Share your email between XP&Nix with Thunderbird,

[betamaxman]

This is realy a very easy thing to do even for the nix newbee.

First part is the most overlooked part of dual booting, but IMO the most important, and that is to have a vfat partition of 32 gigs so that you can share files between the two OSs, the best time to do this is when installing nix. the next part if you are using Fedora or Ubuntu is to edit the /etc/fstab file to auto mount your fat partition at boot, this can be difficult to explain here but suffice it to say you need to add a line to the file similar to this "/dev/hd?? /mnt/hd?? auto 00012" , or something lke this depending on your distro and hardware. You need to as root enter the /etc directory and open the /fstab file with kwrite or some other editor cmnd line stuff yes, but most all distros have a tool called "file manager super user mode" located in the menu under system. This will allow you use the GUi of your choice after you enter the root password when prompted (as in windows) and simply open /fstab with kwrite make your changes and leave. Another easer way is to boot knoppix and past knoppix's version of this file into your harddrive based distro (backup your origional /fstab just incase. If you use Open SuSe 10 (free now and on dvd) or Mandriva (formerly Mandrake) this is done for you.

Now this is completed the easy part is next;

First install Thunderbird in Windows and then in nix, don't worry about setting up your email accounts yet.

Next create a folder in your FAT partition booted into either nix or windows it does not matter, and call it mail or what ever you like.

Now run Tbird in each os, in nix after you setup your email account (uncheck that "use global folders" box it is less desirable) and uncheck "download messages now".

After Tbird is setup go to the edit tab, to your account name, then "server settings" now in here near the bottom you will see a browse button, click this and browse to the fat partition and then to your mail folder, and that is it nix is setup to use Tbird to download and read emails here, go ahead and download your messages, create folders, filters, etc, etc, note you will need to restart Tbird first.

Now boot up to windows and run Tbird and do the same thing as you did in Linux only this time you will find the server menu under the tools tab. When you are finished you will see the same emails folders you created in linux, and any folders you create in windows will also work in linux for as long as you use Tbird in both.

Also important because windows will now be seeing email and other files downloaded when booted into nix it is important to use a virus ap, good news there are many and more than a few free ones, most notably clam av and now AVG free is available in Redhat, Mandriva, and SuSe rpms, and offers a full GUI.:cool:

Edited March 10, 2006 by betamaxman