So, as noted in earlier posts, I decided the best way to share files between my Ubuntu 8.10 and Windows XP installations on my laptop was to use an NTFS partition for my home directory/My Documents.

Unfortunately, applications like wine issue serious warning messages or refuse to function all together.

Being lazy, I ignored this until I needed one of these applications.

At current, I’m attempting to mount the partitions with specified permissions and ownership.

UUID=4F975E2D139676A9 /media/HOME     ntfs    defaults,umask=077,uid=1000,gid=1000 0       1

The important entries are:

  • umask=077-This entry sets the permissions on all NTFS-mounted files and folders such that only the owner has access. This satisfies many applications, such as ssh, that require that files are only accessible to their owner.
  • uid=1000-This entry sets the ownership on all NTFS-mounted files and folders such that the owner is me. This solution is only useful because I’m the only one using this machine.
  • gid=1000-This entry sets the group for all NTFS-mounted files and folders such that the group is my primary group. This solution is only useful because I’m the only one using this machine.

This allows wine to work and gets rid of messages from gdm. I’m not sure what other applications may object to these permissions being set as such on the home directory. If I want to run anything on files in the home directory that relies on a user other than me (such as a web server), it won’t work.