Dual boot /home dir

[Tag_Scott]

My main box is gonna be dual boot win2k and debian 3.1. I would like to have them share the users home folder so both OS's can use it. Ive tries using fat32 for a partition mounted as /home but it seems lack of permissions wont let debian boot regular users to the gui. Any suggestions so users in both OS's can use this partition as thier home?

[budman7]

Just make it a Fat32 partition. It is not necessary for it to be /home.
I also was not aware that W2k could have a separate /home partition.

[drakebasher]

I think that what you really want to do is to have a /home directory (not partition) with users' /home/user directories (not partitions) under that and then to have a separate fat partition mounted under /home or under some /home/user. I think that you could make a symbolic link in any or all users' /home/user directory which would be linked to the shared fat partition.

[Tag_Scott]

Let me rephrase my question. How can i make my /home directories usable by win2k so I can map a coresponding user's "My Dcouments" to that same users home folder.

[oldcpu]

Let me rephrase my question. How can i make my /home directories usable by win2k so I can map a coresponding user's "My Dcouments" to that same users home folder.

I would not do this my self. As a user, you have many configuration settings stored in your /home/Tag_Scott/ directory, and you don't want windows apps writing over those.

Why not follow the advise given in this forum, and create a /home/Tag_Scott/My_Documents directory, which is mapped to windows?

Or why not a /windows/My_Documents directory?

You could also create a user "My_Documents", and there then would be a /home/My_Documents directory. You would have to go in and modify the permissions such that everyone could have full access user "My_Documents" directory.

Apologies, but even if it could be done, I have reservations about the viability of your idea of making /home equivalent to some windows directory.

[rakoon13]

Can you please xplain in more detail.
(I am a novice - that is the reson)

Thank you.

[oldcpu]

Can you please xplain in more detail.

I think the quote below summarizes it quite well:

you have many configuration settings stored in your /home/Tag_Scott/ directory, and you don't want windows apps writing over those.

There are many many many apps that come with Linux. Typically the configuration settings, for these apps, for user Tag_Scott, may be stored as various hidden files and hidden directories under /home/Tag_Scott. One does not want MS-Windows doing anything to these files.

I am also not convinced you can delete the /home/user directories, and then successfully re-install them as (fat32) /home/user directories, without causing problems.

Please, what is wrong with the other suggestions given in this forum? ie Suggestions such as /home/Tag_Scott/My_Documents for each user being mapped to the fat32 c:\Documents and Settings\Tag_Scott\My_Directories ??