Note: Feel free to ask questions; I’m here to help and learn..

Today I feel so excited after writing my first boot script for my new Fedora 7 (Moonshine). The script is simple and all it does is mount Windows NTFS File systems on startup so that you can access and write your windows partition while using your linux.

So far, it was impossible to write to NTFS (because of some highly despised copyright issues from..euhh..ok)

With my workaround, you will be able to:

1) Boot on your linux machine and use it as usual,
2) Access and write your NTFS partition (containing Windows XP/Vista),
3) Worry not about mouting procedures.

All, you have to do is read carefully my artcle, follow it step-by-step, and sit back and relax.

Prerequisites:
I know, prereqs aren’t nice when all the simple steps are just below. Anyway, pass this test first and you are all done. However, don’t worry about googling for the prereq tools; they are all here:

Fedora 7 Moonshine Packages

Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 Packages

(Sorry for using rapidshare.com; I lack sponsorship -_-’ )

You need:
1) Fuse (a software that interacts with the userspace)
2) the ntfs-3g fuse plug-in.

Step1:

Create a folder. You will access that folder in linux just like you type C:/ in windows to list the contents of wherever Windows and its Documents and Settings etc are located.

mkdir /mnt/windows

Step2:
Extract the fuse_complete.fc7.tar.gz file to /opt/temp. Go into the directory where you have save the file (suppose it is on the Desktop, do a cd /home/myname/Desktop). Then, issue these commands:

su
mkdir /opt/temp
tar -xzf fuse_complete.fc7.tar.gz /opt/temp

Install fuse and ntfs-3g

cd /opt/temp
rpm -Uvh * --force --nodeps

Step3:

Now that you have installed Fuse and the NTFS plug-in, you have to configure Fedora such that it mounts the NTFS partition on each boot. The procedure is simple. I have written a simple script to do that:

#!/bin/bash
# Created by Shailen Sobhee
# chkconfig: 012345 99 02
# description: Mounts NTFS on startup

case $1 in
*)

echo “Mounting Pirated Windows XP NTFS Filesystem to /mnt/windows”
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows

;;
esac

#End of boot script

The script is called mntntfs and its located in /opt/temp. To allow Fedora to use the boot script, you have to copy it in the /etc/rc.d/init.d folder and run the following commands:

cp /opt/temp/mntntfs /etc/rc.d/init.d
cd /etc/rc.d/init.d
/sbin/chkconfig --add mntntfs
chmod +x mntntfs

Step4:

That’s it!! Reboot and check if fuse-ntfs works. Go to /mnt/windows to see if your windows has loaded.

Step5:

If the folder has not been mounted, then you are probably using another medium, other that ’sda1′ that I used in my script. In that case, you will have to check that manually:

Try one of these, while checking on another terminal screen if /mnt/windows has been mounted.

mount /dev/sda /mnt/windows

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/windows

mount /dev/hda /mnt/windows

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows

mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/windows

Try other combinations of mediums (sda,hda) to check your NTFS partition medium.

Do the necessary modification in the script:

vi /etc/rc.d/init.d/mntntfs

Have Fun!

And don’t forget to post your comments, so I can improve on this article. Thanks.

Shailen, serving the Open Source World, yet again..

To do: The Newbies’ Guide to NTFS for Linux (Jeff’s recommendation)

Updates:

3 Nov 2007: Minor code modifications/optimisations.

10 Nov 2007: Minor article update /improved explanations.