Mozilla Dual-Boot: Sharing Mozilla Mail Messages and Settings
on a Dual Boot
Linux/Windows Set-up
(A Simple Solution for Sharing Mozilla Mail, Bookmarks, and
Settings
Across Two Or More Operating Systems)
This document explains how to share the same Mozilla Mail messages
and settings on a computer
with a dual-boot
installation of Windows and Linux.
You can have two or more operating systems on your computer, for
example Linux, Windows 2000, and Windows XP, and log on to each OS in
turn, but use the same Mozilla profile, with the very same emails and
settings! I tested this and it works with a triple-boot set-up as well. As long
as you use one OS at a atime, it should work with all of them.
You will be able to share the same
Mozilla suiteprofile across the two
operating systems installed on the computer, which means complete
availability of E-mail settings, E-mail messages and POP3 and SMTP
accounts, browser settings such as Mozilla bookmarks, the master
password for the security
device, the homepage and so on.
In short, my solution gives total access to the entire suite across
Linux/Windows, and that includes Composer, Address Book, the whole nine
yards.
What is required?
In order to share the Mozilla profile, one must have:
an available partition formatted FAT32 - preferably a third one
different that the root (Linux) or the administrator one
(Windows). Both Linux and Windows will write and read on
it safely; moreover the partition can be on the same hard-drive or not.
(Here are instructions on How
To Create A Shared FAT32 Partition).
passwords to log in as root and
administrator, respectively
an installation of matching Mozilla versions on both OSs (when
versions do not match funny things can happen)
Preparations
First off, back up the existing messages and settings -everything in
the profile
folder. Mozilla stores E-mail messages in a
profile, and it uses a format
that is readable from both Linux and Windows.
Where is the Mozilla
profile? Well...
In Windows 2000 and XP, look for C:\Documents and
Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default (or
another name given to the profile)
Under Linux, the profile created should be in
root/ in .mozilla/default (or another name given to the profile).
Step-by-step instructions
Supposing that this is a fresh installation, right after partitioning,
boot into one of the OSs and install Mozilla. Start Mozilla.
Step 1
After starting the default profile, go to Tools > Switch profile > Manage profiles > Create profile > Next > Enter new profile name. The
name that you type here becomes the folder where the profile will be
stored (for
example mine is called dual). Now, go on to > Choose folder - here choose the
path to the FAT partition where the profiles will be stored, for
example /hda3/shared/
Finish creating the profile, and start Mozilla with it. Now exit
Mozilla.
Step 2
Locate the folder where the new profile is stored, it should be
named
something like jdi34lhm.slt; similar to the name of the profile that
you have backed up
earlier. We will call this folder with already existing mail and
settings oldprofile123.slt.
Write down the name of the newprofile123.slt
folder that has just been created in the new profile directory, and
then rename
(or delete) this folder.
Paste here the oldprofile123.slt
profile directory from the location where you have backed it up
(CD-ROM, network,
etc). Now rename it with the name that Mozilla had just created for
the new profile - newprofile123.slt.The
name just written down a minute ago.
Start Mozilla. All settings and email, including Master Password for
the security device, should work normally. Test E-mail. Exit this OS.
Start the other OS.
Step 3
Start Mozilla and create a new profile with the same name in the same
destination folder on the FAT partition.
Done. This is it! Congratulations!
Start Mozilla with this new profile. The same email and settings should
work here too.
Now you can send and receive the same Mozilla E-mail from two different
OSs!
Note: You can create a new folder or a draft message to test this and
go back
to the
other OS once again to make double sure that everything is working.
Simple as it may sound, this solution took me hours to figure out. If
you like this solution, please quote this URL or link back to it.
Non-root user access on FAT partition
"So, I did some looking into how to enable write access on FAT
partitions for non-root users. The trick is to adjust the entry
in the /etc/fstab file for the partition in question. I won't
guarantee this is right, but as an example here's my entry for the
partition that appears as my C drive under Win2K:
(Before I changed that file, it just had "defaults" where there is now
"rw,suid,dev..." I looked at the man page for mount to see what
"defaults" meant, then copied those attributes and adjusted where I
thought necessary. It still didn't work (because at that point it
didn't have the final entry), so some more online searching brought me
to the umask=000 part. As I said, I won't guarantee this is
"right" but it seems to be working fine for me now."
(Here are other
computing solutions by Stuart)
Known issues:
When running mismatching versions of Mozilla on each OS, such as
1.7.0 under Linux and 1.7.5 under Windows, expect strange behaviour.
Prefernces will get rewritten with each new boot to the other OS.
Hibernation mode - Making changes in one OS and then reverting
from hibernation under the other one will obviously wreak havoc. Files
will get corrupted. Beware.
Notes:
This page has no affiliation whatsoever with owners or
makers
of the
applications presented here. This reading matter does not advertise or
endorse brands mentioned, it simply happens to be the set-up
that I use or like to use. Sources and resources are always quoted.
Should there be questions send E-mail to macsATnightmailDOTru.
Link back to this page or send me an email if this works for you.
If your fat disk is removable, that means you do not even
need to
dual
boot, you can do this from two different machines as long as the fat
disk is mounted on both.
This has been tried and proved to work on my set-up: Mozilla
1.7.x
for Linux (SuSE) and Mozilla 1.7.x for Windows,
Slackware 10 Linux triple boot. My guess
is that this
should work with any Mozilla 1.x version, most Linux distros and most
Windows OS versions.
Personal note: I have been courting Linux a long while before I
dared try it, and one of the main reasons to hold me back was exactly
that I could not share the same E-mail across platforms. The moment I
found this workaround (certainly not originally intended by Mozilla
developers) I
decided not only to boot more often to Linux, but to move there and
stay with it. I reckon that there are
many users out there who would like to give Linux a spin - this is one
less reason to procrastinate.
Disclaimer:
This method is empirical.
Everyone holding a root password is solely responsible for what
they do
to their machine.
This page has no affiliation whatsoever with owners or makers of the
applications presented here. This reading matter does not advertise or
endorse brands presented here, this simply happens to be the set-up
that I use or like to use. Sources and resources are always quoted.
Should there be questions send to macs AT nightmail DOT ru.