Computer and Technology | Ubuntu Linux | Web Development

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My new laptop came with Windows XP preinstalled and though I am a Linux lover, I still decided to keep Windows and just install Linux on it on a different partition in a dual-boot setup so I can choose between Windows and Linux. I even managed to run Flash 9 on my 64-bit processor. There was one problem though. I wanted to share my Firefox, Thunderbird, and Gaim profiles between Windows and Linux. I knew it was doable so I started working on it. And guess what? I made it work and I’m now happy booting in either Windows and Linux and still seeing all my Firefox bookmarks, Thunderbird emails and account settings, as well as Gaim chat logs and accounts are all the same.

What did I do? It’s pretty simple actually. Again, the instructions below apply only for Debian Linux and its derivatives. Other distros can still use the same technique though.

Note! These set of instructions assume that you’re doing a clean install of Firefox, Thunderbird, and Gaim. You will need to adjust the instructions a bit if you already have an existing installation of any of the three.

Important! Backup important data before trying anything.

Disclaimer! The author does not assume responsibility for any data loss or damage of any kind incurred by following the instructions below.

The Windows Part

Step 1. Install Firefox, Thunderbird, and Gaim in Windows then create your email accounts in Thunderbird and user accounts in Gaim.

That’s it.

The Linux Part

Step 1. Install NTFS-3G. What is NTFS-3G? Well, it’s an NTFS driver for Linux that allows full read/write support for NTFS partitions. To do this, just type…

apt-get install ntfs-3g

Step 2. Edit /etc/fstab and add the line below…

/dev/hda1 /media/hda1 ntfs-3g users,exec,rw,umask=000,nls=utf8 0 0

You may need to change /dev/hda1 to whatever your Windows partition is. Also, feel free to change /media/hda1 to whatever you like.

Step 3. Mount your Windows Partition

mount /media/hda1

If it doesn’t work, then you might want to do the following and try again:

modprobe fuse

Step 4. Install Firefox (Iceweasel), Thunderbird (Icedove), and Gaim.

apt-get install iceweasel icedove gaim

Step 5. Start each of these applications once to make sure that they create their necessary profile folders. Do not create any accounts on Thunderbird or Gaim

Step 6. Open a terminal window and do the following:

cd ~/.mozilla/firefox
mv profiles.ini profiles.ini-bak
ln -s “/media/hda1/Documents and Settings/Your Username/Application Data/Mozilla/Firefox/profiles.ini” .
ln -s “/media/hda1/Documents and Settings/Your Username/Application Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles” .

cd ~/.mozilla-thunderbird/
mv profiles.ini profiles.ini-bak
ln -s “/media/hda1/Documents and Settings/Your Username/Application Data/Thunderbird/profiles.ini” .
ln -s “/media/hda1/Documents and Settings/Your Username/Application Data/Thunderbird/Profiles” .

cd ~/
mv .gaim .gaim-bak
ln -s “/media/hda1/Documents and Settings/Your Username/Application Data/.gaim” .

That’s it! You may now boot either in Windows or Linux and find your Firefox, Thunderbird, and Linux profiles exactly the same - sharing the same data.

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