Re: Linux from NTLDR

[Digital Infra, Inc.]

Of course, current NTFS driver can write very poorly. But no problem.
First, please check Topologi Linux.
http://www.topologilinux.com/
In short, we solved this already. How we done is like this:

[WinNT] $ dd -infile=/dev/zero -size=1G > c:\aaa.ext2
-----------
[Linux] # insmod ntfs.o
[Linux] # mount -t ntfs /dev/hdc /mnt
[Linux] # mkext2fs /mnt/aaa.ext2
[Linux] # mount -t ext2 -o loop /mnt/aaa.ext2 /mnt2

Then, you can write /mnt2 freely.
And you can access a virtual loop back partition file from Windows with
some utilities like Explore2fs.
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm
This util can handle a file as a partition.


                    --- Okajima. Tokyo, Japan.



>On Sun, Aug 01, 2004 at 05:53:51AM +0900, Digital Infra, Inc. wrote:
>> What we has been committing is,
>>    1. Install Linux partitiln as a very big file on NTFS.
>>       In other words, you can install Linux without creating
>>       a new partition dedicated to Linux.
>>    2. Boot Linux from that big file by NTLDR.
>
>I see.
>
>In theory this could be done with an initrd that mounted the filesystem
>from the NTFS partition. However, I am quite unsure if the Linux NTFS
>driver really is safe to use for read-write operation.
>
>
>//Peter
>