Typical nuisance: your machine has Windows XP and a Linux distro sharing a hard drive with dual boot. Whenever you are using your Linux system (say, Ubuntu 7.04 or something alike) your NTFS partitions get mounted automatically without any hassle (unless you left them hibernating) BUT the day you are working (or trying to work) in Windows and need some file from your Linux filesystem you either have to reboot or have had to copy that file to an USB pendrive or the NTFS partition beforehand.
There are tools that allow your Windows to read ext2 and ext3 partitions out there (if, on the other hand, you have SuSE or used ReiserFS, or any other file system… you’ll need to wait for another post) with varying degrees of functionality.
The one tool I can recommend to suit your ext2/ext3 partition reading from Windows is Explore2fs because of the very simple reason that is the one free program that actually worked in my computers. It’s free, very small in size, simple, efficient, it has a GUI, needs no installation and it does the trick.
There are a couple of catches, of course. Explore2fs does not integrate into Windows Explorer (which means you won’t see your ext3 partition by clicking in “My Computer”) and any file you want to retrieve must be imported into the NTFS partition (no previews, thumbnails, direct access and things of the sort).
In order to get Explore2fs all you need click in the official website link and download a binary version for Windows ( explore2fs-1.08beta9.zip is the one I’m using). Unzip the file, and double-click on the Tux icon in order to get it started.
It’s that simple.
Linux Mint 4.0 KDE community edition is available.
Dont’ get confused: this is not a KDE 4.0 or KDE 4.01 demo LiveCD but a full desktop system in a LiveDVD based on KDE 3.5.
In Linux Mint 4.0 KDE Community edition you’ll find the 2.6.22 kernel (Ubuntu Gutsy’s), KDE with a customized Compiz, many Linux Mint custom apps (mintInstall, mintWiFi, mintUpdate), customized versions of FireFox and Sunbird and many other typical Minty perks such as automatic support for NTFS partitions reading and writing, out-of-the box multimedia codecs.
The bad news is that in order to fit everything into a single disk, it had to be a DVD (996 MB). The good news is that it isn’t so big. Here’s the download mirror list.
Linux Mint 4.0 has been available since last November, which is the reason this post is included in the belated category.
Daryna, as it’s codenamed was released in two editions, standard and light, it’s based in Ubuntu but features some improvements in terms of out-of-the-box experience such as pre-installed multimedia codecs.
The installation LiveCD includes CompizFusion, Gnome 2.20, NTFS read and write support, migration assistant and many other good features have made Linux Mint 4.0 one of the big moves and shakers. Even the guys at distrowatch have hailed Daryna as THE distro for newcomers.
More information in the release notes and download link’s here.
PS. Ok, so GNOME is not your thing… XFCE, Fluxbox and KDE Linux Mint Editions are on the way, so just be patient.
Knoppix new releases have not been that common in the last few months, but the distro is alive and kicking. Klaus Knopper, the distro’s founder, has announced that Knoppix 5.3.0 will come to light at the CeBIT expo in Hannover, will be mad available through inclusion in the c’t magazine to be published during CeBIT and will be made available for download a bit later on.
The kernel will be 2.6.24, it will feature KDE 3.5.8 with Compiz, Iceweasel and Icedove, OpenOffice 2.3.1 and some other experimental features.
Get Knoppix 5.3.0 LiveDVD now.
While you can’t download it from any mirror now, the fine guys at Distrowatch have located a bittorrent in LinuxTracker for you to download: here’s the link.
The Sidux team decided to give us all a treat last december by releasing a fifth Sidux edition just after christmas. The Debian-Sid-Based distro came up with a LiveDVD (don’t jump, it’s only 1.4 GB) wich supports both i386 and x64 architectures in the same media. Extended hardware support for WiFi devices and ATI graphics cards and stability improvements, Xorg 7.3, and new initial localisations for languages other than German and English.
Among the newly supported WiFi chipsets are:
- Intel 3945
- Broadcom b 43
- Ralink rt2×00
- Realtek RTL8187
More information available in the release notes or, if you just can’t wait to get it, you can proceed to the mirror list.
