Comment Get your Linux on... (Score 1) 909
Now we need to finger out a way to get our Linux on with these systems in a Boot Camp scenario...
First - the Boot Loader / OS Loader
If I recall correctly, Apples BootX boot loader (both PPC/i386 Darwin) supported reading kernels from an ext2 filesystem. I'm just not sure if it actually had the code necessary to boot the Linux kernel. This would be a nice perk for Apples existing EFI BootX loader - if it doesn't already exist...
Second - Filesystems
The FAT32 format should be out of the question for any Windows installation due to potential filesystem inconsisitencies that could render Windows unbootable. Yeck. NTFS is read-only from Mac OS X. Windows has no (native and/or free) HFS+ support. What is the best option for an OS-independent shared filesystem?
Ext3 with Linux! Not only can you then boot our favorite free operating system, but you can also use that same filesystem to store your shared data (from an OS standpoint). The best part is you wont have any limitations like 4.0GB file sizes or read-only support.
There are existing projects for Ext2 on both platforms, as seen here:
http://ext2fsd.sourceforge.net/ - Windows
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsx/ - Mac OS X
I'm not sure if they support Ext3's journaling capabilities, but that would be a very nicely added bonus. Permissions could be a tricky thing if needed.
With some developer support both of these projects could greatly benefit those of us wishing to make use of dual booting, either with Boot Camp or the XOM OnMac solution (recently open sourced under their own license).
First - the Boot Loader / OS Loader
If I recall correctly, Apples BootX boot loader (both PPC/i386 Darwin) supported reading kernels from an ext2 filesystem. I'm just not sure if it actually had the code necessary to boot the Linux kernel. This would be a nice perk for Apples existing EFI BootX loader - if it doesn't already exist...
Second - Filesystems
The FAT32 format should be out of the question for any Windows installation due to potential filesystem inconsisitencies that could render Windows unbootable. Yeck. NTFS is read-only from Mac OS X. Windows has no (native and/or free) HFS+ support. What is the best option for an OS-independent shared filesystem?
Ext3 with Linux! Not only can you then boot our favorite free operating system, but you can also use that same filesystem to store your shared data (from an OS standpoint). The best part is you wont have any limitations like 4.0GB file sizes or read-only support.
There are existing projects for Ext2 on both platforms, as seen here:
http://ext2fsd.sourceforge.net/ - Windows
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsx/ - Mac OS X
I'm not sure if they support Ext3's journaling capabilities, but that would be a very nicely added bonus. Permissions could be a tricky thing if needed.
With some developer support both of these projects could greatly benefit those of us wishing to make use of dual booting, either with Boot Camp or the XOM OnMac solution (recently open sourced under their own license).
