Shared Partitions

[gravityguy]

Hi there, i'm very new to using linux and so you i know next to nothing about the system at all (although i am learning very fast).

Basically i run both SuSE and Ubuntu distributionsons on my laptop but was wondering if there was a way to create a partition that can be seen by both (so that i can share files between the two of them?) Ive tried creating various partitons from SuSE but so far am unable to see the partitions as active 'storage' partitions.

I'm assuming that there must be some way of doing this as i used to do it on windows. And surely whatever windows can do, linux can do better/easier!

This is how my partitions currently look (roughly as its from memory):

hda1 = ubuntu
hda2 = EXTENDED
hda3 = SuSE
hda4 = Swap

If anyone can help me with this problem i would be very grateful

Regards
Mikey

[devils casper]

Hi gravityguy,

Welcome to the LinuxForums.

are you sure hda2 is an Extended Partition? if it is, then you have to create a Logical Partition in it. pos the output of 'fdisk -l' command.

you can also mount SuSe's partition in Ubuntu and vice versa to share data.






Casper

[gravityguy]

fdisk -l? That just totall lost me! lol

I like the idea of being able to mount each distro partition in the other, how do i go about mounting them? what do i need to do? needs to be explained in a fairly non techy way if poss as i say, im very new to linux

Mikey

[devils casper]

boot up Ubuntu, open terminal/konsole and execute this

sudo fdisk -l
sudo less /etc/fstab

post output here.

[gravityguy]

As requested:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 2424 19462747 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 4663 4864 1622565 5 Extended
/dev/hda3 * 3388 4662 10241437+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 2425 2436 96390 83 Linux this was one I tried to create as a shared partition
/dev/hda5 4663 4864 1622533+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order
______________

/etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/hda1
UUID=4ac53cf0-9fc5-4626-95a0-4bbc85de257b / ext3 defaults,error
s=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/hda5
UUID=d39cd782-be02-4b76-9d60-630c9257e4dc none swap sw
0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/etc/fstab (END)
___________________

Hope this is what you expected

Mikey

[devils casper]

okk ! in which filesystem did you format of hda3 partition? i assume that it has ext3 filesystem.
create a mount_point ( folder ) in Ubuntu and SuSe.
in SuSe, login as root, open terminal and execute this

mkdir /media/shared

root login is disabled in Ubuntu and you can gain root privileges through 'sudo'. prefix 'sudo' before mkdir command in Ubuntu.

add this line in /etc/fstab file of both distros

/dev/hda3  /media/shared  ext3 defaults 0 0

in Ubuntu, execute this code to open /etc/fstab file

gksu gedit /etc/fstab

you can double click on /etc/fstab file in SuSe to open it directly.
save file and reboot. check /media/shared folder in both distros.

[gravityguy]

Ok, i tried doing that. got the directory there ok as can be seen below but when i did the next bit, it wouldnt allow me to do it, saying 'permission denied'. Even though im logged on as root.

What am i doing wrong? I had the same problem on Ubuntu

linux-dwlm:~ # mkdir /media/shared
mkdir: cannot create directory `/media/shared': File exists
linux-dwlm:~ # /dev/hda3 /media/shared ext3 defaults 0 0
bash: /dev/hda3: Permission denied
linux-dwlm:~ #

Mikey

[devils casper]

my mistake. prefix 'sudo' before mkdir command.

sudo mkdir /media/shared

linux-dwlm:~ # /dev/hda3 /media/shared ext3 defaults 0 0

you dont have to execute this at command prompt. execute 'gksu' command to open /etc/fstab file and add that line in file.

[gravityguy]

Excellent, finally ive got it!!

Thanks so much for all your help (and your patience). I very much appreciate it

Mikey

[devils casper]

glad to help you.