NTFS repair

[VietBob]

I had a problem with Windoze XP that led me to boot Linux (Slackware), but it didn't solve my problem. I wound up using the Win 2K Recovery Console. Now I'm curious what the problem may have been. A penny for your thoughts...

Problem: Win XP boot.ini file had been renamed, Win XP would no longer boot.

Loaded Slackware, mounted the drive rw, chmod the file (boot.ini.old) a+w. Everything (to me) looked like I should be able to correct the problem. Whether using rename or mv, or attempting to edit and save the file as boot.ini, I was faced with "prohibited" messages. Finally, using Win 2K boot disk Recovery Console, I was able to rename the file and get the XP system booting again.

It's water over the dam now, but I'm wondering if anyone sees something I overlooked...

-Bob

[MichaelS]

Hey Bob,

I had a similar situation where I needed to write to an NTFS partition. Writing to NTFS partitions is still experimental today. In order to be able to write to an NTFS partition, you need to enable NTFS-write support in the kernel configuration and recompile. Just a friendly note, because it is still in the developmental stage, it may corrupt your NTFS partition, so be careful!

Regards,

Michael

[VietBob]

Thanks for clearing that up, Michael! Everything was suggesting I should be able to rename or edit the file, so I was baffled when I couldn't -- thought I was doing something wrong. I'm not a *nix virgin, but haven't had much exposure to it since, oh, Windows 3.1 or so...

Having bailed on a frustrating Slackware installation and installing Windows XP on my new box, when I return to the Slackware installation I expect to make it dual boot, perhaps a fileserver for the LAN. Will Linux also have issues if I format a FAT32 partition for access by the Windows clients (and my Windows boot), or is it just NTFS they haven't quite conquered?

-Bob

[MichaelS]

I'm sorry your having so many problems with Slack. I assure you the trouble of learning Slack is well worth it in the end. I used to run my servers off RedHat but then I realized that the GUI was doing all the work, and I wasn't doing any learning, that's when I jumped on the Slack bandwagon.

To answer your question, Slack/Linux will not have any problems with fat32 partitions. For Slack 9.1, r/w support for fat32 partitions is built in the bare.i kernel.

Regards,

Michael

[VietBob]

Excellent, thanks!

The only problem I had was that it wasn't recognizing my onboard LAN connection. Later found that the driver disk that came with my mb includes Linux drivers, but had already installed XP (twice).

Having moved my old PC into a new glitzy case with a window and leds and such for my teenage nephew, this is now my primary PC, so before I reinstall Slackware I need to satisfy my immediate needs with Windoze XP. In a week or two I'll give Slack another shot.

In the incident that prompted this post, I experienced the same "quest for learning" karma I'd read about Slackware. I found myself getting comfortable, reading man pages left and right, and getting a good feel for
/etc. It is somewhat infections - the more I learned, the more I wanted to learn! While I was waiting to get this new box running, I tried installing Slackware on another PC kicking around, got some sort of disk error (as if the CD was bad, which it wasn't). OpenBSD installed on that PC just fine, but the karma wasn't there. OpenBSD didn't challenge me to learn, it just looked down its nose at my ignorance.

So don't worry - my problems with the Slackware installation didn't drive me back to Windoze, and for that matter the Xp installation(s) didn't go all that much better! It was just mindless enough that I could get online faster that way... Slack will be back on this computer soon!

-Bob