I installed LinuxLive on a USB drive and tried running it in Windows. I was pleased at how easy it was to run and that I could run Crunchbang Linux within a virtual machine running on Windows XP.

I read the documentation, but I could not find any way to access the Windows file system from the virtual machine. It sure seems like mounting the Windows file system should be possible when in the virtual machine, but when I did an 'ls -ld /dev/*', I did not see a device for the Windows file system that can be mounted. Below is an except of the /dev/directory listing where I have deleted all the tty and loop devices. Can anyone tell me if it is possible to mount the Windows file system?

Jim Anderson

----------------- /dev/* listing -------------------------
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Mar 31 15:08 pts
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 60 Mar 31 15:08 bus
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 80 Mar 31 15:08 bsg
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 120 Mar 31 15:08 disk
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 260 Mar 31 15:08 block
prw------- 1 root root 0 Mar 31 15:09 initctl
crw------- 1 root root 108, 0 Mar 31 15:09 ppp
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 60 Mar 31 15:09 net
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 31 15:09 stdout -> /proc/self/fd/1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 31 15:09 stdin -> /proc/self/fd/0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 31 15:09 stderr -> /proc/self/fd/2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Mar 31 15:09 fd -> /proc/self/fd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 Mar 31 15:09 core -> /proc/kcore
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Mar 31 15:09 MAKEDEV -> /bin/true
crw------- 1 root root 254, 0 Mar 31 15:09 rtc0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Mar 31 15:09 rtc -> rtc0
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 4, 64 Mar 31 15:09 ttyS0
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 4, 67 Mar 31 15:09 ttyS3
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 4, 66 Mar 31 15:09 ttyS2
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 4, 65 Mar 31 15:09 ttyS1
crw------- 1 root root 252, 0 Mar 31 15:09 hidraw0
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 7 Mar 31 15:09 full
crw------- 1 root root 1, 11 Mar 31 15:09 kmsg
crw-r----- 1 root kmem 1, 1 Mar 31 15:09 mem
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 3 Mar 31 15:09 null
crw------- 1 root root 21, 0 Mar 31 15:09 sg0
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 8 Mar 31 15:09 random
crw-rw---- 1 root cdrom 21, 1 Mar 31 15:09 sg1
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 9 Mar 31 15:09 urandom
crw-r----- 1 root kmem 1, 4 Mar 31 15:09 port
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 5 Mar 31 15:09 zero
crw------- 1 root root 10, 228 Mar 31 15:09 hpet
crw------- 1 root root 10, 62 Mar 31 15:09 cpu_dma_latency
crw------- 1 root root 10, 227 Mar 31 15:09 mcelog
crw------- 1 root root 10, 60 Mar 31 15:09 network_throughput
crw------- 1 root root 10, 61 Mar 31 15:09 network_latency
crw------- 1 root root 10, 1 Mar 31 15:09 psaux
crw------- 1 root root 10, 63 Mar 31 15:09 vga_arbiter
crw------- 1 root root 10, 231 Mar 31 15:09 snapshot
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 5, 0 Mar 31 15:09 tty
...
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 280 Mar 31 15:09 input
...
crw------- 1 root root 7, 1 Mar 31 15:09 vcs1
crw------- 1 root root 7, 128 Mar 31 15:09 vcsa
crw------- 1 root root 7, 129 Mar 31 15:09 vcsa1
crw------- 1 root root 7, 0 Mar 31 15:09 vcs
brw-rw----+ 1 root cdrom 11, 0 Mar 31 15:09 sr0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 Mar 31 15:09 scd0 -> sr0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 Mar 31 15:09 dvd -> sr0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 Mar 31 15:09 cdrom -> sr0
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 0 Mar 31 15:09 sda
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Mar 31 15:09 sndstat -> /proc/asound/oss/sndstat
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 1 Mar 31 15:09 sda1
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 180 Mar 31 15:09 snd
crw------- 1 root root 7, 2 Mar 31 15:09 vcs2
crw------- 1 root root 7, 130 Mar 31 15:09 vcsa2
crw------- 1 root root 7, 3 Mar 31 15:09 vcs3
crw------- 1 root root 7, 131 Mar 31 15:09 vcsa3
crw------- 1 root root 7, 4 Mar 31 15:09 vcs4
crw------- 1 root root 7, 132 Mar 31 15:09 vcsa4
crw------- 1 root root 7, 133 Mar 31 15:09 vcsa5
crw------- 1 root root 7, 5 Mar 31 15:09 vcs5
crw------- 1 root root 7, 6 Mar 31 15:09 vcs6
crw------- 1 root root 7, 134 Mar 31 15:09 vcsa6
drwxrwxrwt 3 root root 60 Mar 31 15:09 shm
crw-rw---- 1 root fuse 10, 229 Mar 31 15:09 fuse
srw-rw-rw- 1 root root 0 Mar 31 15:09 log
crw-rw-r--+ 1 root root 10, 59 Mar 31 15:09 rfkill
crw------- 1 root root 7, 7 Mar 31 15:09 vcs7
crw------- 1 root root 7, 135 Mar 31 15:09 vcsa7
crw------- 1 root root 5, 1 Mar 31 15:09 console
...
crw------- 1 root root 7, 8 Mar 31 15:09 vcs8
crw------- 1 root root 7, 136 Mar 31 15:09 vcsa8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2660 Mar 31 15:09 char
prw-r----- 1 root adm 0 Mar 31 15:11 xconsole
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 5, 2 Mar 31 15:12 ptmx

Never heard of mount the host file system from the guest, but i know you can access shared folders in the host as far you set it in the guest too. Under menu Devices/Shared Folders.

Regards

The purpose of a virtual machine is isolation from the host. Would not be good if the guest could access the host file system without your consent by using shared folders or network shares.

I disagree that the (single) purpose of a virtual machine is isolation from the host machine. In my case,
running a linux virtual machine on windows is ease of use. I would think that another purpose would be to run software on the host that runs in the virtual machine, but not on the host O/S.

Security is of course an issue, but in the case I am referring to, I am the owner of both the host environment and the virtual environment.

Thank you for your response. The replies to my post indicate that shared files will allow be to get to files on the host and this will work for me.