Sharing between winXP and knoppix

I'm going to install Knoppix on my computer this weekend, set up all the partitions and what not. I have a Lexmark printer, which really sucks, so I have to keep XP on my computer I need info about file sharing between the 2 systems: I've read about creating a drive for Linux, drive for WinXP, swap drive, boot drive, and another one in Fat32 that both XP and Linux can read. It wasn't spacific to Knoppix and I can't remember where I got the instructions on how to configure the files so that Knoppix and WinXP will read and write to the Fat32 partition. Can someone please tell me how to configure things?

This should be it for a firs time linux user :
1.Open a shell and type: sudo knoppix-installer, This will ask you to create a partition for linux with qtparted, create the linux partition with filesystem ext3 after the win XP partition, this is important if you want that knoppix to boot, if you have 1 gig ram or more i recommend to not create swap, and at last our Fat 32 partition, after dong this go to the files menu of qtparted and click on commit.

2.Once created the partitons configure the install, Install the Boot loader to the MBR (master boot record), and just wait until it finishes installing it , now restart your pc it should be a menu with Linux and Windows check that windows boots, if it does were almost finished

3. for mounting the Fat 32 open a shell and type:
fdisk -l (this will give you infoabout the partitons on your HD)
If that shows your fat32 partition, then you can do, as root:
mount -t vfat /dev/hdxy /dir/subdir/YourMountPoint
/dev/hdxy is the partition you want to mount, something like /dev/hdb4, from the report from fdisk.
Once mounted, you should be able to access the files and directories. You may wish to make the mounting occurr automatically at boot time, by adding an entry to /etc/fstab which is similar to this:
/dev/hdxy /dir/subdir/YourMountPoint vfat rw 0 0

I tried installing it over the weekend and ran into a few problems so I uninstalled and what not because I needed my computer for school Monday... but here's the problems:

1) It was reading the fat32 partition, but not writing to it
2) I couldn't change the grub... or anything else in the root directory, and it told me I wasn't allowed to log on as root.

I haven't tried your instructions yet, but if I do, will I have to edit root files? If so, I need to know how to make them writable.

*EDIT* One last thing I forgot to mention that might be important, I installed it in the Beginner Mode... not sure whether that's important, but I thought I'd include it

Quote:

---

I tried installing it over the weekend and ran into a few problems so I uninstalled and what not because I needed my computer for school Monday... but here's the problems:

1) It was reading the fat32 partition, but not writing to it
2) I couldn't change the grub... or anything else in the root directory, and it told me I wasn't allowed to log on as root.

I haven't tried your instructions yet, but if I do, will I have to edit root files? If so, I need to know how to make them writable.

*EDIT* One last thing I forgot to mention that might be important, I installed it in the Beginner Mode... not sure whether that's important, but I thought I'd include it

---

These sound like misconceptions.....not problems :)

1. Linux mounts everything READONLY by default... this is a saftey measure and is completely normal. Right clicking on the Drive icon on the KDE desktop and choosing "Change Read/Write Mode" will allow you to write to a drive.

2. Sounds like you may have been trying to logon to KDE as root... which is not allowed (and unsafe) .... use the ' su ' command from a terminal window to become root.

Linux can seem overwhelming at first because of all the MS products that we've been stuck infront of for years.....but stick with it.... you wont be sorry

Take Care,
-Justin
One Mynds Eye

Thanks man, I will try that when I get the time... so dependant on my computer for school if I can't get it right I have to be able to get it back to normal so I can do stuff, which is a real pain because I can't fool around with stuff...

And yes, MS has been pissing me off... just from the LiveDVD I can tell the Knoppix is way better

"2. Sounds like you may have been trying to logon to KDE as root... which is not allowed (and unsafe) .... use the ' su ' command from a terminal window to become root."
-I tried this to edit the grub file so I have a longer default time, no such luck

And I have yet to try right-clicking the drive to get it to read-write... must be be working as root in order to do this?

No... not root needed to make a drive Read-Write from the Drive icon...

But your root device should be readwrite.... or your wouldnt be able to store ..well.. anything :) and you grub files are installed on the root device at /boot/grub/


Try this:

Open Konsole and try this: su
Should look something like this:

Code:

---


onemyndseye@exodus:~$ su
Password:
root@exodus:/home/onemyndseye#

---

You will be asked for the root password. Once you enter it your prompt will change denoting your root privledges. (notice the $ and the #) You are now root and can modify ANYTHING in the system as you see fit.

Now this:

Code:

---


pico  /boot/grub/menu.lst

---

Edit until you are satisfied...save and exit. Then issue the ` exit ` command to return to your normal user: (full output from instruction shown below)

Code:

---

onemyndseye@exodus:~$ su
Password:
root@exodus:/home/onemyndseye# pico /boot/grub/menu.lst
root@exodus:/home/onemyndseye# exit
exit
onemyndseye@exodus:~$

---

All done :) .. Linux isnt really difficult, its just a much different way of thinking than most people are used to :)

Take Care,
-Justin
One Mynds Eye

Was not able to make the fat32 drive read/write from the right click, I can't save anything to it... I try to save stuff to it using KWrite as a test and I keep getting the error message "/media/hda4/filename.odt doesn't exist' (or something close to that).

How do you save an exit the file?