Shared file system management between independent operating systems

• US 20070005661A1
• Filed: 06/29/2006
• Published: 01/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Insyde Software Corp
• Original Assignee: Kinglite Holdings Inc.
• Inventors: Yang, Chiang
• Granted Patent: US 8,195,624 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1767 Concurrency control, e.g. optimistic or pessimistic approaches

Abstract

A shared file system may be updated by a non-native operating system writing information to a change file, while a native operating system is in a suspend or hibernation mode; after writing, the non-native operating system is placed in a suspend or hibernation mode and the native system activates and then retrieves the updated information from the change file and writes the updated information to a shared file system. The native operating system returns to a suspend or hibernate state before the non-native operating resumes operation. The updated information may be written as provided by the non-native operating system, or further updated by the native operating system before being written to the shared file system. The change file is created by the native operating system, and may be a reserved portion of the shared file system or may be a separate portion of non-volatile memory. The native and non-native operating systems operate both concurrently and independent of one another; thereby, preventing conflicts during file system updating.

Claims

1. A file system updating method, comprising:

creating a change file;

writing updated information to the change file; and

writing the change file information to a shared file.

2. The file system updating method of claim 1, wherein the change file is created by reserving a predetermined portion of a memory as a buffer area.

3. The file system updating method of claim 2, wherein the predetermined memory portion has a size of between about 500 Kbytes-1 Gbyte.

4. The file system updating method of claim 1, wherein the change file is created by reserving a portion of the share file as a buffer area.

5. The file system updating method of claim 1, wherein the updated information is provided by a first application running on a first operating system.

6. The file system updating method of claim 5, wherein the change file information is written to the shared file by a second application running on a second operating system, the second operating system being active only when the first operating system is non-active, the first and second operating systems are independent of one another.

7. A shared file system updating method, comprising:

creating a change file memory location;

writing updated information to the change file memory location;

retrieving the updated information from the change file memory location; and

writing the updated information to a shared file system file.

8. The shared file system updating method of claim 7, wherein the change file memory location is created by a native operating system driver.

9. The shared file system updating method of claim 7, wherein the change file memory location is a reserved area of the shared file system.

10. The shared file system updating method of claim 7, wherein the updated information includes at least one of:

file name, offset value and updated data.

11. The shared file system updating method of claim 7, wherein the updated information is written to the change file by a non-native operating system driver.

12. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory including a shared file system, a native operating system and a non-native operating system, the memory further including instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

create a change file memory location,

write updated information to the change file memory location;

retrieve the updated information from the change file memory location, and

write the updated information to the shared file system.

13. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the change file memory location is created by the native operating system reserving an area of the memory for the storage of information.

14. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the change file memory location is a reserved area of the shared file system.

15. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the updated information is provided by the non-native operating system, the updated information including a file name, location offset value and updated data.

16. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein after the non-native operating system has provided the updated information, the non-native operating system is placed into a non-active state and the native operating system is placed into an active state, and the updated information is written to the shared file system by the native operating system accessing the file identified by the file name and location offset value, modifying the contents of such file by the updated data contained within the updated information, and storing the modified information in the accessed file.