Thread: Anyone Use Linux?

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Did they also come up with an Ubuntu distro that has NTFS support?

I've read that Ubuntu has "out of the box" NTFS support, but only for reading files and rewritting existing files. I've just shifted from an ntfs kernel module in Fedora to the ntfs-3g package - saves uninstalling the old module and re-installing a new one each time the kernel upgrades. Also has full read/write support. It's still beta, apparantly, but I've had no problems (yet...!).

http://www.linux-ntfs.org/component/...page/Itemid,1/

James.

Originally Posted by Redwoood

In any case, upgrading won't be that hard.
I'm not very familiar with Fedora and yum, but I know that on ubuntu and debian, upgrading from one release to the next can be done quite comfortably.

Or, if you have a separate home partition, you could just back up /etc maybe dump your package selections and then just install the new release as if it's a new install. Easy and fast.

Redwoood

True. Apparently yum will let you do a major upgrade, once you download the necessary rpm. But I've had a look at a few techie forums, and there seems to be a few issues with package dependencies and some things getting broken in the transition. Just don't know if I'm up for it at the moment - work's busy this time of year and I really don't have time to spend another couple of days fixing broken packages unless absolutely necessary.

Your second suggestion sounds good. I did set up separate partitions...hmmm, thanks for the tip

James.

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Did they also come up with an Ubuntu distro that has NTFS support?

There are actually three ways to write to ntfs partitions with ubuntu (reading is possible by default)

1. Enable it in the kernel. Requires a rebuild of the kernel, which most people probably won't like

2. use ntfs-3g

3. use fuse and libntfs

So it's not much different from Fedora, I can imagine. All linux distributions are very similar as they pretty much repackage the same product. It's just the presentation and the general framework that is different. If you can accomplish a task with distribution A, chances are you can do it with distribution B, maybe not in the same way, but it can be done.

The reason why enabling write support for ntfs requires additional work from the user to is that it is potentially buggy and harmful to your data.
So use with care.

Redwoood

That's the main reason why I don't use Linux now. I'm scared of corrupting the data on my NTFS storage partition where I keep all of my media. I didn't even bother with reinstalling Linux after reformatting.

I use a dedicated FAT partition to transfer files between linux and windows, and that works rather well.
The reason for the ntfs problems is that microsoft doesn't disclose any details about it, but the linux file systems are open source. So you can reverse the direction and read ext2, for example, from windows with the appropriate driver.

At the end of the day, once you really get into using linux, why would you need access to ntfs anyway?

Redwoood

Because I use some apps whose equivalents can't be found for Linux and ironically I've had stability issues with Windows+fat that got fixed once I switched my storage partition to NTFS.

actually one of those supposedly is now flawless since it uses MS' own DLL to do the reading/writing, but I can't remember wether it was via fuse or the ntfs-3g redwoood mentioned.

edit: it's via ntfs-3g
here's a ubuntu howto for those interested.

you can follow the howto, just substitute getting the packages with apt-get for what you use, on fedorah usually yum I suppose?

Originally Posted by harold

actually one of those supposedly is now flawless since it uses MS' own DLL to do the reading/writing, but I can't remember wether it was via fuse or the ntfs-3g redwoood mentioned.

edit: it's via ntfs-3g
here's a ubuntu howto for those interested.

you can follow the howto, just substitute getting the packages with apt-get for what you use, on fedorah usually yum I suppose?

Yes, ntfs-3g has been added to the 'extras' repository for Fedora (5 & 6), so just yum.

I'm not sure ntfs-3g is the flawless one - I was reading the announcement by the developer and I don't think he mentions the windows dll anywhere (http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/f...d_id=23836054). BTW, it's interesting reading, especially the reply from the kernel module developer/maintainer underneath. Is it just me or does he sound a bit cheesed off?

James.

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Because I use some apps whose equivalents can't be found for Linux and ironically I've had stability issues with Windows+fat that got fixed once I switched my storage partition to NTFS.

I guess those apps can't be configured in wine? The only thing keeping me using windows is certain apps not working under linux, even with wine. Word processing's a breeze, 'cause open office can import and export (I use LateX anyway, but my colleagues all send me .docs). But the big statistical software packages just won't work for me...yet.

James.

That was another problem. OO still doesn't have the formatting down pat. Then there are compatibility issues with some of my el-cheapo hardware and finally the time I spend on the MSN. Gaim doesn't support the regular CEs