More dual-booting fun than you can shake two HOWTOs at

[Alphax]

Thomas wrote:
> On Sat, 2006-10-14 at 20:55 +0930, Alphax wrote:
<snip>
>> Problem 2: Have 1 physical HDD & can't add another; don't want to create
>> any Linux partions more than / and swap; want to be able to share most
>> of C:\Documents and Settings\ so that I've got my documents,
>> Firefox/Thunderbird profiles, and whatever else; have heard that writing
>> directly to a FAT32 partition as /home can be bad and should mount it
>> underneath an ext3 path somehow; am not sure where to install a boot
>> loader without destroying the W32 install.
> 
> I've never had any problems installing LINUX _AFTER_ Windows (RH7+, FC3
> +, Ubuntu6).
> GRUB picks up the fact that windows is there, adds a bootoption for it,
> no sweat. FC installers now default to putting / in a LVM volume and
> adding a ext3 /boot. SWAP is another volume in the LVM, so you're adding
> 2 partitions (/boot and a Physical volume, not the / and swap you were
> after).
> 

Where will GRUB get installed then? Into the MBR or does ntloader insist
on being there?

> There are tools to allow mounting ext under windows, not sure if there
> is anything to mount LVM volumes under windows though (i.e. if you want
> to be able to mount the linux partitions from windows maybe stay away
> form LVM).
> 

Hrm. That would require transferring all of my current settings to the
ext3 partition....

> Running windows on FAT32 is a _bad_ _idea_!
> Use NTFS, faster, more secure etc. etc.
> 

IIRC I can't convert the FAT32 partition to NTFS because of bad sectors
or somesuch.

> mounting NTFS/FAT from LINUX (or ext? from windows) can also be bad.
> The features of the file systems (case sensitivity, links, permissions)
> don't map nicely onto one another and things go wonky (*).
> 

Yes, I was afraid of that. Does anyone else know if it's doable?

> There are tools that let you share parts of your firefox profiles
> (bookmarks etc.) Never used one, might be good enough to allow you to
> use separate homedirectories.
> 

Ok.

>> Solution 2: Ask nicely on this list?
> 
> You could use a live CD. Put your firefox profiles on a USB key, share
> that between windows/linux.
> 

Could...

> VMware perhaps? No need to mess with partitions at all!
> VMware Player is now free, and you can get ready-to-go LINUX VM's off
> the net.
> Microsoft Virtual PC can also be brow-beaten into running LINUX.
> 

Could...

> Get some old junker and set it up as a headless penguin somewhere.
> Access it with putty/VNC/SAMBA.
> 

Costs money and isn't a feasible solution for a laptop.


-- 
                Alphax
        Death to all fanatics!
  Down with categorical imperative!
OpenPGP key: http://tinyurl.com/lvq4g

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