help with at least some of your questions.

A IDE HDD is properly plugged into my motherboard, and acknowledged in the start-up screen (prior to boot) but is not recognised by the OS. Only my SATA drives are seen. How can I access this IDE drive?

It most likely has been recognised. If it is a windows formatted drive you may well find it is mounted under /media/windows.
If it is not there open your Mageia Control Centre Menu>Rools>SystemTools>ConfigureYourComputer

Select LocalDiscs>ManageDiscPartitions

You should see your drive listed there, and you can select a mount point for it, mount it, and save the configuration.

And thirdly, how can I make windows (such as Firefox) full-screen by dragging them to the top of the screen, and exit full-screen by dragging them away from the top of the screen?

That depends on which desktop you are using. Unlike Windows, in Linux you have a choice of desktops and they all have different features/capabilities.

I use the XFCE desktop and it does what you describe by default ( sort of ) The KDE desktop is very configurable and can very likely be made to do what you want.

https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Desktop_environments

[Pacificus]

Welcome. I hope I can help with at least some of your questions.


It most likely has been recognised. If it is a windows formatted drive you may well find it is mounted under /media/windows.
If it is not there open your Mageia Control Centre Menu>Rools>SystemTools>ConfigureYourComputer

Select LocalDiscs>ManageDiscPartitions

You should see your drive listed there, and you can select a mount point for it, mount it, and save the configuration.

Thanks. I found the drive listed and tried to mount it in a root folder. Unfortunately nothing appeared (other than a folder I created for it) and I still can't access the disc. I now am also unable to access one of my SATA HDDs, which does have a fault but is accessible via Mint DVD live boot.

I use the XFCE desktop and it does what you describe by default ( sort of ) The KDE desktop is very configurable and can very likely be made to do what you want.

https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Desktop_environments

I selected 'KDE' while installing Mageia. I'll see if I can figure out how to switch to XFCE. Thanks for that.

[Pacificus]

Unfortunately I am now unable to use Mageia at all. I'm currently running Mint from a DVD. I tried to put Mageia into hibernation mode but was unable to. Eventually it froze and I had to reset my motherboard. On attempting to boot Mageia I was met only with a black screen and command prompt, with which I have no idea what to do.

I am not off to a good start with Mageia. A few teething problems are one thing but this is ridiculous. I didn't even have this sort of problem with Windows, at least not on the first day of use. I'm trying to be patient but I don't think I'll be having a very long relationship with Mageia. Is Mageia only for Linux experts with programming knowledge? That's why I've been ignoring Linux for the past few years, because it's been impossible to use for non-programmers.

[nigelc]

Hello Pacificus,
Try and see what other paritions are on the 4 tb drive. Find the terminal. su [then enter root password]
go "/sbin/fdisk -l"
This should show the ide drives as well. The ide will be /dev/hd??. The sata will be /dev/sd??
Only do one thing at once.
cheers

[isadora]

...................

I am not off to a good start with Mageia. A few teething problems are one thing but this is ridiculous. I didn't even have this sort of problem with Windows, at least not on the first day of use. I'm trying to be patient but I don't think I'll be having a very long relationship with Mageia. Is Mageia only for Linux experts with programming knowledge? That's why I've been ignoring Linux for the past few years, because it's been impossible to use for non-programmers.

Pacificus, first welcome to the Mageia forum!!!!

The place where all those volunteers are meeting to exchange knowledge and
ideas.

And, of course there is place for some critical notes as well, but all in right
proportions please.
Nobody can be blamed or yelled at for anything, the only purpose we have in
common is to build our own free distribution in the best of our capabilities.
And so it all depends on free initiative and (shiploads of free) time.

So instead of kicking around, better change the energy for the positive, and
for example think about contributing
https://www.mageia.org/en/contribute/

Have magical times around!!!

[Pacificus]

Hello Pacificus,
Try and see what other paritions are on the 4 tb drive. Find the terminal. su [then enter root password]
go "/sbin/fdisk -l"
This should show the ide drives as well. The ide will be /dev/hd??. The sata will be /dev/sd??
Only do one thing at once.
cheers

Unfortunately I cannot use Mageia at all now. I tried, using the installation disc, to repair it but it made it even worse. However, I used Konsole in Mint but the coding you provided did nothing. I already managed to find partition info on the 4TB HDD and there is a big chunk of it unused. I tried to use Mint to give it some life but nothing happened.

Thanks.

[Pacificus]

Pacificus, first welcome to the Mageia forum!!!!

The place where all those volunteers are meeting to exchange knowledge and
ideas.

And, of course there is place for some critical notes as well, but all in right
proportions please.
Nobody can be blamed or yelled at for anything, the only purpose we have in
common is to build our own free distribution in the best of our capabilities.
And so it all depends on free initiative and (shiploads of free) time.

So instead of kicking around, better change the energy for the positive, and
for example think about contributing
https://www.mageia.org/en/contribute/

Have magical times around!!!

Thank you.

Being a non-programmer all I can do to contribute is to criticize and share my opinion as to how I think things should be done. If I came across earlier as being rather acerbic then please attribute that to frustration. I bought my PC around four years ago and, despite using many different OSs, two different CPUs, two different motherboards and two different GPUs, as well as different RAM, it has never worked properly and I have had years of sluggish computing building up frustration within me. And now I am having problems with Mageia, straight after discovering a motherboard I bought a year ago is faulty and always has been. I have had almost zero luck with computers and it doesn't even matter how much effort or money I throw at the problem – the situation doesn't improve.

I see GPUs advertised costing four-figure sums, but I know if I were to buy one it wouldn't make any difference whatsoever. As for LInux: I'm unhappy because, especially in the past, all the distros I've tried have clearly been made by programmers for programmers, and anyone that doesn't know the ins and outs of LInux hasn't a hope in getting it to do anything. This most recent problem I've been experiencing shows that, fundamentally, very little has changed. I wish I was taught programming at school and I also wish I had a computer as a child, but my parents didn't think it necessary so I grew-up ignorant instead.

I have a feeling I'm going to have to load Windows in order to be able to even access the boot HDD properly in order to remove the non-functioning Mageia. I hope not, but there's certainly nothing I can do with it at the moment. I'm gong to install Mint onto the HDD, or try to. If the Mageia developers are to gain anything from me it would be the request to please improve the fundamentals of the OS so that these ridiculous scenarios are avoided, and that using the repair facility on the installation disc doesn't actually make matters worse! If we are to evolve as a community we need to make things that are easily understood and used by the non-initiated; i.e. things need to be user-friendly and assume extremely little previous experience/prior knowledge.

[viking60]

I do agree that things should be easy and work out of the box for everyone. And I can understand the frustration over the "everybody are doing this voluntary" speech that does not help you any further.
Having said that; I thought that Mageia and Mint offered exactly that They are considered to be among the very user friendly distros.
You could try Ubuntu because they have the possibility for paid support which should give you the right to demand the result you are paying for. Ubuntu charges 105 dineros per desktop per year for taking care of it.

Maybe someone will start a business like that for Mageia - who knows (kind of a "not doing it voluntary and allowed to yell at" department) ?
I guess you could suggest it....