Linux on a Dell Inspiron 3700/7000/7500

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: Can I use my DVD drive to watch movies under Linux?
  
  A: Not yet. This is not possible because there is no software that utilizes the hardware MPEG decoder. However, there are people working on ways to decode the data on a DVD by software, so some day it may be possible to view a DVD movie in Linux. The DVD drive does function like a regular CDROM drive, so you can still use it to read both data and music CDs.



• Q: On RedHat or Slackware, when I do a shutdown the computer does not power off (kernel 2.2.x). Is this a bug in the kernel?
  
  A: No, this is a feature, not a bug. To power down the system, you need to add the "-p" option to halt in /etc/rc.d/init.d/halt. For more information, see http://www.diku.dk/students/grove/poweroff.html. (Thanks to Gernot Schram <schram@icm.umontreal.ca> for this RedHat tip)



• Q: I have downloaded some files in windows. How do I transfer these files to Linux? These files are large and cannot be copied on to a floppy disk.
  
  A:You can mount your Windows partition in Linux. Suppose Windows resides in the partition /dev/hda1. Then in linux, you can make a directory and mount it:
  mkdir /win
  mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /win
  
  Then you can then cd /win and access all files there; it will look like any other directory in linux.