want to share Moz profile on Win/Linux dual boot - how??

[subfuscpersona]

I have a dual boot W2K/linux (SUSE9.1pro) on my computer. Mozilla 1.6 is installed for each OS. As well as the browser, in W2K I use the mail component (which is set up for multiple mail/news accounts) and the calendar add-in.

In W2k I have a Mozilla profile in a directory on a partition formatted as fat32 (win terminology)/vfat (linux terminology) so that partition is read/write under both win and linux. The W2k/Mozilla uses that as the default profile.

QUESTION: I want Mozilla to have common data regardless of OS. I'm hoping this can be achieved by having Mozilla use the same profile for each OS. Am I right?
IF YES...How can I get the linux/Mozilla to use the profile on the win/linux partition AND make sure that this profile is not ovewritten when I set up the profile under linux???

Hoping for replies (especially from those who have successfully done this). TIA.

[mkmelin]

Because of absolute paths in the preferences you cannot directly use the same profile (although it may be almost possible in 1.7). You can however use almost all of the same data. Here is what I did. (I also hear you can handle alot throught symlinks but I couldn't get that working properly)

1. Set up the windows profile, but make sure to have the profile stored on a FAT (etc) partition, not NTFS.

Select the account in Mozillas mail program and choose "View settings for this account" on the right side. Under "Server Settings" you find "Local directory". This is where your mail is actually stored.

2. Set up the same profile in linux, and set the the mail and news accounts. Choose "View settings for this account". Under "Server settings" change Local Directory and newsrc file to point to the corresponding folders/file in windows. (The newsrc file is named <accountname>.rc in windows)

3. Locate your bookmarks file, it's named bookmarks.html (in your profile folder.) Create a file called 'user.js' n your profile folder. Put in a row where you define where your bookmarks file is located. For me this row became

user_pref("browser.bookmarks.file", "/mnt/hd1/d/.DATA/Mozilla/Profiles/magnus/5osfgwd0.slt/bookmarks.html");

You can also type about:config in the location bar, press enter, right-click ant take New -> String and fill in he key and value.

Settings take affect when you restart (all of) mozilla.

[subfuscpersona]

thx mkmelin - clear directions, worked perfect. I was also able to get shared win/linux access to a single copy of my mozilla address book by putting symlinks in my linux profile.

ONE MORE QUESTION: any ideas of how to share my mozilla calendar plugin appointments and events?

TIA for helping a little old lady

[mkmelin]

Good:)
I haven't tried, but you could try symlinking to the Calendar directory of your profile in windows.

[subfuscpersona]

Good:)
I haven't tried, but you could try symlinking to the Calendar directory of your profile in windows.

I found 2 ways to do this - either works

[1] in <path to linux profile>/Calendar directory, replace CalendarDataFile.ics with symlink to <path to shared win-linux partition and directory>/Calendar/CalendarDataFile.ics
OR
[2] edit the CalendarManager.rdf in <path to linux profile>/Calendar directory to point to the win-linux CalendarDataFile.ics file. The 3rd line in this code fragment shows my edit:

Code: Select all

<RDF:Description about="urn:calendarcontainer:calendar0"
 NC:name="My Calendar"
 NC:path="/windows/M/Mozilla/Profiles/jeh/q4f0h9km.slt/Calendar/CalendarDataFile.ics"

With your help I now have full win/linux sharing of Mozilla data but I gotta say it's time consuming to set up. Since Mozilla is cross-platform I hope they'll make cross-platform data sharing more transparent in future versions.

Thanks again for your timely replies and on-target help. you da man!

[emil pf]

I wanna do exactly the same thing in Suse 9.1 (personal), but I'm just one step (or maybe a mile) behind. My problem is this:

How do I make a propper install of mozilla in the KDE desktop ?
I installed Mozilla with root privl. under the default usr/local/mozilla and works fine when I run it from there, however, it is not placed on the desktop, and I cannot figure out how to make a shortcut ?
In connection to this, does anyone know how to replace the Konqueror browser with Mozilla ?

I would be very grateful for some piece of advice on this because I really wanna quit using MS.
Thanks, Emil

[subfuscpersona]

I installed Mozilla with root privl. under the default usr/local/mozilla and works fine when I run it from there, however, it is not placed on the desktop, and I cannot figure out how to make a shortcut ?

right-click on desktop - create new > file > link to application
in the dialogs the command to start mozilla is /usr/local/mozilla/mozilla; the mozilla icon is /usr/local/mozilla/icons/mozicon50.xpm

To put it on the KDE menu right-click on menu icon in panel or run the command kmenuedit to get the menu dialog window. The menu editor is also accessible in the control center under desktop > panels > menus tab. Unfortuately the Moz/linux installation script does not automatically create menu item and desktop icon as in windows.

does anyone know how to replace the Konqueror browser with Mozilla ?

Personally I use Konqueror for explorer-like functions and you'll need it should you wish to set up a mixed win/linux network using Samba (btw, SUSE personal only comes with the Samba client, not server) since Moz 1.6 does not understand the smb protocol which is the communication protocol used for network neighborhood browsing (Moz 1.7 will support smb). I don't think there is a "default browser" in linux but I could be wrong on this.

Good luck

[emil pf]

Thanks a lot. That was really easy. Im actually rather embarassed. Ill stick with Konq. as file browser.

However that profile / mail-sharing solution doesn't work for me. My win partition is NTFS.
I get the folder names but not the emails.

Is it just be luck having NFTS'ed ones partition ?

- Emil

[mkmelin]

Since linux can't write to NTFS you have to put it on a FAT partition.

