Importing photos from read-only device

[Sergio De Zordo <sergio dezordo gmail com>]

	Hi folks,

just a couple of questions: I got this external firewire drive where I  
have my iPhoto 7 Library stored for back-up. Now, I have succeeded in  
making it readable by a Ubuntu 7.10 machine (I had some trouble with  
file permissions) and I would like to use F-Spot in order to browse  
through the pictures.

Here come the questions:

1. Can I import in F-Spot recursively all the pictures contained in a  
read-only external drive, not having to copy them on the local drive?

2. If Answer (1) is 'yes', then: Is there any chance to retain the  
picture tags from iPhoto? My idea is the following: Use some plug-in  
or whatever to make iPhoto write EXIF keywords into the the files;  
Then import them in F-Spot hoping it will recognize such EXIF tags.

Regarding question (1), I tried the 'Import' function, but every time  
I select my external drive from the drop-down menu, F-Spot just stops  
responding and I have to kill it.

Thank you in advance.

Regards

	Sergio De Zordo