labels for hard drive partitions

[BrotherAdam]

I know I am new to this language, etc... but can I ask why there is no way to label the partitions unless they are windows partitions... Fat... I mean, I am running several partitions and trying to remember that sdax is the partition for mageia and sday is the partition for ubuntu is hard for me... I have a fat partition that shows in all versions of Linux as My Files, as that is what I named that partition when I created it, so I can share the same files between versions... but I really want to know, and it probably is handled somewhere but I cannot find it yet, how do I create a file system that keeps my basic files safe and usable between all forms of linux as I figure out which one I want to use, and experiment with stuff... I tried a separate sda but when I tried to automount it, it was being renamed by each version. Thus it created an error for automounting in the other versions...

Thank you.

[jkerr82508]

You can set volume labels using drakdisk expert options:

http://doc.mageia.org/mcc/4/en/content/drakdisk.html

Scroll to the end of that page.

Jim

[BrotherAdam]

which agin brings up my point... the windows ones you can label but the linux (EXT3 or 4) only seem to allow home, swap. or such. I have two swap partitions for some reason, and still have no idea what home does, as none of the three versions I am running have labeled a drive as such. Will /Home be acceptable as a drive to more than one version of linux? or do I need to continue using windows file space for my files I share between the differing versions. I guess I would like more to figure out how to combine all the versions so I can switch from one to the other, since they all share the same kernals, if I am reading right, and it is the differences that make the little places I enjoy and switch to... other tahn the fact the cookies loaded by sites such as the NYtimes and other newspapers seem to be bypassed by having more than one version to switch to...

[jkerr82508]

You seem to be confusing labels with mount points. You can use anything you like as a label. Mount points determine how the partition is used. The sytem partiton, no matter how it is labelled is always mounted as / (called root). If there is a separate home partition defined, it will always be mounted as /home.

Partitions for linux installations other than the running system will appear in the file manager identified by the label that you assigned (if any). For example I have a system on which I run Mageia 3, Mageia 4 and cauldron (the development release). The hard drive (which happens to be /dev/sdb) is partitioned as follows:

Code: Select all

Partition           Label

/dev/sdb1           root3
/dev/sdb5           swap   
/dev/sdb6           home3   

/dev/sdb7           root4   
/dev/sdb8           home4   

/dev/sdb9           root-dev
/dev/sdb10          home-dev


I have configured Mageia 3 so that when I boot Mageia 3 the partition labelled root3 is mounted as / (root) and home3 as /home. The other partitions are accessible through the file manager by label name, home4 etc. I have configured Mageia 4 and cauldron in an equivalent manner. (All three installations use the same swap partition.)

Different linux distributions are separate operating systems. You cannot "combine" them. You can have several distributions on one computer in a multi-boot set up, but you need to reboot in order to switch from one to another.

The system partition / (root) must be unique to each installation and cannot be used with other installations. It is possible to use the same partition as /home in more than one system, but this can often create compatibility problems, and is usually not advisable.

If all you want to do is share documents, pictures etc among different systems it is probably best to create a separate partition for those, labelled appropriately, which can be mounted in each system as /home/data, for example.

You may find it best to stick with one distribution until you are familiar with the basic concepts of linux systems. Multi-booting different linux systems is not IMHO the best way for newcomers to learn about linux. To "try out and compare" use Live CD or Live DVD versions. Most linux distributions, including Mageia, offer several:

http://www.mageia.org/en/downloads/

Jim

[doktor5000]

You can add labels for nearly all partitions and filesystem types, not sure what your issue is.

Code: Select all

[doktor5000@Mageia4 ~]$ sudo lsblk -fl
NAME FSTYPE LABEL        UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT
sda                                                           
sda1 ntfs                5283596B0C6EE41F                     /media/win_c
sda2                                                         
sda5 ext4   MGAroot      a8229474-2eb9-48fe-bd56-be606de0fd2f /
sda6 swap   swap         3d760264-99f4-4363-a4dd-860f705bf7a5 [SWAP]
sda7 ext4   MGAhome      2d072f85-753f-492c-b1bb-b87a047bc492 /home
sda8 ext4   Cauldronroot 9ee82237-27d2-4c1d-b63a-25b5a0d11ba8
sda9 ext4   Cauldronhome c5ea39bb-55f2-495b-8eb1-0e251e928774
sdb                                                           
sdb1 ntfs   EXTERN3      4000C55B00C55894                     /run/media/doktor5000/EXTERN3
sdb2 ntfs   EXTERN4      2222D88522D85EFB                     /run/media/doktor5000/EXTERN4
sr0

[BrotherAdam]

It might be I just need to take more time experimenting... I have found that the one way I can use the same files in any of the various formats is to keep them in the windows formatted hard drive, as all versions of linux seem fine with me using it, updating the file and resaving it, and I have no loss of data... I have found various graphics programs work better in one linux or another... but agin, it could be the way I have set up screen resolutions or other simple stuff that as I play around I get better on... It is a learning curve to get back into all the techie stuff after getting soft with plug and play etc... It reminds me of when I started in computrers and had to know COBOL, Fortran 4 and Basic, just to keep my taxicab company accounts on a database... with 128 line maximum programs.