Captive and 3.4

[Mark Anton]

hi,
i truly searched the forum for answers but i wasnt able to find them.
I am very impressed of the new version but kind of a new linux and knoppix user.

I want to use the captive ntfs driver. okay. i started the program for configuring that. First i got an error about a GnomeVFS library. But i was able to continue caption/installation of the ntfs drivers.
Then i mounted my ntfs drive with sudo mount -t captive-ntfs /dev/hda7 /mnt/hda7. Then i did copy a file in the shell on that mounted drive. The final file was 4 kb, the original had 2.5MB. I tried to delete the file (didnt know a better command: shred). No Error - the file was still there. But now it had the right size of 2.5 MB.
Does anybody know this problem and better: has a solution?

Oh, yes: is there a way to include the captive driver in the boot and is it possible to mout an ntfs drive with clicking the icon on the desktop?

Thank you very much.

Mark

[softwaretester]

I"m waiting for the answer to this too.

The BitDefender guys got captive working on their live cd. I had the same errors you had on 3.4.

[Mark Anton]

I"m waiting for the answer to this too.

The BitDefender guys got captive working on their live cd. I had the same errors you had on 3.4.

ahh, that's interesting. So maybe i am not the only stupid guy around here ;-)

[eco2geek]

From what the Captive download page (http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/CVS.html.pl) says, and the Captive support/bug mailing list says, there's issues both with the Debian packages themselves, and the gnome-vfs-http handler included with the current version of Gnome.

Captive's author recommends one install the static package (http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/dist/build-captive-static-2003-12-14-00.tar.gz) (which includes nice install and uninstall scripts), instead of the current *.deb archives, or you'll get these "libntfs" and "httpcaptive" errors. Of course, you can't do that from the live Knoppix CD, due to its read only file system.

The "httpcaptive" errors would seem to mean that you won't be able to download the necessary files from Microsoft using "captive-install-acquire". But you can still install the necessary files if you've got Windows XP installed on a partition the Captive installer can "see".

The Captive mailing list seems to indicate that, when you change or create a file on an NTFS partition, the changes don't get written until you unmount the partition. It also seems to indicate that a GUI-based file manager (like Konqueror) will open all the files it "sees" on an NTFS partition (e.g. to look for icons inside them; to look at their sizes; etc.), which can use up tons of memory, since the files don't get closed. You could run out of resources. Which means that your best bet with is to stick to accessing your NTFS volume from the command line.

Yes, you can mount an NTFS partition in fstab. But you'll probably lose any changes you make to it unless you unmount it before you shut Linux down. From the Captive support mailing list: (http://www.jankratochvil.net/pipermail/captive-list/2004-April/000329.html)


"You would have to create some /etc/init.d/captive script to unmount captive
devices. Otherwise the Captive processes get killed during the shutdown sooner
than it is able to unmount and commit the changes to the disk.

[Mark Anton]

thank you very much, eco2geek.
I dont feel trained enough with linux for doing all this myself.
the "captive-install-acquire" tool seems to find the needed dlls/sys-files etc.
Isnt it kind of interesting for many users getting the captive working? Maybe somebody can give a kind of advise for people like me. I really try to learn. Is it possible to post some kind of Step-by-Step help for getting captive run with knoppix and maybe for manipulating the cd to burn a new one with running captive driver?

[eco2geek]

The reason that you have to go through this whole captive-install-acquire business is that it installs the actual Microsoft drivers, either from your existing WinXP partition, a directory you specify, or Microsoft's site -- but the drivers are licensed by Microsoft. They're not "free software." You're supposed to have a legal copy of WinXP in order to use them.

So you're not going to see any distribution come with Captive working out of the box, although it would probably be quite easy to do so. (I'm suprised Microsoft hasn't made it impossible to get them from its site already.)

The captive-install-acquire GUI installer presents you with 3 methods of installing the MS drivers:

1. Scan your existing partitions for an installation of WinXP
2. Allow you to specify a location for the drivers (local or network)
3. Extract them from a package on Microsoft's site (WinXP SP 1, I believe)

Looks like method 3 is broken in Knoppix v3.4.

The "Forward" button takes you to the next step within each method. The "Skip" button takes you to the next method. The "Back" button takes you back to the previous method.

(You can also do this without the GUI by running the command "captive-install-acquire --text" as root. See "man captive-install-acquire" for more options.)

When it's found the drivers it needs, captive-install-acquire then sets up Captive properly. In other words, it does more than just grab the MS drivers.

[Mark Anton]

The reason that you have to go through this whole captive-install-acquire business is that it installs the actual Microsoft drivers, either from your existing WinXP partition, a directory you specify, or Microsoft's site -- but the drivers are licensed by Microsoft. They're not "free software." You're supposed to have a legal copy of WinXP in order to use them.

1. Scan your existing partitions for an installation of WinXP
2. Allow you to specify a location for the drivers (local or network)
3. Extract them from a package on Microsoft's site (WinXP SP 1, I believe)

Looks like method 3 is broken in Knoppix v3.4.

The "Forward" button takes you to the next step within each method. The "Skip" button takes you to the next method. The "Back" button takes you back to the previous method.


yes, i know. Sorry for not making myself clear, sorry for my bad english. I know that, but isnt it possible for ME to make that kind of knoppix live cd? I could put the files from my computer into the iso image and start the captive stuff myself in the boot script. Thats what i thought...

[eco2geek]

That is beyond my ability to help you with. There is a discussion about Captive on Morphix on the Captive support mailing list (http://www.jankratochvil.net/pipermail/captive-list/) -- see the archives for April (http://www.jankratochvil.net/pipermail/captive-list/2004-April/thread.html) and May (http://www.jankratochvil.net/pipermail/captive-list/2004-May/thread.html) and look for the "captive-ntfs for morphix" thread. You might want to ask there.

[softwaretester]

I get around half of the catch 22 thing by having the required exe and sys an dll etc. files on my USB keydrive.

Captive Acquire finds the files faster that way.