How to hide drives from Linux MINT 19.1 in BIBM Boot Menu

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yoyo
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:06 pm

How to hide drives from Linux MINT 19.1 in BIBM Boot Menu

Post by yoyo »

I installed Mint 19.1 next to a Windows Home Server Partition.

When I boot Mint 19.1 I don't want it to have access to the Data HDD's in the server.
So I have set the [Ignore] option in the "MBR Details" in "Edit Menu Item" and set the non-GPT disk partitions on "Hide". I can't hide the GPT disk partitions.

But when I boot the Mint 19.1 partition it has access to the drives...
How can I block Mint 19.1 from seeing and accessing the Server HDD Drives/Partitions?
CyberSimian
Posts: 137
Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2016 12:13 pm

Re: How to hide drives from Linux MINT 19.1 in BIBM Boot Men

Post by CyberSimian »

yoyo wrote:
> When I boot Mint 19.1 I don't want it to have access to the Data HDD's in
> the server.
> So I have set the [Ignore] option in the "MBR Details" in
> "Edit Menu Item" and set the non-GPT disk partitions on
> "Hide". I can't hide the GPT disk partitions.

As I understand it, when you enable the "Ignore" or "Hide" settings, all that happens is that a bit flag is set somewhere in the partition table or partition header. It is the choice of the booted OS to decide whether it will obey those flags, or ignore those flags. Mint would seem to be ignoring them.

When BIBM or an OS is installed, it will usually try to be helpful. I suspect that when you installed Mint, it scanned all of the disks, and created default "mount" commands for the partitions that it found. These "mount" commands are executed each time that you boot Mint.

On your Mint system there should be a configuration file where these "mount" commands are specified. You need to delete or comment-out the "mount" commands for those partitions that you want to prevent Mint accessing. Someone else will have to tell you where this configuration file is found, as I don't know.

Note: it will still be possible for the Mint user to issue "mount" commands manually to access and modify your Windows Server disks. So the Mint user will need to exercise some self control, and choose not to issue those "mount" commands.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK
yoyo
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:06 pm

Re: How to hide drives from Linux MINT 19.1 in BIBM Boot Men

Post by yoyo »

I'm new to Linux.
I'm a DOS/Windows guy, but want to test out Linux and maybe want to use Linux (Ubuntu? or maybe even Mint?) as server software in the future.
In Windows those BIBM MBR flags worked fine. I guess I have to dig into Linux faster then planned. :?
And now while testing Linux to physically disconnect the drives then... to be safe...

Getting Mint to install into one partition with all the boot files was problematic already (yes, I already made the partition in BIBM and booted into it before install), so the transition from Windows to Linux is already not so nice. :|
And it is not my first transition to Linux attempt...
dnlathrop
Posts: 47
Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2012 10:21 pm

Re: How to hide drives from Linux MINT 19.1 in BIBM Boot Men

Post by dnlathrop »

yoyo wrote:
> I'm new to Linux.
> ...


I am very late to respond but if there still is interest in hiding a partition from Linux (at least in Ubuntu or Mint), you can use the Disks utility to hide partitions. When you launch it, it will ask for a password to gain root privileges. The disk and its partitions are shown graphically. Click on the partition you wish to hide, then click on a little gear icon just below that partition and select the option you desire.

If you merely want to make it difficult for a user to access a partition, then you can prevent it from mounting automatically. The configuration file for automatic mounts is /etc/fstab.
yoyo
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:06 pm

Re: How to hide drives from Linux MINT 19.1 in BIBM Boot Men

Post by yoyo »

Thank you for your answer.
Yes, it was to prevent users from seeing server data disks and being able to access the data disks. Or if the partitions/disks can been seen, blocking access to those partitions/disks. So that I could just test the OS on the server without all access and share rights set properly. I know doing the testing on a machine without the data disks attached would be the safest (I did unplug the data disks when I did the Linux test install), but I regularly had to use the server in it's old WHS2011 setup and had no other free machine at hand.

I now had already looked into sharing disks from Linux a bit more. Having to install a Samba server, etc... And to be safe I have (unplanned) been removing sensitive data from the servers before the transition testing. I made a backup of the current Linux partition so I can freely test away. But I have been rather busy lately so I have been planning the transition to after the summer holiday.

As you said I searched for the Disk Utility and I indeed see options for Mounting at system startup, Showing in user interface and more additional authorization requirements. I also found the fstab file in the File System\etc (/etc/fstab in Linux I guess) That is what I was looking for (if BIBM could not do it). So thank you for your help..!
:-)
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