Kitz Forum
Computer Software => Linux => Topic started by: tonyappuk on November 03, 2008, 08:00:18 PM
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I found a useful if dangerous bit of free software recently which I thought some forumites might be interested in. I found it whilst trying to triple boot Centos by amending a grub file. The program is Ext2IFS and after it installs you can access and edit text files in Linux partitions from Windows Explorer. The download link is http://www.fs-driver.org/download/Ext2IFS_1_11a.exe and you run it from the Control Panel.
It hasn't so far solved my Centos problem but could be useful.
Tony
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I would certainly be very careful about using that. Text files in Linux systems use LF line endings, but Windows uses CR/LF so you would need to be sure that you use a text editor which preserves the correct line endings, or you might end up making the file unusable.
The other thing to be aware of is that it only fully supports ext2fs file systems, which are almost unused in modern Linux systems. It partly supports ext3fs (the journalled version of ext2fs) but there seem to be some caveats about this, and I would be very wary about trusting it. Other Linux file systems (and there are many) aren't supported at all.
Sorry if i seem to be pouring cold water, but I really think that if you need to edit files on a Linux system which you can't boot, the best and safest way would be to use one of the many live Linux CDs.
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In most ditro's there is normally a text editor built in.
On PCLinux I use Kwrite. ;)
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I am grateful for the warning about file endings. So far I haven't used the facility very much and each time I have performed the editing in Editplus, a programming text editor which I think preserves the original file ending. If you can't get into a useable Linux Operating System to do the editing in I thought this might be the way to do it. Your suggestion of a live CD is much more sensible and I shall try it.
Tony