Re: Linux on a fat partition

[John Haxby <jch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It's _possible_ to use a UMSDOS file type which stores the extra 
information you need for stuff like access control in much the same way 
that VFAT stores the extra information.  I don't believe that it's 
really recommended any more since, it says in the kernel configuration 
help "the disadvantage is that Linux becomes susceptible to DOS viruses 
and that UMSDOS is somewhat slower than ext2fs".   It also talks about 
needing a file called "umssync" and I'm not sure if Red Hat provide this 
(at least it's not on this machine I've got here).    There's more 
information in /usr/src/linux*/Documentation/Configure.help (you need 
kernel-source installed), just search for "CONFIG_UMSDOS_FS".

I'm not at all sure how you would go about installing on a FAT32 
partition without cooperation from anaconda.

I'm curious though why are shy of having two partitions.   My laptop 
(here) has WinXP on one partition and Linux on another (well, another 
three :-)  My home machine has two lots of Windows 2000 and Linux all on 
separate paritions.  My children's two PCs dual boot.   My mail server 
used to dual boot.   In fact, almost every PC I've ever had has dual 
booted with separate paritions for windows (everything from 95 onwards) 
and Linux and I've never yet had any problems with any of them.

jch

Price Technology wrote:

> On Saturday 07 June 2003 08:50, Gerry Tool wrote:
>  
>
> > Price Technology wrote:
> >    
> >
> > > Seems I remember Linux will install on a fat32 partition, though the
> > > performance is not as good.  ( best I recall)
> > >
> > > Anyone got any personal experience at that ??
> > >
> > > I'm using two hard drives for a dual boot system and would like to go
> > > back to using one. >
> > > Input ??
> > >      
> > You can still have two partitions with different file system types on the
> > same harddrive.
> >    
>
> Of this I am aware.  This is not what I had in mind though.  I ran into some 
> other issues in the past when I set my laptop up that way.  Long story, 
> mostly a winders thing.
>
> Joebewan
>
>
>
>