Copying files from Linux to Windows

[tangrabg]

Hi,
I have a little problem. I installed Mandrake Linux 10.0 on my computer that already has Windows XP Pro with SP 1. Whenever I download a file in Linux, I try to move it to the mnt directory, which would copy the files to Windows. However, it says that the system is a read-only system. I talked to a friend, and he said that I need to recompile my kernel. The kicker here is that neither I nor he knows how to recompile the mandrake kernel so it can let me copy my files. If anyone can help me with this problem, it would be great.

 

[kamper]

I think you might be headed in the wrong direction there. /mnt is for mounting removable storage like cd's and stuff, not windows file transfer. You'll be wanting to look at Samba which may or may not already be installed on your system (being installed is still no guarantee that it'll work nicely without some kicking). The actually linux knowledgeable people in this forum will be along shortly to help you with that.

Edit: ignore that crap about samba. I totally misread your post, sorry.

 

[Cannabis]

Write support for NTFS filesystem is listed as experimental so it may cause problems, but this is how you would eneable it.(in fedora anyways).Should work for mandrake as well.

Log in as root

1. make sure kernel sources are installed
2. determine kernel version:
uname -a
3. cd /usr/src/linux-2.x.x
4. make oldconfig

This will create a .config file. Open it up and find it up and find the section that contains ntfs settings. Look for something like CONFIG_NTFS_WRITE=n (not sure exactly what its called, should just be commented out) and change the "n" to a "m".
Save the file and exit the editor. Then

make modules
It should ask you if you want write support enabled.
make modules_install

It will then compile you a new kernel. I didnt enable it on mine as i have read it can screw up your windows partition. If you want files to be accesssed by both OS's safely then you should probably make a fat32 partition and use that.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: Cannabis
If you want files to be accesssed by both OS's safely then you should probably make a fat32 partition and use that.

This would be the correct answer. Even though NTFS write support is no longer listed as experimental in the 2.6 kernel, IIRC there are limitations that will prevent it from working as you would expect. Write support is very limited in linux for NTFS. Another alternative would be to install the Captive NTFS driver, which makes use of Windows' own ntfs.sys driver.

 

[groovin]

burn it to cd!

otherwise the best way would be to throw in a FAt32 drive as already mentioned.

 

[silverpig]

I have a 30 GB fat32 partition on my system just for this "communication" purpose.

 

[tangrabg]

Thank you to all that replied to this.