109 lines
5.0 KiB
HTML
109 lines
5.0 KiB
HTML
<HTML>
|
|
|
|
<HEAD> <TITLE>Introduction to Ext-OS/2</TITLE> </HEAD>
|
|
|
|
<BODY>
|
|
<P> <P> <H1>Read-Write Access to Linux Partitions Under OS/2</H1>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P> by <B>Larry Ayers</B> <A HREF="mailto:
|
|
layers@vax2.rain.gen.mo.us"><layers@vax2.rain.gen.mo.us></A><BR>
|
|
Copyright (c) 1996<BR> <H5>Published in Issue of the Linux Gazette</H5> <HR>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<CENTER><H2>Introduction</H2></CENTER>
|
|
Matthieu Willm, a German IBM employee, has been
|
|
creating (in his spare time) an ext2 filesystem driver for OS/2. It has been
|
|
through several beta levels now and seems stable and usable. Of course it
|
|
would be wise to have your backups all up-to-date before installing a package
|
|
which modifies the way your OS interprets the disk partition table!
|
|
<BODY>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<HR>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<CENTER><H3>Contents</H3></CENTER>
|
|
<P>The ext-os2 software is distributed as a zipped archive which contains
|
|
ample documentation, both in HTML format and in IBM's .inf format.
|
|
<P>An integral part of the package is a partition filter written by
|
|
Deon van der Westhuysen. This filter is loaded at bootup (via a config.sys
|
|
entry) and lets OS/2 assign drive letters to ext2 partitions. A switch can
|
|
follow the config.sys entry which will enable read-write access; the default
|
|
is read-only.
|
|
<P>Willm's filesystem driver is also loaded at boot-up. It's a strange
|
|
sensation to start up a filemanager under OS/2 and see several new
|
|
drive-letters included. Each Linux type 83 partition is assigned a
|
|
drive-letter beyond your present OS/2 and DOS partitions.
|
|
<P>As an example, my system's main linux partition becomes H:, and /usr/X11R6
|
|
|
|
becomes G:, and is not accessible from H:/X11R6. Symbolic links and
|
|
directory
|
|
mountings are ignored.
|
|
<CENTER><H3>Installation</H3></CENTER>
|
|
<P>The docs say you can install the package using the "Device Driver Install"
|
|
|
|
program, but for some reason this hasn't worked for me. The alternate manual
|
|
|
|
installation method, which consists of editing the config.sys file, worked
|
|
well, though.
|
|
<P>Since I don't always need to access Linux partitions, I did my config.sys
|
|
modifications to a copy named "config.l", in the \os2\boot directory, and
|
|
added a line (L: Linux access) to the altf1.bot file in the same directory.
|
|
This presents me with the choice of booting either with ext2 enabled or with
|
|
it disabled.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<CENTER><H3>The Monitor Utility</H3></CENTER>
|
|
<P>A PM notebook-style program is included which allows you to see how large
|
|
the dynamic cache has become, as well as a view of messages from the ifs
|
|
itself.<P>Click on these links to see screen shots of the monitor.<P>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="./gx/ayers/ext2_1.gif">Page One: Ext-OS/2 Monitor</A><BR>
|
|
<A HREF="./gx/ayers/ext2_2.gif">Page Two: Ext-OS/2 Monitor</A><BR>
|
|
<A HREF="./gx/ayers/ext2_3.gif">Page Three: Ext-OS/2 Monitor</A><BR>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<CENTER><H3>Caveats</H3></CENTER>
|
|
<P>Installation of Ext-OS/2 does increase OS/2's memory usage, depending on
|
|
how much memory you allocate in config.sys for the dynamic cache (the default
|
|
|
|
and minimum is 245 kb.). All in all you can expect about a 300-400 kb.
|
|
memory
|
|
hit. A small, invisible program called ext_lw.exe is started from the
|
|
config.sys; its purpose is to continually attempt to shrink the amount of
|
|
memory used for dynamic cache. Its efforts are visible in the monitor
|
|
notebook.
|
|
<P>One thing to watch for, say if you should have an irrestible urge to edit
|
|
your .fvwmrc file while in an OS/2 session, is that your file will be saved
|
|
with the extra carriage-return (^M) at the end of every line, and your file
|
|
probably won't work! Either use one of those ubiquitous dos-to-unix
|
|
utilities
|
|
on the file after editing it, or use an OS/2 editor that knows how to write a
|
|
|
|
unix text file (like FTE).
|
|
<P>By default, every time you boot back to Linux a filesystem check is
|
|
forced,
|
|
which increases boot time by a few seconds. This can be disabled, but I
|
|
wouldn't recommend it.
|
|
<P>Remember to back everything up first! This program has worked remarkably
|
|
well for me, but YMMV!<P>
|
|
<CENTER><H3>Where To Get It</H3></CENTER>
|
|
<P>The current (as of 28 Jan 1996) Ext-OS/2 package is available via ftp
|
|
from:
|
|
<P>
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/new/ext2_07b.zip">hobbes.nmsu.edu </A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/Incoming/ext2_07b.zip">
|
|
ftp.cc.gatech.edu </A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/os/os2/drivers/ifs/ext_07b.zip">
|
|
ftp.leo.org</A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<HR>
|
|
<BR>
|
|
Back up to the <A HREF="./lg_issue7.html">Linux Gazette!</A>
|
|
</BODY>
|
|
|
|
</HTML>
|