Ubuntu

link folder on shared fat32 partition of dual boot PC

Asked by Sam

Another instance of trying to push the limits of my knowledge. Thanks to your help, both Firefox and Thunderbird are working fine, with more understanding of 'how things work' for me. (Thanks Benoit) I have repopulated Thunderbird with current Email, easy.

Next Challange:

In dual boot with Win2k, I have set up a third fat32 partition on the second HDD for mutual sharing of data. I even installed Thunderbird from the .deb file on this partition. (Thanks Christoph)

In Windows, I have always put my Thunderbird 'Local Folders' working directory which is the working Email file system, on the second partition. It's just a directory. (Also 'My Documents' and other stuff.)

Is it possible to structure Thunderbird to access the same 'Local Folders' directory on this partition from BOTH W2k AND Linux, depending on which one I boot with?

In Kubuntu, I'm having a problem accessing the Thunderbird 'Settings' location. Thunderbird 'Settings' function doesn't seem to access this partition, even though mounted, nor does it access information through links. At least not that I can structure.

I've put links on the desktop, etc, to no avail, played with permissions, . .

Anyone feel like helping?

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Clóvis Fabrício (nosklo) said : 		#1

You don't need a fat32 partition to share data. Ubuntu can read/write NTFS nowadays.

I think you can place a link inside the .thunderbird folder, pointing to the corresponding folder on windows partition.

The .thunderbird folder is hidden and you have to choose "Show Hidden Files" to see it. Verify its structure first, make a backup of it, and then try replacing some files/folders for links to its counterparts on windows.

To create the links you can drag the folder holding control and shift. Be sure to create the link in your linux partition, because FAT does not support symbolic links this way.

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Sam (42margaret) said : 		#2

Yes, it worked. I now have the 'Local Folders' directory functioning in Linix. In Windows I entered the command: config D: /fs:ntfs to convert the file system.

I gave up trying to remount the drive in Kubuntu, however, and just reinstalled Kubuntu from scratch with the mount point for D: as media/hda2

The install program would not let me use the same mount point for C; and this is understandable

1. What could I use for the mount point for this second drive?

2. How could I have mounted D: without reinstalling?

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Clóvis Fabrício (nosklo) said : 		#3

To make NTFS partition work read/write you must install the ntfs-config package.

you can use synaptic for that, or the command line:
sudo aptitude install ntfs-config

Then go to Applications -> System tools -> NTFS Configuration

Enable NTFS write and choose a mountpoint.

The usual mountpoint is /media/something. You can choose a name. Something like /media/data

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