Dual booting and sharing partition

Hi,
I am planning on installing Xubuntu and Arch on my laptop during the christmas break and have been reading around about how to best do this. I want to share the /home directory between these two installs to minimize duplicating files. I would like to know if there are any other folders that can be shared between two systems like Xubuntu and Arch.
Secondly, I would like to know if both Xubuntu and Arch can be installed on logical partitions within the same extended partitions.

This in only my opinion (there are many, many ways partitioning a dual-boot system), but I would personally not share /home (or any other system partition for that matter). Too much hassle (persmissions on your .dotfiles will be tricky), and not enough space savings to be worth the trouble.
Instead I would create a ‘extra’ partition and use that instead of /home for storing personal files/multimedia file in both OS’s. I would give it a label like ‘Multimedia’ or ‘Shared’ or ‘Data’ or whatever, and make this partition large enough to hold all my stuff.
Then just mount this shared partition to wherever you like in both OS’s, via /etc/fstab
Secondly)
Yes logical partitions are fine for installing (somebody correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that Linux does not care about being installed a on Primary or Logical partition). Just make sure you setup your bootloader properly.
Also the *biggest* advantage of using Logical partions is that you won’t really have a limit for the number of partitions you can create for each OS.

Similar Messages

Linux - OS X dual boot/encryption/shared partition suggestions?

Hi,
I've been wanting to encrypt my hard drive for a while and have a MacBook. Currently I have the following setup:
- sda1: GUID partition table
- sda2: OS X (~60GB)
- sda3: Arch (~15GB)
I mount my OS X partition using HFS+ (non-journaled) and keep everything in the OS X partition except for temp stuff on Linux (downloads I don't care about, various documents I might be working on but will eventually delete or move to OS X). This way, I have one repo for all my files. I use rsync to backup my Arch home dir to OS X and then use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup OS X to an external hard drive.
Now I'd like to do some encryption... but am not really sure how. Here's two scenarios I've considered after reading a bunch. Thoughts?
--- Option 1 ---
- sda1: GUID partition table
- sda2: HFS+ volume for OS X
--- TrueCrypt volume to be created and mounted at /home
- sda3: /boot for Linux
- sda4: Linux with dm-crypt/LUKS
--- just / (no LVM making separate partitions)
--- mount the OS X TrueCrypt volume for filesharing between OSs
Notes: I don't like this for a couple of reasons.
- I have to kind of guess at how much OS X will accumulate over time and make my TC volume for /home accordingly. If I ever run into issues... I'll have to backup, delete, make a new and larger TC volume and then copy it all over
--- Option 2 ---
- sda1: GUID partition table
- sda2: OS X
--- FireVault used on /home
- sda3: /boot for Linux
- sda4: Linux with dm-crypt/LUKS
--- take the plunge and just start keeping all my files on Linux instead of OS X (everything used to be on OS X and I'd just mount the HFS+ drive in Linux to access things)
--- perhaps create a TC volume file that can be used to share files between partitions via the OS X /Shared directory?
Notes: I like this better. Everything is encrypted and thus I can just estimate like 15-20GB for OS X and only keep OS X specific files there (iWork, i* files, etc.) and then make the rest of the disk available for Linux. Since dm-crypt can be used for the whole Linux partition I can let everything (/usr, /var, /home) grow however it wants and not worry about my bad partition size/TC container size predictions.
Remaining issues/questions:
- Still bummed that I can't just keep everything on one OS or the other and share unless I go the TrueCrypt container for OS X home route. I really like that feature now as, essentially, my Linux /home folder right now is just for .configs and temp... everything I actually care about is only in one place. I don't like the idea of having to "merge" two sets of documents I really care about and make the dir hierarchy work...
- Unanswered question remains of whether I can mount logical volumes on both OSs. If I have a logical HFS+ volume in an extended partition, can Linux mount that and vice versa (assuming the filesystem is readable by both, that is)?
- How others get around the issue of making partition size predictions when creating separate partitions for /home vs. /, /usr, etc.
- What partitions are nice to have on their own (besides /home)?
Any thoughts? Am I best just going with TrueCrypt? I've read a lot of people who vote against it due to the license, though I'm not clear on why exactly... just not "totally" open-source? For this reason, I guess I'm leaning toward the second option since I can use standard tools on each. I don't think that plausible deniability is a huge deal for me... though perhaps that could be seen as another advantage of TC? I'll shut up now. Serious thanks for any suggestions... I can't find hardly anything on OS X/Linux dual booting and the use of encryption.

Hi,
I've been wanting to encrypt my hard drive for a while and have a MacBook. Currently I have the following setup:
- sda1: GUID partition table
- sda2: OS X (~60GB)
- sda3: Arch (~15GB)
I mount my OS X partition using HFS+ (non-journaled) and keep everything in the OS X partition except for temp stuff on Linux (downloads I don't care about, various documents I might be working on but will eventually delete or move to OS X). This way, I have one repo for all my files. I use rsync to backup my Arch home dir to OS X and then use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup OS X to an external hard drive.
Now I'd like to do some encryption... but am not really sure how. Here's two scenarios I've considered after reading a bunch. Thoughts?
--- Option 1 ---
- sda1: GUID partition table
- sda2: HFS+ volume for OS X
--- TrueCrypt volume to be created and mounted at /home
- sda3: /boot for Linux
- sda4: Linux with dm-crypt/LUKS
--- just / (no LVM making separate partitions)
--- mount the OS X TrueCrypt volume for filesharing between OSs
Notes: I don't like this for a couple of reasons.
- I have to kind of guess at how much OS X will accumulate over time and make my TC volume for /home accordingly. If I ever run into issues... I'll have to backup, delete, make a new and larger TC volume and then copy it all over
--- Option 2 ---
- sda1: GUID partition table
- sda2: OS X
--- FireVault used on /home
- sda3: /boot for Linux
- sda4: Linux with dm-crypt/LUKS
--- take the plunge and just start keeping all my files on Linux instead of OS X (everything used to be on OS X and I'd just mount the HFS+ drive in Linux to access things)
--- perhaps create a TC volume file that can be used to share files between partitions via the OS X /Shared directory?
Notes: I like this better. Everything is encrypted and thus I can just estimate like 15-20GB for OS X and only keep OS X specific files there (iWork, i* files, etc.) and then make the rest of the disk available for Linux. Since dm-crypt can be used for the whole Linux partition I can let everything (/usr, /var, /home) grow however it wants and not worry about my bad partition size/TC container size predictions.
Remaining issues/questions:
- Still bummed that I can't just keep everything on one OS or the other and share unless I go the TrueCrypt container for OS X home route. I really like that feature now as, essentially, my Linux /home folder right now is just for .configs and temp... everything I actually care about is only in one place. I don't like the idea of having to "merge" two sets of documents I really care about and make the dir hierarchy work...
- Unanswered question remains of whether I can mount logical volumes on both OSs. If I have a logical HFS+ volume in an extended partition, can Linux mount that and vice versa (assuming the filesystem is readable by both, that is)?
- How others get around the issue of making partition size predictions when creating separate partitions for /home vs. /, /usr, etc.
- What partitions are nice to have on their own (besides /home)?
Any thoughts? Am I best just going with TrueCrypt? I've read a lot of people who vote against it due to the license, though I'm not clear on why exactly... just not "totally" open-source? For this reason, I guess I'm leaning toward the second option since I can use standard tools on each. I don't think that plausible deniability is a huge deal for me... though perhaps that could be seen as another advantage of TC? I'll shut up now. Serious thanks for any suggestions... I can't find hardly anything on OS X/Linux dual booting and the use of encryption.

Dual boot and windows games

I was wondering if dual booting would be a solution for me. I'm looking to play a game thats been released for windows pc, on my mac air. And came across the option of dual booting and having windows on my mac, if i did this would this allow me to run windows only games on my mac? the game is Zoo Tycoon 2

Yes.
(116320)

Dual booting /w mac mini and shared partition

I bought a mac mini a few months ago, I wanted to replace an old macbook which died.
It had osx 10.4 on it, probably a beta or early bootcamp. I had a tri-boot system with
a "shared partition", but when I've tried on my mini I get into problems.
I'd like to have at least a windows 7, and osx partition and a larger, shared partition on same drive.
On my last attempt I left the drive as single osx. Let boot camp partition it, booted to cd, installed..
After installing, and updating, windows I partitioned the drive for the "shared partition" and rebooted.
I could reboot into windows but osx would hang while booting. I had to download and re-install the system.
BTW I am using a usb cd/dvd-rw drive to boot into my windows cd
Can someone help me figure out what I did wrong or provide a howto, guide or link to get me through this?
Thanks for visiting
Geo

What year/model Mac mini, new, used? What Mac OS are you using?
Pre 10.7 you could add two OS's and an extra partition without too much problem (running rEFIt, BootLoader, etc) but 10.7 added a wrinkle to that.
With Lion and any other OS (10.7 and Windows, etc.) you actually already have a "triple boot" system with the invisible "Repair Partition" added and Apple doesn't support any more.
Here's an older post but basically the same answer except with Lion and W7 adding an exception to the rule.
People have added more partitions but you would have to do a search here or do a Yahoo/Google to find the directions for doing it on one HD.
(I've only used rEFIt and it worked fine for me, not doing it on one HD, I have a MacPro so it's easier to just use another HD)
Other options,
You can always install the Mac OS on an external HD or even have the external as your Data drive or depending on how large or how many files you want to transfer there's also the Thumb drives.
And there's also Parallels/VMWare that you can use to transfer stuff until you need to boot into Windows natively.

Dual boot Windows 7 partition help

I want to dual boot Windows 7 & arch but I need help with figuring out what partitions to make and where to put them because it seems the automatic partition-er won't do the trick for me.
I have two drives that I want to completely format for a fresh, clean install: a 60GB SSD & a 750GB hard drive. I want the end result to be that the SSD only has Windows 7 Pro x64 SP1 installed to it and I will point the 'My Documents', 'My Pictures', etc. to a NTFS partition on the hard disk drive ( I know how to do this folder pointing ). I don't want arch to touch the SSD if possible so I can reformat the SSD separately if I ever just want to reformat Windows. I only want arch to be on the hard disk for that reason. I don't think I care which one handles the OS switching at boot ( should I favor Windows MBR or syslinux? Please give advice. ) And I would assume I make the NTFS partition on the hard disk a primary partition so how do I split up arch for the 3 other primary partitions left since the auto partition from the arch boot CD uses 4?

I'm no expert, but the way I would do it would be like this:
1. Create partitions on the HDD for /, /boot, /home and swap, along with one (or more) for your Windows personal files
2. Set the BIOS to boot from the SSD.
3. Install Windows on the SSD.
4. Right-click the "My Documents" folder, select "properties", then the "Location" tab and choose the new location for the folder.
5. Install Arch on the HDD partitions, and allow the boot manager to install itself in the MBR of the SSD.
Then the whole boot process will be on the SSD... If you ever need to get rid of the Linux bootloader, you can overwrite it with a "clean" Windows one using bootrec.exe (see here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392).
Last edited by esuhl (2012-03-26 04:52:12)

Windows 7 Pro + Enterprise dual boot and BitLocker

Hi,
For testing purpose, I'm working on a machine I prepared for dual booting 2 differents "flavors" of Windows 7.
On single HD, I have 3 partitions:
1- BDE
2- Windows 7 Enterprise, connected in AD
3- Windows 7 Pro, workgroup.
Everything is working fine, until I try to encrypt my whole drive with BitLocker. Encryption goes fine for both Windows partitions and, on restart, selecting the first partition to boot into Windows 7 enterprise in AD will work fine too.
The problem comes out when trying to boot the Windows 7 Pro partition: BitLocker will ask the recovery key on each boot.
Is there any solution to this? Thanks a lot.

Hi,
The Bitlocker Drive Encryption is only supported in Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate.
Karen Hu
TechNet Community Support

X250 Dual Booting and Disk Management

Hi, when I got my X250, I got it with the intention of dual booting the system, with a Linux Distro (Probably Ubuntu in this case). However, when I took a look at the Disk Managment system (within Windows 8.1), it showed several partitions on the disk that are marked as 'Recovery Partitions, and they are placed at both the start and the end of the disk. What appears to be the boot partition and file system is somewhere in the middle, and so it makes it quite difficult to discern what I can do with these. Having checked back about 3 months after my first look, it appears that all the partitions apart from the boot ones are still 100% free (they have no data in them). Is Dual Booting still a viable option here, or will manipulating these partitions affect the performance? What should I look to do, because I still require Windows for the compatibilitiy, but I need to learn how to use Linux?

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
The GMA chip does have a weird things about it which may be causing a problem. Unless your physical RAM is high enough, it won't give you the full 64 MB of VRAM. Boot Camp may also have a bug which you should at least report to Apple's bootcamp AT apple.com e-mail address. There is also a Boot Camp forum here where you can find out just how much VRAM people are able to get out of the Boot Camp environment:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=218

Can my Macbook Pro support dual boot and Secret World

Hi
My MacBook Pro has the following specs
Processor 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 (11E53)
I was wondering if it can first of all, support dual boot, because I would like to play a Windows based MMORPG. And I was wondering if there are risks involved? I'm also worried because I like Mac's secure delete trash function and won't having a Windows platform affect that?
Furthermore, can it support playing Secret World with such specs?
Secret World is an MMORPG I'm not sure what the minimum requirements are.. It doesn't say, but anyone has a guess?
-EDIT
OS:      Windows XP (SP 1)/Vista (SP 1)/Windows 7 (SP 1)
PROCESSOR:      2.6 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU
MEMORY: At least 2GB RAM for Windows XP / 3GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7 *
VIDEO CARD:     nVidia 8800 series 512 VRAM or better/Radeon HD3850 512MB or better
DIRECTX: DirectX 9.0c Compatible

If you have an MBP with a Core 2 Duo processor and a clock speed of 2.16 or 2.33 GHz, your max is 3 GB. If you have a 2.2, 2.4, 2.5 or 2.6 GHz clock speed your max is 4 GB.
Check Apple menu > About this Mac for processor type and speed.
I can tell you what you should see - C2D at 2.16 or 2.33 GHz. Those machines have a 3 GB max stated by Apple, but will actually use ~3.2 GB if you have 2 x 2 GB installed, and you get the (marginal) benefit of having a matched pair. In that case, it's also 'normal' for About this Mac to show 4 GB even though the memory controller can only access a little over 3 GB.

Pros and cons of various dual boot and virtual options?

I have purchased a 500 GB hdd 8 GB RAM Macbook Air with the intent of being able to run a few PC programs (i.e., no Mac versions) a few times a week, both of which are radiology image viewing programs. I can cover other programs with Mac software versions.
Years ago I worked briefly with a computer that used Parallels. It seemed to be OK--in fact, there was a compatilbility mode that allowed me to run PC programs along with the native Mac programs, so it must have been a virtual setup.
With this new hardware, I can make my own choice about whether to do a frank dual boot or whether to run Windows 7 as a virtual machine, I guess, under Parallels or VMWare. I would appreciate any input from people who have experience with doing any of the combinations, including comments about how difficult the installation is/was and whether there is a noticeable slow-down because of use of resources, particularly with the virtual methods. My Air boots quite quickly--does the boot time into Win 7 with Boot Camp extend boot time significantly? What other questions should concern me? (one other question that I asked in a different part of the forum concerns the difference between PC and Mac keyboards and how that is handled with dual boot or virtual machines...)
Thanks
Ken K

There are some other options for running PC programs on your Mac besides installing Windows, which have the great advantage of not requiring Windows on your Mac, which is like putting a turd on your hamburger. Two options I have used are Wine winebottler.kronenberg.org and Crossover Run Windows on Mac and Linux, easily and affordably - CodeWeavers . Crossover is a bit easier to use, and Wine is free. Not every PC app will work on them, but many do.
Running a virtual machine will definitely be slower than boot camp. How slow will depend on the app and how much RAM it needs. MRIs and CTs with a lot of images can use a lot of disk space and memory.
If you have windows on your Mac you will need virus protection at least on the Windows part, which will slow your Mac down more.
I have used OsiriX for Mac, and it works well. OsiriX (Mac) - Download

[SOLVED] Cloning boot and var partitions to a new drive for booting

Ok first of all here's my setup:
fakeraid (dmraid) / and home on an OCZ Revodrive
boot with GRUB on a flash drive (since fakeraid doesn't support grub)
var and downloads/media folder on a 500GB WD Caviar drive
When I originally installed Arch I had the Caviar drive in my home server in a RAID5 array, so that's why I opted to install boot and grub on a flash drive simply for booting. Now that I have the drive in my desktop I've cloned the flash drive's partitions and MBR using dd:
#dd if=/dev/sde of=~/MBR.img bs=512 count=1
#dd if=/dev/sde1 of=~/boot.img
#dd if=/dev/sdc1 of=~/var.img
I then backed up my downloads/media partition, then removed the partition table, then used dd to put the img files on the Caviar drive.
#dd if=~/MBR.img of=/dev/sdc bs=512 count=1
#dd of=~/boot.img of=/dev/sdc1
#dd of=~/var.img of=/dev/sdc2
I also created labels for the filesystems and put those in fstab.
I'm able to mount both partitions, however I can't boot from the drive. I get a 'grub hard disk error' (no error number) when I put it as my first drive in the BIOS.
I can still use the flash drive as the first hard drive in the BIOS and boot from it, then it mounts the dmraid root partition and boots successfully. It is also able to mount the var and boot partitions in fstab.
Basically the only problem is that the MBR is somehow wrong. I then tried booting back into an Arch live USB and installing GRUB from the prompt:
grub
grub>setup (hd4,0) (in this case the Caviar drive's boot partition was /dev/sde1
So essentially what I'm asking is how GRUB handles the MBR. Is it specific to the partition table of the drive in which it resides when it's originally installed? For instance, since I had an 8GB flash drive with 2 partitions when I installed GRUB, is the backed up MBR no good for a 500GB drive with 3 partitions?
I have everything backed up so I can start with a fresh /boot and /var if need be....I'm just not sure where to start.
Thanks in advance.
Last edited by DarksideEE7 (2011-02-13 23:25:31)

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I tried to install GRUB from the GRUB shell in a live Arch USB. It failed on a few non-critical parts, and succeeded on the last part. I'm going to try again shortly, possibly I did something wrong. GRUB is able to find the stage files using:
#grub
grub>find /grub/stage1
grub> find /grub/stage1
(hd0,0)
(hd5,0)
grub>
(hd0,0) is the desired boot drive, while (hd5,0) is the current bootable flash drive with /boot and GRUB installed.
Here is the output of fdisk -l:
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sde'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
Disk /dev/sde: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 242251 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sde1 1 3907029167 1953514583+ ee GPT
Disk /dev/sdb: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders, total 117231408 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xedb72db9
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 2048 206847 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 206848 117227519 58510336 7 HPFS/NTFS
Disk /dev/sdd: 40.0 GB, 40018599936 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders, total 78161328 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Disk /dev/sdd doesn't contain a valid partition table
Disk /dev/sdc: 40.0 GB, 40018599936 bytes
32 heads, 32 sectors/track, 76329 cylinders, total 78161328 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb8372fcd
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 32 21484543 10742256 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 21484544 156317695 67416576 83 Linux
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8497e059
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 102400 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 206848 42149887 20971520 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 42149888 976773167 467311640 83 Linux
Disk /dev/dm-0: 80.0 GB, 80035053568 bytes
32 heads, 32 sectors/track, 152654 cylinders, total 156318464 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 65536 bytes / 131072 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb8372fcd
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/dm-0p1 32 21484543 10742256 83 Linux
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/dm-0p2 21484544 156317695 67416576 83 Linux
Disk /dev/dm-1: 11.0 GB, 11000070144 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1337 cylinders, total 21484512 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 65536 bytes / 131072 bytes
Alignment offset: 49152 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table
Disk /dev/dm-2: 69.0 GB, 69034573824 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8392 cylinders, total 134833152 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 65536 bytes / 131072 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Disk /dev/dm-2 doesn't contain a valid partition table
Disk /dev/sdf: 8086 MB, 8086618112 bytes
249 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1023 cylinders, total 15794176 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8497e059
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdf1 * 62 200693 100316 83 Linux
/dev/sdf2 200694 15794175 7796741 83 Linux
I'm using dmraid, so just to be clear I've configured the raid using:
#modprobe dm_mod
#dmraid -ay
Then I saw the array stored in /dev/mapper/silXXXXX. I then created partitions for /boot, /, and home. At that time I was hoping to get GRUB working with the AUR package grub2-dmraid. I wasn't able to get it working for some time, so I just went ahead and installed boot and GRUB to a separate USB flash drive.
Here is the output of df -h:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev 10M 268K 9.8M 3% /dev
/dev/mapper/sil_bgbgdjaddicbp1
11G 5.3G 4.3G 56% /
shm 6.0G 584K 6.0G 1% /dev/shm
/dev/mapper/sil_bgbgdjaddicbp2
64G 38G 23G 63% /home
/dev/sda1 95M 16M 75M 18% /boot
/dev/sda2 19G 142M 19G 1% /var
/dev/sda3 439G 148G 269G 36% /home/l33/Torrents
none 1000M 132K 1000M 1% /tmp
shm 6.0G 584K 6.0G 1% /dev/shm
/dev/sde1 1.8T 1.1T 665G 62% /mnt/Green
and cat /etc/mtab
proc /proc proc rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime
sys /sys sysfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime
udev /dev devtmpfs rw,nosuid,relatime,size=10240k,nr_inodes=1022975,mode=755
/dev/mapper/sil_bgbgdjaddicbp1 / ext4 rw,noatime,barrier=1,stripe=32,data=ordered
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw 0 0
shm /dev/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
/dev/mapper/sil_bgbgdjaddicbp2 /home ext4 rw,noatime 0 0
/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 rw 0 0
/dev/sda2 /var reiserfs rw,noatime 0 0
/dev/sda3 /home/l33/Torrents ext4 rw,noatime 0 0
none /tmp tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,size=1000M,mode=1777 0 0
shm /dev/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,size=6G 0 0
rpc_pipefs /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs rpc_pipefs rw 0 0
nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd nfsd rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
/dev/sde1 /mnt/Green ext4 rw 0 0
Also I don't have a /proc/mdstat. That's only for mdadm RAID setups, right? It's been quite some time since I've used mdadm so I can't remember.
EDIT:
So I booted into a live Arch USB and entered the grub shell. I ran:
#grub
grub> root (hd3,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
grub> setup (hd3)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists.....no
Checking if "/grub/stage1 exists.......yes
Checking if "/grub/stage2 exists.......yes
Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 exists....yes
Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd3)".....25 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /grub/stage1 (hd3) (hd3))1+25 p (hd3,0)/grub/stage2 /grub/menu.lst".......succeeded
Done.
Last time I recall more errors than this, then it reporting that one was a non-critical error, so I think the problem may be solved. More to come.
Last edited by DarksideEE7 (2011-02-13 23:18:44)

Security, dual boot os x partitions; making each invisible from each other?

I have partitioned my Mini's hard drive with the intention of using one partition for general exploratory google surfing, and the other partition for credit card transactions, etc, thereby keeping the latter free of nasties and avoiding hacker exploits. Is it possible to set each partition up to be invisible to the other?
It occured to me another way of doing this would be to take out the mini's hard drive, put it in a bootable firewire caddy and have a second external firewire hard drive; you would simply unplug the hard drive you weren't using or, preferably, there would be some physical switch to switch between the two. I prefer simple options to configuring a firewall to the nth degree, though I should mention that I bought a netgear router that apparently has security features. I need to read up on that, too, but at the moment I am exploring my security options and firewall settings.
Any help would be much appreciated!

I'm not a security expert or anything, but I don't actually have a whole lot of faith in the security of the "out of the box" OS X configuration. I gather the unix bits have a pretty good track record, but some of the GUI aspects seem to reflect a lackadaisical attitude toward security. Safari's "open safe files" setting, enabled by default, has gotten Apple into trouble by exacerbating other problems on at least three separate occasions. The fact that certain areas of the "/Library" folder can be written to by an "admin", thereby affecting other users, and without the need for a password, has been exploited by iOpener in "Panther", and by "oompa-loompa" in "Tiger". You would have though once would have been enough for either of these things. "Fool me once..." "Those that fail to learn from history..." Obviously, somebody isn't getting it.
So I think you are right to be concerned. I'm not sure how I would handle the situation, but to comment on your question, it is generally considered that the best way to deal with a compromised system is to erase the hard drive and restore everything from known "good" media. Given that approach, and since you are already willing to go to the effort of creating a separate, presumably uncompromised system on an external drive for your secure transactions, why not go all the way and keep that drive disconnected when not in use? It is possible to prevent volumes from being mounted automatically at boot time (try searching for "os x" and "/etc/fstab" for example), but this won't prevent mounting if the drive is unplugged by someone and plugged in again, at which time compromised system would be able to affect the external drive. Going into more speculative territory, maybe if one boot drive was formatted HFS+ and the other UFS (OS X supposedly supports both for booting), maybe the system files required for reading the non-boot filesystem type could be removed... But keeping it unplugged would seem to be much easier, and probably safer since there would be no physical connection...
and btw, despite all the bad things I have said about Apple's apparent attitude toward security, that article you linked to is inaccurate, out-dated (ie irrelevant), sensationalistic garbage.

Dual Boot and Same IP Address

Hi there,
thinking of installing XP on boot camp in my corporate environment, can anyone give me any indication that it would be problematic to have both the windows and mac os IP setting as the same, considering they will not both be on at the same time,
We are running low on our IP allocation from our Local Education Authority and wondered if this would work or cause issues, our Mac's are bound to OD and authenticate with AD, hoping to bind XP to AD domain for docs and windows programs
any thoughts welcomed
timaceuk

Hi Jeff,
Unfortunately this cannot be done, on the ASA packet classification is done on the basis of mac-address, destination nat and route, and here you are confusing the firewall, to which interface does the ip belong to. I haven't ever tried to do it, but it should cause you issues.
Thanks,
Varun Rao
Security Team,
Cisco TAC

Dual booting win 7 and arch: cannot install grub to partition

I have read the arch wiki page on dual booting and several other sources on line, but I am still struggling to get this to work.
I am trying to dual boot arch and windows 7 on my lenovo ideapad s205. the machine comes with windows 7 pre-installed.
I shrank the win 7 partition and added an extended partition with 3 logical partions for /boot, swap, and /.
I am able to install and run arch by installing grub to the mbr. when I do this, though, I cannot boot windows. (the windows section of grub menu.lst is uncommented and points toward hda0,0. I have tried hda 0,1 as well).
I have also tried to use the windows boot loader to load arch, as described in the arch wiki page on dual booting. The problem here is that, taking this approach, I should install grub to my /boot partition, but when I try to do this, the installer only allows me to install grub to sda or sdb (the usb stick).
I have read that grub should be able to boot linux from a logical partition. Is this so?
Is there something wrong with the arch installer that it is not giving me the option of installing to a partition rather than the mbr, or is this a problem with my partition scheme, or something else?
I am tempted to remove lenovo's recovery system, but on the other hand, I have already needed to use it several times while monkeying around with installing arch.
Thanks for any help.
UPDATE:
I now have the laptop dual-booting win 7 and arch. My solution ( adapted from here: http://helms-deep.cable.nu/~rwh/blog/?p=177) was to:
1. installed arch on the partitions I had created for it, but skipped the "install bootloader" stage.
2. in win 7, I downloaded and installed EasyBCD and made an entry for arch in it. I checked the option to "Use EasyBCD's copy of GRUB"
3. When I restarted, I got a grub error because the entry in grub's menu.lst was pointing at the wrong partitions for the kernel and root.
4. So I went back into the arch live disk, mounted the boot partition and edited menu.lst.
Now when I start the laptop, the windows boot loader starts and I can choose between win 7 and arch. when I select arch, grub4dos starts and gives me the option to start arch. this is not particularly elegant (nor is it fast), so I think this solution is less than ideal, but it does work.
I'd be interestd in any thoughts about what went wrong and what a better solution would be.
thanks.
Last edited by ratchet (2011-10-10 19:09:16)

ratchet wrote:II am able to install and run arch by installing grub to the mbr. when I do this, though, I cannot boot windows. (the windows section of grub menu.lst is uncommented and points toward hda0,0. I have tried hda 0,1 as well).
Is this a typo in your post or how it was in menu.lst? Surely it should be hd0,0 and not hda0,0? The entry I have in my menu.lst is as follows:
# (2) Windows
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
What was yours?
Last edited by JHeaton (2011-10-10 20:18:22)

