[cookiemonster]

I've got an 8GB microSD card. How should I partition the microSD card so that I can boot ubuntu from it, but still be able to access (part of) the card from another device such as a cellphone?

[ugm6hr]

Not sure cellphones will like multiple partitions on microSD cards, but can't hurt to try.

You will need a minimum of 4-5GB ext2/3 (I would suggest ext3) for Ubuntu, and probably FAT32 for the cellphone etc.

Use GParted to partition like this (try 2 primary partitions), and see if it still works in the cellphone.

[reflex]

I'd put the FAT32 partition first. I think that gives it the best chance of working in dumb devices, like cellphones.

[cookiemonster]

So, after 2 months of waiting, I FINALLY got my DSL installed (the only thing here that's not wireless) yesterday, and was able to tackle this. Here's what I did:

I booted off of my old live USB persistent install of Ubuntu, installed gparted (why on earth isn't that bundled with the default installation??) and used that on my microSD card to (resize and then) move the ext3 partition to the end of the disk. Then I created a primary FAT32 partition in front.

My phone won't recognize it, but more importantly, Windows cannot access it. The disk management console shows that it's there, but it won't let me assign a drive letter, or format it.

OK, so I tried going back into Ubuntu to delete the partition, & create a new partition in the unallocated space from within Windows. No go; same as before.

OK, so in Ubuntu I made the first partition a logical partition within an extended partition (with or without being labelled "lba"). Again, no go.

Another thing I noticed is that windows will also not let me change the drive letter assignment on the "Healthy (Active)" Ubuntu partition. In all cases, the error I get is, "The operation did not complete because the partition or volume is not enabled. To enable the partition or volume, restart the computer."

Of course, when I go back into Ubuntu, I can access both partitions just fine. Oh yeah, and I also tried FAT16, just for kicks.


Any ideas??

[cookiemonster]

I played around a bit more, and still no luck. I tried formatting the 1st partition as NTFS, and Windows still gives me the same errors, but also doesn't recognize that it's NTFS. Ubuntu can access everything just fine.

Also, Ubuntu takes noticeably longer to boot up.

Forget my cellphone, at this point I just want Windows to read the card! Any ideas?