<div>Thanks for the info Ros,</div>
<div> </div>
<div>We are trailing a dual-boot setup for our staff laptop computers using bootcamp to manage OSX / Windoes / Ubuntu. Last month, they all chose to switch over to the MacBook. Power users can have fun running all more than one at once using Parallels. From what I have seen so far from my friends at NASA in LA, I was suprised to see so many Apple notebook computers around (Most dual boot with OSX / Linux .. a few add windows). I am curious what setup the team has in Fort Collins when I get there in a couple of days.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Isn't it funny that playing about with Linux you also end up learning more how other operating systems like OSX and Windows work. :-)</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Regards Roland</div>
<div> </div>
<div>PS: am typing this up in a small Navajo hotel PC near the Grand Canyon with a horrid sunburn. ;-)<br> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 13/07/2008, <b class="gmail_sendername">Jim Maunder</b> <<a href="mailto:techo@ruyton.vic.edu.au">techo@ruyton.vic.edu.au</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<div>Hello Ros and others - <br><br>Long story to make up for the possum stirring.<br><br>One of my recent little home jobs has been to recover files from my daughter's laptop - it dual booted Windows and Fedora linux, but the Fedora side became mangled and would not load. It contained amongst other things her BSc(Hons) thesis written with LaTeX, and although she had a copy on the Mt Stromlo servers, she wanted the one on the lappy so she could fix the punctuation and grammar. She wanted me to:<br>
1) recover the files on the linux side<br>2) remove the Fedora installation and install Ubuntu<br><br>Task 1 proved to be the trickier - the obvious approach was to run Ubuntu live from a CD, then copy files to an external USB HDD, but this does not work straight off - I got file access denied messages. A bit of Googling found why - it seems the gid numbers in Ubuntu and Fedora are different for ordinary users. I was not game to try 'chown' as a workaround in case it mucked things up. Now I knew that Ubuntu/Kubuntu reads and writes to NTFS partions quite happily, so I wondered if it would work the other way - could Windows read Ext3 partions. More Googling quickly found two solutions, and the one that worked best is Ext2IFS for Windows <br>
<br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.fs-driver.org/" target="_blank">http://www.fs-driver.org/</a> <br><br>After installation this searches your system and allows the user to assign drive letters to Ext2 and Ext3 partitions. I tried it on the sacrificial lappy here at work and it worked like a charm.<br>
<br>At home I installed this driver on my daughter's lappy, got drive letters etc., then found and copied the files off to a caddy. There were some problems with file and folder names that contained illegal characters (as far as Windows was concerned), but that was fixed with Ubuntu from a CD and peace and calm returned to the Maunder household.<br>
<br>Task 2 was quite interesting for me, because it made me come to grips with Ubuntu, when previously I would give up if something did not work immediately, and I was only considering getting it to work in our work environment. Also, I had a look at what is needed to edit with LaTeX. See <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.latex-project.org/intro.html" target="_blank">http://www.latex-project.org/intro.html</a> I knew that this has been around for many years in the unix and DEC VAX world, and it seems that the Linux people prefer 'Kile' as the IDE (integrated development environment). <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://kile.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">http://kile.sourceforge.net/</a> Some more Googling for a Windows LaTeX IDE found 'WinShell' <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.winshell.de/" target="_blank">http://www.winshell.de/</a> which has a similar look and feel to 'Kile'. So, back to Ubuntu. <br>
<br>Again playing with the aforementioned sacrificial laptop (so I could get the installation right before doing the daughter's machine), Ubuntu went on easily and then I had to find out how to install software, which means getting the Synaptic to work, which means getting the network to work etc. I found that network proxies are set in about 3 places, (system, browser and Synaptic) and that the NDS gateway (I think that's what it is) is not always picked up automatically. I found out what you have to do to play MP3 files.<br>
<br>The end result is that I would happily use Ubuntu on a home machine, as it does everything I need to do and most of the things I'd like to do (mostly music stuff). Maybe I'll try to get 'Half-Life' running under 'Wine', but that's what the Windows partition is for.<br>
<br>rgds<br>Jim (who hopes you don't mind a bit of off-topic ramble)<br><br><br>At 06:04 PM 02/07/2008, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Hello all – hope your holidays are fun<br> <br>Wow!! This is great – now I can have the best of all three worlds…<br> <br>This seems like a great way to introduce yourself to Ubuntu Linux (although the learning curve is not that steep) without dedicating a whole machine to it, or having to worry about partitions and dual booting.<br>
<br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://lifehacker.com/358208/seamlessly-run-linux-apps-on-your-windows-desktop" target="_blank">http://lifehacker.com/358208/seamlessly-run-linux-apps-on-your-windows-desktop</a> <br>
...<br><b>Roslyn Meadows<br>Head of ICT Implementation<br>Head of Assessment and Reporting<br>Bentleigh Secondary College </b></blockquote>
<p><br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br>We have to use this Disclaimer<br><br>Views, opinions, etc. expressed reflect those of the author and not<br>Ruyton Girls' School <br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>Jim Maunder<br>Laptop and PC Support Technician<br>Ruyton Girls School<br>Melbourne, Australia<br>ph 03 9290 9374<br><br></p></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College<br>
<a href="http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au">http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au</a><br><br>"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead