Xen users - May 2007 - Windows under Linux: access to Linux file system

Hi there,

I''m planning to run Windows as a guest under Gentoo Linux. However, I
wonder if Windows then is able to access the Linux file system (e.g.
reiser4) so that I wouldn''t need a seperate fat32 partition anymore.

Kind regards,

Natalie

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> I''m planning to run Windows as a guest under Gentoo Linux.
However, I
> wonder if Windows then is able to access the Linux file system (e.g.
> reiser4) so that I wouldn''t need a seperate fat32 partition
anymore.
You will still have to use samba to make filesystems from linux 
available to windows.

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com 
> [mailto:xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com] On Behalf Of 
> Natalie Kather
> Sent: 18 May 2007 14:51
> To: xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> Subject: [Xen-users] Windows under Linux: access to Linux file system
> 
> Hi there,
> 
> I''m planning to run Windows as a guest under Gentoo Linux.
However, I
> wonder if Windows then is able to access the Linux file system (e.g.
> reiser4) so that I wouldn''t need a seperate fat32 partition
anymore.
Well, this depends on how you look at things and what you want to do. 

First of all, Windows must (whether it''s virtual or not) be able to
"understand" the filesystem that it is using. This means that unless
somone comes up with a Windows filesystem driver for Reiser, Ext3 or
whatever you want to use, Windows itself will not be able to read a
Linux-type filesystem, only FAT(32) and NTFS are normally "understood"
by Windows. 

But this may not REALLY be what you want to do anyways... 

You don''t actually need to give windows it''s own partition
when it is
running within a virtual machine (as a guest on the "host machine") -
it
can use a file as "disk". This file can be inside any filesystem that
the host can read, which means that it can be inside a reiserFS
filesystem, for example. 

The next question (which you don''t ask here, but I''d like to
explain
anyways) is what happens if you would like Windows to be able to see
files held in Linux. This is a slightly different matter than the
filesystem that your Windows guest uses to boot from. Theoretically, you
can have a shared filesystem, but as soon as you want one of the owners
write to it, problems occur. So the solution here is to use one system
as a file-server for the other (so, for example, let the hose be a
file-server that Windows uses). This way, there''s no problems with
differences in "opinion" about what the content is and should be on
the
file-system. [And of course, networked access to filesystems are
"neutral" to the actual file-system used by the OS accessing it, so a
Windows system can access files stored in a ReiserFS or Sun ZFS without
any problems at all (aside from different ideas of whether "blah.txt"
is
a different or same filename as "Blah.txt")]. 

--
Mats
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Natalie
> 
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> The next question (which you don''t ask here, but I''d like
to explain
> anyways) is what happens if you would like Windows to be able to see
> files held in Linux.
Just a random bit of trivia from me here:

Qemu can (I think) export a Linux directory tree to a guest as a block device 
formatted with a FAT filesystem (!).  The host Linux can''t modify the
files
as far as I know (I''d suggest that''d be impossible to do
safely) but there
was talk of adding write support for the guest...

Anyhow, it could be handy for sharing a static filesytem tree or having guest 
FAT filesystems be easily accessible.  In theory this should be doable in Xen 
since the Qemu device models are used but I don''t know if it''s
plumbed in...

Cheers,
Mark
> This is a slightly different matter than the 
> filesystem that your Windows guest uses to boot from. Theoretically, you
> can have a shared filesystem, but as soon as you want one of the owners
> write to it, problems occur. So the solution here is to use one system
> as a file-server for the other (so, for example, let the hose be a
> file-server that Windows uses). This way, there''s no problems with
> differences in "opinion" about what the content is and should be
on the
> file-system. [And of course, networked access to filesystems are
> "neutral" to the actual file-system used by the OS accessing it,
so a
> Windows system can access files stored in a ReiserFS or Sun ZFS without
> any problems at all (aside from different ideas of whether
"blah.txt" is
> a different or same filename as "Blah.txt")].
>
> --
> Mats
>
> > Kind regards,
> >
> > Natalie
> >
> > Powered by Open-Xchange.com
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Xen-users mailing list
> > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>
> _______________________________________________
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> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users


-- 
Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat?  And no pedals!
Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard?
Dave: Skateboards have wheels.
Mark: My wheel has a wheel!

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Hi,

 >> I''m planning to run Windows as a guest under Gentoo Linux.
However, I
 >> wonder if Windows then is able to access the Linux file system (e.g.
 >> reiser4) so that I wouldn''t need a seperate fat32 partition
anymore.
 > First of all, Windows must (whether it''s virtual or not) be able
to
 > "understand" the filesystem that it is using. This means that
unless
what about installing Samba on the Linux host and attach Windows to this 
network-drive. I think this may be the easyest way to get access to 
Linux-file-systems!
-- 

Chau y hasta luego,

Thorolf

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com 
> [mailto:xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com] On Behalf Of 
> Thorolf Godawa
> Sent: 18 May 2007 22:27
> To: xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> Subject: Re: [Xen-users] Windows under Linux: access to Linux 
> file system
> 
> Hi,
> 
>  >> I''m planning to run Windows as a guest under Gentoo 
> Linux. However, I
>  >> wonder if Windows then is able to access the Linux file 
> system (e.g.
>  >> reiser4) so that I wouldn''t need a seperate fat32 
> partition anymore.
>  > First of all, Windows must (whether it''s virtual or not) be
able to
>  > "understand" the filesystem that it is using. This means 
> that unless
> what about installing Samba on the Linux host and attach 
> Windows to this 
> network-drive. I think this may be the easyest way to get access to 
> Linux-file-systems!
If you had read the second half of my post, you would have noticed that
I suggested using a "file-server". But I was trying to explain that
there are two parts to this question. As far as I know, Windows (not
using some form of "netboot") can''t boot of a network, which
means that
it still needs a filesystem (that it has file-system drivers for) to
boot. 

--
Mats
> -- 
> 
> Chau y hasta luego,
> 
> Thorolf
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> 
> 
> 


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