Re: Making NTFS writeable without recompiling kernel

From: Thom Borton (borton_at_phys.ethz.ch)
Date: 05/24/04 

Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 11:33:42 +0200
To: Markus <m_frei@hotmail.com>

Hi Markus

There is a possibility which is presumably safe, not like the one Andy
suggested. Have a look at

http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/

Though I guess that it will not work without recompiling sources and
reading manuals.

I have not yet done it, but I plan to use this when I have some more
time setting up my box.

Best regards, Thom

Andy Fraser wrote:

> In comp.os.linux.setup, Markus uttered these immortal words:
>
>
>>Hi, I'm using Debian testing with kernel 2.6.3 on a dualbooting Windows
>>XP System. The Data Partition is NTFS and should be writable by both
>>OS's. The "Out of the Box" Debian Kernel 2.6.3 has builtin readable
>>support for NTFS. Does anyone know how I can change the default read
>>support to write support without me having to rebuild the complete
>>Kernel? Could it be possible to load the NTFS module with a special
>>"write" switch?
>>
>>Thanks for any Help,
>
>
> I doubt that you'll be able to add NTFS write support without re-compiling
> the kernel. It's almost trivial with Debian though.
>
> BTW I found this in the help for kernel 2.6.6:
>
> <quote>
> NTFS write support (NTFS_RW)
>
> This enables the partial, but safe, write support in the NTFS driver.
>
> The only supported operation is overwriting existing files, without
> changing the file length. No file or directory creation, deletion or
> renaming is possible. Note only non-resident files can be written to
> so you may find that some very small files (<500 bytes or so) cannot
> be written to.
>
> While we cannot guarantee that it will not damage any data, we have
> so far not received a single report where the driver would have
> damaged someones data so we assume it is perfectly safe to use.
>
> Note: While write support is safe in this version (a rewrite from
> scratch of the NTFS support), it should be noted that the old NTFS
> write support, included in Linux 2.5.10 and before (since 1997),
> is not safe.
>
> This is currently useful with TopologiLinux. TopologiLinux is run
> on top of any DOS/Microsoft Windows system without partitioning your
> hard disk. Unlike other Linux distributions TopologiLinux does not
> need its own partition. For more information see
> <http://topologi-linux.sourceforge.net/>
>
> It is perfectly safe to say N here.
> </quote>
>
> I believe there are other NTFS drivers available. Try Google.
> 

-- 
Thom Borton
Switzerland