Re: Getting Linux to recognize Windows files.

[Jiri Baum <jiri@baum.com.au>]

Hello,

> David Stern wrote:
...
> Just in case you need to know, you're most likely trying to mount the
> files either manually or in /etc/fstab.

Yes, we so often forget all the little things...

If you don't know what "mounting" means:

In DOS, different disks and partition are accessed by letters - A:, B:, C:, D:
etc - assigned automatically by the system, and potentially changing whenever
you change disk organization, add new hardware or even upgrade to a new
version of DOS.

In Linux, and Unix in general, one disk partition is the main one (called
"root"). All the other disks and partitions are attached (or "mounted") to
various subdirectories, decided by the administrator. This means that if you
add a new disk or reorganize it, you only change one configuration file and
all the disks remain where they were.

To mount a disk or a partition, you'll need:
  (1) an empty directory
  (2) the type of the filesystem
  (3) the device name of the partition

You can make (1) using the mkdir command, for example "mkdir /win".

Number (2) is "vfat" for a Windows 95 partition, "msdos" for a plain DOS
partition, and "ext2" for a Linux partition. For the mount command, you'll
need to put a "-t" in front of it.

The last part, number (3), can be the hardest, but fortunately the "fdisk -l"
command will usually tell you what you need to know. It outputs a table of
partitions for each disk - the last column is the type of partition (eg "DOS"
or "Linux native") and the first column is the device name (eg "/dev/hda1").

Then you can try mounting it with a command such as:
    mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /win

If you mess up, you need to
    umount /dev/hda1
and try again.

Once you are happy that it works as it should, you'll need to look into the
file /etc/fstab - anything you put in there will be automatically mounted
whenever you boot. Add a line like:
    /dev/hda1       /win             vfat   defaults
That is: device name, directory, type (without the -t) and options.

> If you make
> the change in /etc/fstab, you'll then need to run the command:
>   mount /a

Actually, that should be "mount -a". The command as given would only mount
whatever goes in the directory /a

> to mount all the things listed in that file. (You'll probably need to
> umount (unmount) the existing DOS partition first.)


HTH

Jiri <jiri@baum.com.au>