fat32 file systems have no way to store Linux special file attributes. These include character device files, named pipes, fifos, and sockets. fat32 can also not store permition information; and under a unix-like operating system this is a must. It also can not store owner and group information for a file; and file size is limited to 2gb. You can also not store symbolic links or hard links on the file system; these features are almost required with modern Linux distirbutions. There are horrible cludges to get Linux to run off a fat32 file system such as umsdos and similar; however the lack of fault tolerance on fat32 will mean if something goes wrong recovering will be that much harder. You can run a Linux system on as little as a gig of disk space; (smaller if you want to cut corners) and the rest of the drive could be for dos. That said; most dos systems run in aproximately 200-300 megabytes of disk with all the stuff you probably want installed. You can of course have separate hard drives for each system; however this is usually overkill; partitioning the drive is usually all that is required. Watch out however; a bug in real dos 6.22 and earlier won't let you boot a dos partition past the first 2.1gb. I found this out the hard way. In fact it is possible to run dos inside Linux; check out dosemu; it is possible to get screen readers working inside here too. Regards, Kerry. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Karen Lewellen" <klewellen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 11:49 AM Subject: Re: quick basic, maybe silly queston? > Care to share why you do not recommend fat 32 for your root? > The structure I have in mind is two different hard drives, but I had > intended formating both as fat 32.Say on as it will impact the DOS > edition > chosen. > thanks > Karen > > On Wed, 16 Jan 2008, Joseph C. Lininger wrote: > >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >> Hash: SHA512 >> >> Yes, they can read fat or fat32 just fine. I don't recommend using fat >> or fat32 for your root filesystem for a variety of reasons, but if you >> have a partition for Linux and one for DOS Linux can read the DOS one >> just fine. >> Joe >> >> Karen Lewellen wrote: >>> Hi all, >>> I would rather look silly, than make a mistake, especially since at >>> least the DOS factor will be one before I get my new machine. >>> Having one built that will run an edition of DOS as its main os with >>> Linux on a separate drive. >>> Here is the silly question. >>> Can distros like Fedora and ebian read fat 32 partitions? >>> There are a few advantages to this in DOS, so I am wanting to use one >>> that supports fat 32 unless this will create a problem for the Linux >>> distribution. >>> Answer off list if this is just too newby a question lol. >>> Karen >>> >>> >>> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Speakup mailing list >>> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca >>> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >> >> - -- >> PGP SIGNED AND ENCRYPTED MAIL PREFERED >> Key ID: DA522C2A >> Key Fingerprint: 30FA 1B4F 8499 7206 549D BC3D C87C 8CDA DA52 2C2A >> Joseph C. Lininger, <jbahm at pcdesk.net> >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- >> Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32) >> Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org >> >> iQEVAwUBR44Kish8jNraUiwqAQrPqgf+PyqKQ+gDbul4aRrN8sOunOiJkIjRp+Zo >> 8crR2ZELDuRiKh/oPlecNRWVQM91YinYVGH1XcWAplO2LnJkAn7nTLq65DKf+T2M >> 44iFPcPifgq7zfN9T+kezDL4mQTH3I5+3CUUt9lLQkL9ZuywZMDenbf2sPBKftA3 >> /EuwOA8Z0tYxGcomCUEkSuGiZhTmIYMhm6gGWmv+m8W8hqDCzdUOLSUBe74Fm0R+ >> yujnHsWcH8O2h8DrG7oUkadB8bNrQQWuksAQn7ip3X2bqm89QC825Rny6NDgGM4w >> L+uNsMLleB82iXJkz9rFpYBOdwjygeMDy8TlcJtA7htjgC5VkRndyA== >> =EPCw >> -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Speakup mailing list >> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca >> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >> > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >
