Reading Mac File system from Ubuntu

[Mike Bigalke]

Last time we met someone questioned whether Linux could read/write to Mac File system.
I ran across two programs in the Ubuntu Synaptic Package Manager that can do just that.

Thus, System> Administration> Synaptic Package Manager > Find > hfsplus (tools to access HFS+ file system)
and     ""               ""                             ""                                       ""        hfsutils  (tools for reading and writing macintosh volumes)

Click the boxes, and apply the packages and you will then be able to mount Mac Volumes and read and write files.

I'm sure the other distros offer the same thing.

[Robert Citek]

Thanks, Mike. Are there also tools that allow resizing Mac file systems?

Regards,
- Robert

[Mike Bigalke]

Robert, No luck on that one.  I haven't found anything that can resize HFS+ partitions.

[Don Ellis]

Did you try using Google? ;-)

A Google search term of "resize hfs+ partition" (not too obscure, I hope ;-), returned a bunch of info that sounds helpful. I especially liked the MacWorld article: http://www.macworld.com/article/55274/2007/02/marchgeekfactor.html , which gives an undocumented option in the diskutil command.

If you're still running on a G3-vintage machine, another article http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=89960 directs itself to using the diskutil command there, but I think it's still closely-related narrative.

The articles also mention at least two commercial packages that will resize HFS+ partitions, though one of the articles indicated problems getting them to recognize unallocated space. One (iPartition) was cited as costing $45.

--Don Ellis

...

[Robert Citek]

On Feb 11, 2008 1:26 PM, Don Ellis <don....@gmail.com> wrote:
> Did you try using Google? ;-)

I did.

> The articles also mention at least two commercial packages that will resize
> HFS+ partitions, though one of the articles indicated problems getting them
> to recognize unallocated space. One (iPartition) was cited as costing $45.

I guess I should have been more clear. I'm looking for some
command-line tools that run under Linux (i.e. Knoppix) to clone and
resize (shrink/expand) HFS+ filesystems, something similar to
ntfsresize and resize2fs. I'm also curious to know if anyone has
tried such tools. The last I heard parted was supposed to handle
hfs+, but it didn't work for me.

Regards,
- Robert

[Sean Burns]

I think parted is supposed to work, but the person on this thread
says you have to disable journaling on the HFS+ partition:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=89960

HTH,
Sean

--
Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:39:15 -0600

[Mike Bigalke]

Gparted will let you shrink, move or copy HFS or HFS+ partitions but not grow them, at least that is what it says under the features menu.  Also, you can create HFS partitions, but not HFS+.  Don't have a spare hard drive or a Mac or I'd try it