[NTLUG:Discuss] Don't do as I did

[Leroy Tennison]

Decided to change a partition under Linux to NTFS (from ext3) so it 
would be the shared data area between Linux and Windows.  On reboot it 
timed out and went to the emergency console (SuSE 13.2).  Read the 
message about the partition and removed it from fstab (it was 
optional).  Next boot was fine so I mounted the partition without 
issue.  Unmounted and ran fsck which reported no problems.  Then it 
dawned on me "Is Linux using the UUID to mount the partition?"  Sure 
enough it was and the UUID had changed.  Fixed that and everything was 
fine.  Hope this helps someone else.

Second discovery, used dd to copy a bootable DVD image to a USB stick.  
It doesn't work if you want to boot from that USB stick. Apparently 
there's some underlying magic to it.  Found SuSE's Image Writer which 
worked.  If you are curious then use fdisk and parted to look at the 
partition structure on a USB which successfully boots.  Assume it's 
/dev/sdb.  fdisk /dev/sdb will show a "plain" type 07 partition.  
However, if you do fdisk /dev/sdb1 it will show embedded partitions.  
parted knows something is odd and complains.

Third discovery, tried to burn a Windows OS dvd with K3b which kept 
saying "insert media" when (good) blank media was inserted.  Found out 
through other means that the Windows image was almost 5GB - too big for 
the 4.7 DVD I was trying to use.  K3b apparently detected but didn't 
clearly report it.  Brasero did clearly identify the problem.

Learning a lot the hard way this week...