One of the things to get used to, is that within Linux a lot of things can be changed. Settings are stored in text files, and many programs also consist of 'script' or 'executable text'.
 

The directory (folder) with all system settings and configurations is /etc/ and /etc/fstab is a text file defining the file systems. It is generated automatically by Xandros,  and a backup copy is kept in /etc/devices/shadow/fstab. For this to work, you must make sure that all your drives are connected so that Xandros may detect them.

You will need to use an editor, and the standard 'K' editor kedit, is smart and friendly. Now you need to switch user and log in as administrator (also called 'root'). Double-click on the editor icon and open /etc/fstab. Note that script and config files do not have the extension .txt even though they contain pure text. fstab is a wide text file so you may need to widen the window. In the table below you'll see the changes made to map the drive letters properly. It pays to have a copy of this file such as fstabold, in case you wish to go back to the old settings.
 

# /etc/fstab -- static file system information auto generation: off # generated by: /sbin/etcdev2fstab #  # NOTE: to make this file readable, it has been formatted for 132 columns #  #<device>              <mountpoint>      <fstype>  <options>                                       <dbg> <pass> /dev/hda6              /                 reiserfs  rw,usrquota,grpquota                            0     0 /dev/hda1              /disks/C         vfat   rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,nouser,async,fmask=111,dmask=0 0   0 /dev/hdb1              /disks/I     ufsd  rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,nouser,async,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0 /dev/hdd1              /disks/H     ufsd  rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,nouser,async,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0 /dev/hda5              /disks/D         vfat   rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,nouser,async,fmask=111,dmask=0 0   0 /dev/hda7              /disks/E         vfat   rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,nouser,async,fmask=111,dmask=0 0   0 /dev/hda8              /disks/F         vfat   rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,nouser,async,fmask=111,dmask=0 0   0 /dev/hda9              /disks/G     ufsd  rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,nouser,async,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0 /dev/hdc               /media/cdrom0     auto      rw,nosuid,nodev,exec,nouser,noauto,async        0     0 /dev/floppy/0          /media/floppy0    auto      rw,nosuid,nodev,exec,nouser,noauto,sync         0     0 proc                   /proc             proc      rw                                              0     0 usbfs                  /proc/bus/usb     usbfs     rw,devmode=0666                                 0     0 /boot/linux-swap.swp   none              swap      sw                                              0     0

Note that the # has been taken out of the second line to turn autogeneration off. The only changes of importance are those in the column <mount point>. Changes have also been made to the cdrom, but these will be discussed in the chapter to make the DVD work, and watching movies.

The good news is that when you turn swap drives off, this table won't change and Linux won't stumble either. If you wish to know more about this table, consult the manual pages as described in the next chapter.

You will undoubtedly be using CrossOver Office (XO) for windows compatibility, and here you have to enter the disk drives D ... H because by default XO only knows the C drive. This is dealt with in a separate chapter.

[if the text in the text block is too small to read, press CTRL and + to enlarge all text]

Find the console in the menu: launch> applications> system> console. Drag it onto the desktop and select copy from the context menu. Right-click on the desktop> arrange icons> vertically, to realign them. But you already knew this.

The command line always begins with your logon, like
peter@XANDROS:~$
where the $ is the prompt of the command line and ~ means 'my home' as in Windows' 'My_Documents', even though this folder is found in C:\My_Documents\peter\...   Likewise, 'my home' in Xandros is found in /home/peter/...

Now type:
man man
which means: display what's in the manual about the manual, and a screenful of a document is displayed. Scroll through it with the pagedown/nextpage key and back again with the pageup key or the vertical slider. To get out, use CTRL+Z or CTRL+C, the break command. Note here that Windows has hi-jacked the international CTRL+C break key to mean copy-to-clipboard. The confusions Windows has sown are just endless - sigh. But now you'll understand that copying text from the console cannot be done with CTRL+C. Use the context menu (mouse right-click) instead.

You may wish to 'pipe' the text to the printer for safekeeping, which is not a bad idea:
man man |lpr
Note that the up-arrow key repeats previous commands, and this will save you a lot of re-keying.

Finally, learn about the fstab page:
man fstab|lpr

The manual can also be searched by key words:
man -k keyword

The manual is thousands of pages large, growing as you download more modules and libraries and applications.

While we're at the console and command line, there is another command you will find handy: locate fstab
which means: where can I find files or folders named 'fstab'?
The locate command searches a database which is occasionally reconstructed, or can be reconstructed by the administrator with the updatedb command. It is very thorough and includes all Windows folders and files as well.

In the beginning, these manual pages look alien indeed, but do not let this turn you off. You'll get used to it - slowly. The main thing to remember is that all this gobbledigook can be used to your advantage as you learn how to be the boss of this enormous and powerful machine.