Can I access my ubuntu files from winxp?

[J_Joyce]

Hi,
I'm a beginner to the world of linux and have been trying it out in my spare time for the last couple of weeks. while playing playing around with the settings and installing different program packages, I unfortunatly managed to kill the gui.

Finding myself presented with a console based logon screen, I realised my very limited knowledge of linux console commands does pose a problem. Oh well it seems that reinstalling is the easiest solution. Only problem is that I have about 300MB worth of packages sitting on the drive and i'm not too keen on having to re-download the lot once I have things up and running again.

So, does anyone know how I can access the drive and data from within windows xp (I use the linux boot loader to switch between xp and ubuntu) so that i can copy the packages from the tempory folder. That way i can copy the files back once i reload and save me downloading.

Thanks
-Jake

[Jen]

How dead is dead for the GUI? What happens or what sort of error messages do you get? What happens if you type startx at the command prompt?

[Morgenmuffel]

With regards to Ubuntu problems this forum is really good, I'm not trying to steer you away from pressf1, but when I was using Ubuntu, I found the answers to 90% of my disasters on that forum

also does ubuntu still have rescue mode in the boot screen?

I also think there was a command that let you reset your XFconfig? file (I screwed this up regularly and ended up with no GUI and had to run this command ), been a while i must say

[J_Joyce]

OK, I just jumped back on the pc and it seems to have fixed itself. Long story short I decided 'apt-get install gnome' since i have the kde version and wanted to install gnome to try. Restart the pc, the gnome logon manager had come up although i did choose otherwise and an error box pops up something along the lines of 'human theme error.'

So I decided to uninstall gnome and deal with it once I know more about linux, adept manager and remove all the packages that refer to gnome then logout.

This doesn't look good 'there is no logon manager for the graphic interface' is pridy much what the error message said 'clicks ok' and I get left with the command line. Hmm that's not fun. I didn't even think of restarting the pc assuming I would have to reinstall.

Tho it's all fixed now
Thanks anyway
-Jake

[Greven]

This thread reminded me of an EXT2 & 3 driver for winXP, but I can't find it back now.

[bob_doe_nz]

...I'm not trying to steer you away from pressf1, but when I was using Ubuntu, I found the answers to 90% of my disasters on that forum...

Did they say RTFA NOOB!!!????

[sal]

Would this help? via Google > http://www.chrysocome.net/explore2fs

Thats just for browsing the ext3 drive to maybe grab those packages you don't want to download again.

[TGoddard]

Did they say RTFA NOOB!!!????

I've never seen a Linux forum with people saying this. I'm sure there are plenty of examples of it happening but on all of the reputable fora you would find yourself banned pretty quickly.

Windows only supports the limited number of filesystems which Microsoft are willing to ship drivers for (i.e. NTFS, FAT and ISO9660). You can install extra drivers to make it work with ext3 and some of the other common filesystems but if you only need to fiddle with files you're probably better booting from a live CD (e.g. the Ubuntu one) and using the text editor on that.