I'd love to switch back to Linux and enjoy Houdini to the fullest extent with the best performance available for me, but I'm not quite so sure if that'll be a good idea. Mostly because, most of my drives are partitioned in the NTFS format.

I had Debian in mind, it being an old favorite of mine. But, would that be safe? Won't it damage anything? (I heard stories about writing onto NTFS partitions in/from Linux being risky). And, what kernels/Linux distributions offer the best - and safest - support for NTFS?

Thanks in advance!

Personally, I would not trust writing to NTFS since it's all reverse engineered. I format FAT32 so my partitions are available (and reliable) to Linux.

As for a distro, pick your favourite ) SESI kindly compiles for a variety of gcc versions. I use OpenSuSE 10 but unfortunately, Samba is quite badly broken. At school I use RH EL4, which now has a free version called CentOs which I also used and was quite reliable.

Cheers,

Peter B

Samba busted on SUSE 10? Hadn't noticed - can you point me to a thread somewhere? Google didn't find me anything. (PM me if you'd like)…thanks Peter…

Btw - I'll second that NTFS comment. FAT is a pain to use, NTFS is far better, but it's risky under Linux. As a rule, running primarily Windows with a little Linux is a hassle for exactly that reason. The other way around is better, simply have the linux systems as servers, but of course then you have to handle all the crap with “C:\ to /”…

Cheers,

J.C.

Couldn't one just use relative paths everywhere except for base path environment variables (eg. $JOB)?

I have a machine with both Linux and Windows.
Windows always in the first partition of course
Well in the past I use FAT32 like Peter have pointed, but i don't like FAT, is a very old and updated file system.
I now format the windows partition in NTFS, and have a huge partition for data that i share between windows and linux, I format this partition with Ext3 and access it from Windows XP using this driver:
http://www.fs-driver.org/ [fs-driver.org]
You have many tools to acces ext3/2 partitions from Windows:
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/ext2ifs.htm#Download [uranus.it.swin.edu.au]
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm [uranus.it.swin.edu.au]
http://freesourcecodes.tripod.com/ext2.htm [freesourcecodes.tripod.com]
http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/ext2.html [e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net]
http://www.fs-driver.org/ [fs-driver.org]
I have heard from many people that explore2fs is a very reliable solution. I personality use the first driver without problems.
Ah! avoid to use NTSF from Linux, you have, sopposes secure solutions like:
http://www.ntfs-linux.com/?fr=ggl [ntfs-linux.com]
http://www.linux-ntfs.org/ [linux-ntfs.org]
But I don't rely on these.
Hope this helps.

Couldn't one just use relative paths everywhere except for base path environment variables (eg. $JOB)?

Yup, but unfortunately there's lots of human error, to say nothing of the fact there's a lot more than just Houdini that you need to deal with. Writing wrappers for Linux<–>Windows is a business in itself.

Cheers,

J.C.

Just don't write to ntfs from linux. Read only.
What you could do is set up a temporary ‘buffer’ partition formatted as fat32 for which you use to copy data from your linux to windows, if required. There's no need to do this if you intend to steal data from your windows partition, as reading (or copying) is safe.

Also, you could just set up dedicated linux workstations for Houdini work, so if you needed any assets that artists might make under windows (photoshop textures, etc) you can steal them no problem.

You can install Total Commander and use ext2fs plug-in for it, which allows to read linux partitions right from windows. Also i've heard something about ext2 filesystem driver for windows, but i'm not sure about last.

Mudvin
You can install Total Commander and use ext2fs plug-in for it, which allows to read linux partitions right from windows. Also i've heard something about ext2 filesystem driver for windows, but i'm not sure about last.

See three messages before, I have posted many links to those drivers.
I use one of this drivers regularly on Windows XP and an ext3 partition without problems.

Hehe, didn't noticed your message