UMSDOS; other file systems

Forum: HD Install
Topic: UMSDOS; other file systems
started by: mcurtiss

Posted by mcurtiss on Sep. 03 2005,21:34

I think I remember reading that DSL uses UMSDOS, am I correct in that?

I am going to be setting up a dual boot win9x(FAT32)/linux laptop. Here is what one authority has to say about UMSDOS:

The name UMSDOS represents a Unix file system that is added to an existing Dos-FAT file system. This allows to manage in the same partition both a Dos (and connected) operating system and GNU/Linux. Actually, GNU/Linux uses the Dos directory C:\LINUX\.

The more common GNU/Linux distributions rarely allow to install GNU/Linux in a file system of this type. The reason is that this kind of installation is not very efficient and presents risks: a UMSDOS file system does not have the necessary features to guarantee a minimum security against the loss of data and a wrong power down may produce catastrophic results.

These problems, mainly due to the use of a FAT file system, are anyway known also in the Dos environment, so much so that the system of cache memory of (SMARTDRV.EXE (and similar) disks cannot use its full performance potential;, just to avoid security problems. However, the possibility of GNU/Linux to live together with Dos, allows to make test installations and to start studying this operating system.

My question to the group is:

Which file system is best to use on a dual boot machine which will allow maximum read write capabilities across Os's and still preserve the security bits of linux and the long file names of Windoze? Other distros of linux support a wide range of file systems. Is this true for DSL?

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 03 2005,23:36

There is no file system (as far as I know) that will allow you to do all of what you want. A fat partition will allow you to access the same drive in both Linux and Windows, but you will not be able to use file permissions which are a major part of Linux security. The best I know to recommend is to have a linux partition for linux, a fat32 or ntfs partition for windows, and a fat32 partition to share.

Posted by mcurtiss on Sep. 06 2005,20:43

oh Fudd, thanks for the reply.