[Offtopic] Sharing linux and Windows files on a dual boot machine

[Roland Gesthuizen]

Thanks for the info Ros,

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.

Isn't it funny that playing about with Linux you also end up learning more
how other operating systems like OSX and Windows work. :-)

Regards Roland

PS: am typing this up in a small Navajo hotel PC near the Grand Canyon with
a horrid sunburn. ;-)

On 13/07/2008, Jim Maunder <techo at ruyton.vic.edu.au> wrote:
>
> Hello Ros and others -
>
> Long story to make up for the possum stirring.
>
> 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:
> 1) recover the files on the linux side
> 2) remove the Fedora installation and install Ubuntu
>
> 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
>
> http://www.fs-driver.org/
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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
> http://www.latex-project.org/intro.html 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).
> http://kile.sourceforge.net/ Some more Googling for a Windows LaTeX IDE
> found 'WinShell' http://www.winshell.de/ which has a similar look and feel
> to 'Kile'. So, back to Ubuntu.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> rgds
> Jim (who hopes you don't mind a bit of off-topic ramble)
>
>
> At 06:04 PM 02/07/2008, you wrote:
>
> Hello all – hope your holidays are fun
>
> Wow!! This is great – now I can have the best of all three worlds…
>
> 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.
>
>
> http://lifehacker.com/358208/seamlessly-run-linux-apps-on-your-windows-desktop
> ...
> *Roslyn Meadows
> Head of ICT Implementation
> Head of Assessment and Reporting
> Bentleigh Secondary College *
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> We have to use this Disclaimer
>
> Views, opinions, etc. expressed reflect those of the author and not
> Ruyton Girls' School
> -----------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jim Maunder
> Laptop and PC Support Technician
> Ruyton Girls School
> Melbourne, Australia
> ph 03 9290 9374
>
>


-- 
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au

"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
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/offtopic/attachments/20080714/42b8d83b/attachment.html