What you can do is to set up the profile again (in win), and choose to put your profile on FAT. Notice the choose location when you set up a new mozilla profile.

If you don't have a FAT paritition at all, you'll have to create one if you have space or resize the ntfs partition if you don't.

[subfuscpersona]

emil pf said

that profile / mail-sharing solution doesn't work for me. My win partition is NTFS. I get the folder names but not the emails...Is it just be luck having NFTS'ed ones partition ?

XP uses NTFS by default so, as mkmelin said, you'll need a new partition that both linux and windows can write to as well as read from. This will be a data only partition and is very useful for a win/lin dual boot.

At the risk of elaborating what (to you) may be obvious, here's a more detailed explanation of step 1 (and if you look at my original post you'll see I'd already done all of this in windows prior to posting the question).

1.1) create a fat partition (the windows term is fat32; the linux term for the same filesystem is vfat). This can be a logical partition in an extended partition. You can do this in win or linux but may find it easier to do in windows. I used PartitionMagic8 to do this and if you're curious you can see my partition setup at
my drive partitons You'll notice my win/linux shared partition is (in windows) drive M and I'll use that to illustrate steps 1.2 and 1.3

1.2) you now need to setup SUSE-linux so it can "see" this new partition. Login to SUSE as root and create a directory for your vfat partition (this is called a mount point in linux terminology). SUSE9.x by default puts all your windows drives in sub-directories under /windows using the windows drive letters so let's be consistent. Using my setup as an example, since I want the windows "M" to be visible to SUSE I entered this command in the console

Code: Select all

md /windows/M

1.3) but wait...there's more! You'll want to have SUSE automatically "mount" this partition and to do that you'll need to edit (with kwrite or kate) the /etc/fstabs file. Here's the line I added to my fstabs file -

Code: Select all

/dev/hda6   /windows/M   vfat      users,gid=users,umask=0002,iocharset=utf8 0 0

(BTW, "hd" means hard disk, "a" means it's the first (master) physical hard drive in my computer and "6" means its the 2nd logical partition in the extended partition as logical partitions are numbered starting with 5. Your entry must reflect your own setup.) Save the file and reboot into windows

1.4) you now create a new profile in win/Mozilla located in some directory you create in your new fat32/vfat partition (in Moz - tools >switch profile >manage>create) and when you're in the "create profile" wizard make sure to "chose folder" and navigate to this directory. Create your new profile, exit Moz entirely

1.5) but wait...there's more! Last step is to copy everything from your old profile directory to your new profile directory. In my case my old (original) profile directory was

Code: Select all

C:\Documents and Settings\justme\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\fdezwa6o.slt

and everything there was copied to my new profile directory

Code: Select all

M:\Mozilla\Profiles\justmeagain\q4f0h9km.slt

Start Mozilla and check it out. Look okay? IF YES...

Whew!!! - you're DONE. Now proceed to mkmelin's step 2. PS - Was all this excruciating detail helpful or just information overload? No point restating the obvious if you were clear on it aleady. Let us know. Good luck!

[Guest]

You know subfuscpersona, the devil is always hidden in the excruciating detail
A thousand thanks mkmelin and subfuscpersona, now I know that the Mozilla community is not only great in theory.
But (yes I'm afraid there is a but) PartitionMagic is not kosher, and the demo will not allow you to make permanent changes. Therefore I'm in badly need of a freeware partition manager on win platform. Do you know any ?

[I have one physical HD, split in half with win/suse. I have enough free space so size is not a problem only slice ]

[emil pf]

Ooops, Its me Emil who just made a posting

[subfuscpersona]

there's a partition tool in YAST but don't use it unless you know how linux names drives - and don't use it on an NTFS partition. If you're more familiar with XP then do a google search or try these sites for free/trial XP software

http://www.download.com/
http://www.webattack.com/
http://www.nonags.com/nonags/
http://freeware.intrastar.net/
http://www.tucows.com/

[Mike Novack]

Using commercial software doesn't violate Kashrut, but I take it you don't have a licensed copy of Partition Magic. But you say you have free space so you don't need a partition tool capable of moving or resizing existing partitions, just one capable of creating a partition from freespace.

For that reason I don't understand the requirement that you need a freeware (or free software, not the same thing) partition manager let alone one runnign under Windows. Why not.......

a) An open software partition manager under Linux?
b) Whatever partition tool that came with your Linux distrobution. Thye just about always include a partition tool capable of creating a partition of designated size from freespace and formatting to a number of file systems. Take a look at the documantation for an "advanced" rather than fully automated Linux install. Just because you have used the install disk as far as creating a new partition doesn't mean you can abort at that point.
c) You presumably have the old DOS partition tool whihc agin, is capale of creatign a partition out of free space and formatting it.

[emil pf]

there's a partition tool in YAST but don't use it unless you know how linux names drives - and don't use it on an NTFS partition. If you're more familiar with XP then do a google search or try these sites for free/trial XP software

http://www.download.com/
http://www.webattack.com/
http://www.nonags.com/nonags/
http://freeware.intrastar.net/
http://www.tucows.com/

I checked out those places, but the partition tools I could find supporting ntfs are commercial and the restricted demo versions dont play. If you say YAST doesn't work on a ntfs partition, then I dont think mr Novacs' approach b) will work. Step c) seems a little enigmatic to me, sorry!

Hmmm, I just feel sorry a ever converted my win file system and tt just seems a little crazy to pay a lot of dollars for a partition manager when all I want is a simple one time operation, but I guess I'll have to do that or just hope a new version of Mozilla will make dual platform mailling easier.
Thanks anyway, Emil