September 18, 2008

Xubuntu : Mount your OS X Partitions!

Xubuntu

Xubuntu is a light variant of Ubuntu with a simple interface and Low resource usage (more like a cut-down version of Ubuntu for low end machines). The User Interface (Xfce) is clutter free and simple. But when I installed it in my Mac Mini, I was not able to access my bluetooth keyboard (instructions to setup yours) and OS X Partitions. Mounting OS X partitions in Xubuntu is easy; let's have a look at it.



Creating a Mount Point

A mount Point is the place where you can mount the Partitions. Just create a directory where you want to mount your OS X partition (I created a mount point in my Desktop).

  • mkdir ~Desktop/your_drive_name_here
Now we need to find the partition where the OS X data are stored. fdisk command can be used to find information of your OS X partition.
  • sudo fdisk -l
Mounting the partition

Mounting is not a hard job in Xubuntu.
  • sudo mount -t hfsplus /dev/sda3 ~/Desktop/your_drive_name_here
Now everything is done,you can start using your OS X Partition in Xubuntu.

Unmounting the partition

To demount the partition you need to unmount it manually.
  • sudo umount your_drive_name_here

NB: If you wish to automate mounting process, you just need to edit the fstab file and your partition information there.
  • sudo gedit /etc/fstab will open fstab file in gedit (use vim instead of gedit, if it is not available in your machine).
find-out the below information within the file.
  • #dev/sda3
    /dev/sda3 _mountpoint hfsplus defaults 0 2
here replace /dev/sda3 with your Mac Partition information obtained from the fdisk -l command and replace _mountpoint with your mount point directory. Now you can save the file and reboot the machine. You'll have the partition mounted automatically when you login.

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