How do I mount the file system of one distro from another?

[saikee]

Have XP, FC2, Suse and Mandrake in the same HDD. Last one bootable with floppy only so I want to mount Mandrake partition on either Suse or Fedora and copy its menu.lst across. With exception of FC2 all other distros have Grub bootloader in own partitions. I have also forced all partitions to have ext2.

The problem appears that each distro seems to do its own thing. FC2 mounts its own partition and nothing else (possible because it was the first Linux installed). In Suse I can see FC2 partitions (I made an extra /home partition to store common files) but not Mandrakes. Suse automatically rename the "/" to "/data1" and "/data2" etc. Suse also mounted the two XP partitions too.

Mandrake does not mount any of the other partitions.

What is the proper way to instruct Linux to mount say a /dev/hde8 partition belonging to another distro in the same HDD? I am not sure how it works out because each distro starts off with the same "/" mounting point.

I tried to edit the etc/fstab file to include an entry but Suse replies no such mounting point..

Just over two weeks old in Linux so can do with a quick tip here.

[Hayl]

make a directory to mount it to (i.e. /mnt/foo) and then:

mount /dev/whatever /mnt/foo

[saikee]

Hayl

Thanks.

Exactlyh what I needed. Not yet familar with Linux yet and have concentrated on Grub so far.

[happybunny]

do you always have to indicate the fs type?

mount -t ext2 /dev/whatever /dev/foo?

[Rinias]

You should probably look into editing your /etc/fstab file as well...

I have three Linux partitions, and I like to have them mounted in each other, in case I need to copy a file over from one to the other.

[saikee]

Hayl's suggestion works perfect for me.

I have foreseen problem by different distros arranging their own file formats and insisted ext2 throughout. So no problem with the file type.

I did try editing the /etc/fstab but a prior mounting operation appears necessary. Whatever I specify in /etc/fstab is no use unless Linux has information of the mounting point first.

So far only FC2 refused to mount the Windows NTFS partition whereas Mandrake 9.2 mounted it but gave me no permission to view it. Suse mounted the Windows NTFS automatically and I could use the photo there as Suse Screen background. Slowly I am getting there I think

[cluckk]

When you edit your fstab you will tell it in the file where everything is to be mounted. Of course before your can mount you need mount points. What I like to do is create direcotries under /mnt. Usually I will have /mnt/disks and then under this create a seperate point for each partition I want to mount. For example: /mnt/disks/suse /mnt/disks/mandrake /mnt/disks/fedora.

Once these are created just enter the partitions into your fstab according to the man page (use you existing one as an example). Afterward you can give (as root) /sbin/mount -a to mount these so you don't have to reboot to see if it works. If everything works then great (you will know if you can cd into those partitions and see the files, as root). If it doesn't work then you will have to edit some more.