Win4Lin User's Guide

About Device Definition

Use this view of the Device Definition window to view, modify, and create DOS disk volume definitions (sometimes called DOS Drives).

For more information about the general subject of device definitions, managing them, and interacting with the controls that are common to all views of the Device Definition window, see About Device Definition.

DOS Drive Definition

DOS drives include any physical DOS partitions available on your system as well as virtual disk volumes. The list of token names can be used to select a particular volume in order to view or modify its configuration parameters.

Physical Disk Volumes

DOS drive definitions are automatically created for all physical DOS partitions that exist on your system. Every time you reboot your Linux system these definitions are automatically updated if real DOS partitions were added or removed.

The tokens are named dosc, dosd, and so on, to correspond to the drive descriptions Native DOS c: and Native DOS d:, respectively. By default, if the DOS drives are not already readable and writeable by all users then the definitions are restricted to be for "root" user use only. To make a physical DOS partition available for general use, you need to change the definition's Usable By setting from "Root" to "All".

Note: When you change the "Usable By" setting of a real DOS partition from "Root" to "All", Win4Lin also changes the Linux permissions on the device file so that every user has permission to read and write it.

If for some reason a DOS drive definition for a physical DOS partition does not get automatically created by Win4Lin, then you can create a new drive definition for the DOS partition. To do this you generally follow the steps in the following section "Creating a New Virtual Disk Volume", but instead of specifying a normal filename you specify the Linux device name for the partition.

Virtual Disk Volumes

You also have one virtual DOS volume token available (named homevdrv) which defines a virtual volume for each user. For general information about virtual disk volumes and when to use them, see About Virtual Disk Volumes.

You can modify the attributes of any DOS drive using this window. See Modifying Volume Attributes.

You can also create new virtual disk volumes. See Creating a New Virtual Disk Volume.

Creating a New Virtual Disk Volume

To create a new virtual disk volume, follow these steps:

  1. Click on the New button to create a new token to identify your new virtual disk volume. (Alternatively, you can modify the attributes of an existing volume and then use the Save As button to save it as a new token.)

  2. In the Virtual or Physical Device File text box, type the name of the Linux file to be created and used as the virtual volume.

  3. Select whether you have entered a full Linux path or a path relative to a user's home directory. (If you create a virtual disk volume file name relative to a user's home directory, each user will have his or her own volume referred to by this token name.)

  4. Enter a description for the volume in the Description text box, and specify the appropriate Usable By and Failure Action settings. See About Device Definition if you need an explanation of the appropriate settings for these fields.

  5. Make any necessary changes in the Drive Options area to configure volume access attributes. See Modifying Volume Attributes for a complete description.

  6. Save the new drive definition by clicking on the Save button (or use Save As if you have not already created a new token).

  7. If you are creating a virtual device file using the full Linux path, click on the Create Virtual Disk Volume button. (If your path is relative to users' home directory, each user will be prompted to create the volume at the time he or she attaches it.)

    Another window is displayed in which you can specify the volume's size and the type of access that other users can have to the volume. After you specify the needed information, you are returned to this window.

Modifying Volume Attributes

You can modify the access attributes for a given volume as follows: