Re: Any way to write to an NTFS partition?

From: P Gentry (rdgentry1_at_cablelynx.com)
Date: 03/03/04

  • Next message: P Gentry: "Re: More than 90% full ext3 partition..." 
    Date: 2 Mar 2004 15:20:24 -0800

    Daniel Ganek <ganek@comcast.net> wrote in message news:<c20508$p7f$1@pcls4.std.com>...
    > Our salesforce uses laptops with Win2000 or XP installed (Dell).
    > We currently add RH 7.3 and GRUB to the MBR for demos. IT would
    > be a lot happier if we didn't muck with the MBR. I know how to
    > modify boot.ini to boot Linux. The problem is that we would have
    > to manually modify the NTFS partition after installing RH7.3.

    Assume you mean writing boot.ini back to the ntfs disk.

    > I'd like to use a script during the kickstart process to copy a
    > file to the NTFS partition and add a line to boot.ini. But, RH
    > doesn't support NTFS. Anyone know of a way to do this? ...

    You could not pay me enough $ to try this! Reasons below.

    > ...Is there
    > a 3rd party module I can install during kickstart that'll let me
    > mount the NTFS partition and write to it?
    >
    > /dan

    If you're the one (or you trust those) who are installing RH, the best
    you can do is come up with a Win script to copy the linux.bin copy of
    the /boot partition boot sector, edit boot.ini, etc. Here's why.

    In an attempt to "harden" the Win OS, MS decided to keep close tabs on
    access to key system files, eg., boot.ini (and a host of others). It
    stores things like file size, modification/access(?) times, and a guid
    in several _different_ registry keys. Thus, only the target OS
    installation should write the needed changes, or at boot the OS will
    choke when its keys don't match the changes. YUK!

    This is _even_if_ you trusted a linux module to safely handle writes
    to an ntfs partition -- which for your situation I would not do.

    Another problem with "automating" this process is that the _whole_
    process would have to be duplicated step-for-step in code. Any
    differences in disk layout, size, or even CHS calculations could cause
    trouble (a Win thing) -- you can't be sure that the /boot "dd if=..."
    copy will produce a consistent/accurate boot code or partition table
    from one laptop to the next. (Yes, I'm being somewhat paranoid, but
    experience with MS filesystems teaches you that.)

    You might try leaving ntldr in the MBR and using a boot floppy for
    Linux -- even place grub on a floppy. This, of course, means happy
    sailing till someone leaves behind their boot floppy.

    If you are confident (after trying on a test-top) you could get by
    with a bash script that would make the linux.bin floppy and use a Win
    script to copy it and edit boot.ini. You might even be able to do
    this on/from the file server that you're using to do your RH kickstart
    install -- big "if" here, of course.

    BTW -- if you re-run "grub-install" to place grub in /boot partition's
    boot sector, be sure to use the --recheck option to rebuild
    device.map.

    hth,
    prg
    email above disabled

  • Next message: P Gentry: "Re: More than 90% full ext3 partition..."

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