How do I repair a Windows 7 partition when it is after Windows 8 partition in a Dual Boot Setup

I have a laptop that I purchased a year ago and which came pre-installed with Windows 8.
Recently, I successfully added Windows 7 as a dual-boot, and this worked OK. To obtain the space for Windows 7, I shrunk the Windows 8 partition.
In Disk Management, the Windows 8 partition is physically located after OEM and EFI partitions; Windows 7 partition is is adjacent to Windows 8.
All went well until I shrunk the Windows 8 partition further to increase the size of the Windows 7 partition, after which Windows 7 came up with a boot error....Windows 8 still boots OK.
I inserted my Windows 7 disk to perform a Startup/Repair, which failed because the first OS partition it sees is Windows 8 and a message tells me that I need to install the correct media for that system.
I searched for advice and assistance to solve the problem....to no avail - and had to completely re-install Windows 7 and the associated applications.....and I really don't want to have to go through this again.
I actually use Windows 7 more than 8, and if I have to lose one or the other, I would dump Windows 8.
So....is there a manageable way I can keep the two systems recoverable and migrateable to another disk in the future. If not, how do I safely remove the Windows 8 partition without damaging Windows 7? Ideally, I would just like to swap the partitions
round....but with EFI and BCD partitions, I am reluctant to go into the unknown.
Sorry....bit of a saga....but would appreciate any advice.
Rob Nick

Hi Rob,
Above all, as the purpose is to enlarge Windows 7 partition, please understand that shrink Windows 8 partition again cannot help on it. A partition can be expanded only if there is free space "after" it.
So you will still need to delete Windows 7 partition for expanding purpose.
If it is fine to just make Windows 7 back to boot order. Please try following command lines.
Note: Please run CMD in Administrator mode.
bcdedit /export “c:\boot”
This is a backup. You can delete it if things go successfully.
Then please create a new entry for Windows 7:
bcdedit /copy {current} /d “Windows 7”
It will provide an entry ID. Copy it and it will be used in following 2 command lines.
bcdedit /set {identifier} device partition=X
Replace X with the drive letter of Windows 7 system located.
bcdedit /displayorder {identifier} /addlast
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Need some help about Win 8.1 and linux with a dual boot

Hi!
I have a Lenovo z50-70 notebook and I have a Windows 8.1 on it. (The one which was shipped with this notebook...)
My concerns are Intalling Linux as a dual boot and loosing Windows 8.1.
As I am not familiar to Win 8.1, the product key is in the ?BIOS? and there's a lot of partitions...
If I install Linux Ubuntu (latest version) as a dual boot by manually making the partitions, etc. and then if I lose my Windows 8.1 system, how can I get it back?
I've made a backup of the system to the portable hdd but I don't know can I restore it, as I have no win installation disc and I am not sure if i can restore win 8.1 from the backup by using random win 8 installation disc that I've made from the downloaded ISO (for e.g. Win 8.1 pro iso from internet)...
I need a Linux distro for developing my Android ROM but I don't want to lose that Win 8.1 OS from my notebook. So.. What should I do?

Did you do a full disc backup of the C: Drive using a backup tool other than windows? If you did, then the recover of that partition will be up to your backup software.
If worse comes to worse, you can use the novo button to restore your computer to what it was like when it came from the factory. But there really is nothing to worry about. Create your new partition and just make sure that you install Linux to that partition. Make sure it is not the same size as any other partition, that way even if the Linux installer does not show the volume labels, you can tell which partition you want to install Linux in just by the size.
Hoov
Microsoft MVP - Consumer Security
SpywareHammer.com

Dual booting and sharing partition

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