HOWTO: NTFS with read/write support using ntfs-3g (easy method)

user@linux:~$ sudo pmount /dev/sda1

Filesystem: 'udf'
Filesystem: 'udf'
Filesystem: 'iso9660'
Filesystem: 'iso9660'
Filesystem: 'vfat'
Filesystem: 'vfat'
Filesystem: 'ntfs-3g'
Filesystem: 'ntfs-3g'
Filesystem: 'ntfs'

user@linux:~$ sudo pmount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1

Error: device /dev/sda1 is already mounted to /media/sda1
user@linux:~$ sudo pumount /dev/sda1

user@linux:~$ sudo pmount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1
Filesystem: 'ntfs-3g'
fusermount: mountpoint is not empty
fusermount: if you are sure this is safe, use the 'nonempty' mount option
fuse_mount failed.
Unmounting /dev/sda1 (External)

edit: the above messages can be duplicated on my system.

dmesg | tail

[17184849.436000] UDF-fs: No VRS found
[17184849.504000] Unable to identify CD-ROM format.
[17184849.568000] Unable to identify CD-ROM format.
[17184849.572000] FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
[17184849.572000] FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
[17184849.572000] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda1.
[17184849.580000] FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
[17184849.580000] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda1.
[17184849.824000] NTFS-fs warning (device sda1): parse_options(): Option iocharset is deprecated. Please use option nls=<charsetname> in the future.
[17184849.864000] NTFS volume version 3.1.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by givré

All say in the error message. ntfs-3g need a clean partition to work. Reboot in windows, mount it, unmount it cleanly, and restart. That should do the trick.

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Thank you givre,
I rebooted, and I see a '189.9 GB Volume' but when I try to open it, it says:

mount: only root can mount

Any ideas?

I'm getting this when I try to mount my external drive:

Code:

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user@linux:~$ sudo pmount /dev/sdc1
Filesystem: 'udf'
Filesystem: 'udf'
Filesystem: 'iso9660'
Filesystem: 'iso9660'
Filesystem: 'vfat'
Filesystem: 'vfat'
Filesystem: 'ntfs-3g'
Filesystem: 'ntfs-3g'
Filesystem: 'ntfs'

user@linux:~$ pmount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdc1
Filesystem: 'ntfs-3g'
fusermount: mountpoint is not empty
fusermount: if you are sure this is safe, use the 'nonempty' mount option
fuse_mount failed.
Unmounting /dev/sdc1 (LACIE)

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I missed something here and got this warning.
ME n:~$ gksu gedit /etc/fstab
///////
(gedit:7267): GnomeUI-WARNING **: While connecting to session manager:
Authentication Rejected, reason : None of the authentication protocols specified are supported and host-based authentication failed.
//////////
So any help here and I would be grateful
best regards

I have my ntfs partition mounted, but I can't do anything with the files on there. I tried to open an .avi bt it said I don't have the proper permissions to acsess the files. Please Help

I get to step 3 and run into problems.
The terminal indicates a GnomeUI warning. It reads:
paul@paul-desktop:~$ sudo dpkg -i ntfs-3g_20070714-BETA-1_i 386.deb
Selecting previously deselected package ntfs-3g.
(Reading database ... 89196 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking ntfs-3g (from ntfs-3g_20070714-BETA-1_i386.deb) . ..
Setting up ntfs-3g (20070714-BETA-1) ...

paul@paul-desktop:~$ sudo fdisk -l|grep NTFS
/dev/hdb1 * 1 19928 160071628+ 7 HPF S/NTFS
paul@paul-desktop:~$ gksu gedit /etc/fstab

(gedit:6092): GnomeUI-WARNING **: While connecting to sessi on manager:
Authentication Rejected, reason : None of the authenticatio n protocols specified are supported and host-based authenti cation failed.
paul@paul-desktop:~$ sudo fdisk -l|grep NTFS
/dev/hdb1 * 1 19928 160071628+ 7 HPF S/NTFS
paul@paul-desktop:~$ gksu gedit /etc/fstab

(gedit:6253): GnomeUI-WARNING **: While connecting to session manager:
Authentication Rejected, reason : None of the authentication protocols specified are supported and host-based authentication failed.
paul@paul-desktop:~$

ps. I'm a newbie and in uncharted waters.

Ok,lot's of things this morning.

@domino & Poka64 : Thank you so much to take the time to test it :D .
Unfortunatly, that's not really the kind of error i expected. Normally, pmount mount device in /media/device, so check first your media directory, and report what you have in it.
A second test would be to to set a label which we are sure to be empty:

Code:

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sudo mkdir /media/myusbdisk
pmount /dev/sd* myusbdisk

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I could add the nonempty option to pmount but we have to be sure that ntfs-3g is wrong, because this could be quite dangerouse.
Thanks agein, that's quite hard to test something when you don't have the hardware for 8)

@jjtechno & paulji: That's a known false alert. If gedit run, don't worry.

@a_swan89 : Let see your /etc/fstab and your /etc/mtab

@bitwise : external USB drive are a pain, normaly it should be mount at startup but the device name could change. We are in the process to have a better solution, but this not really ready yet. So for the moment be sure that the name of your usb device didn't change:

Code:

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sudo fdsik -l

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and compare it to what you have in /etc/fstab.
If it's the same, try to mount it with

Code:

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sudo mount /dev/sdb1

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and past here the possible error.
if they are not the same, wait a bit ;)
For the moment, you can also mount it with

Code:

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sudo ntfs-3g /dev/<your device give by fdisk> /media/<your mount point> -o silent,umask=0,locale=en_US.utf8

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ok, that makes sense now. I was under th impression that pmount would automount, auto-create the directory in /media, and create the link on the desktop. I was swrong.

I already had the /media/External directory so all I had to to was append the pmount command with "External". Thanks for the tip.

user@linux:~$ pmount /dev/sda1 External
Filesystem: 'udf'
Filesystem: 'udf'
Filesystem: 'iso9660'
Filesystem: 'iso9660'
Filesystem: 'vfat'
Filesystem: 'vfat'
Filesystem: 'ntfs-3g'

It mounted correctly but i had to browse to the /media/External directory in order to be able to get full r/w access the ext drive.

No you was right, normally pmount will do all that automaticly (create directory...) so i didn't understand why it's work with ntfs but not with ntfs-3g. Perhaps i forget some option. I'm at work right now, so i'll do that tonight. Thanks.

P.S: did you check that you have something in /media which could be the reason why ntfs-3g stuck.
gnome-volume-manager don't pass option to pmount, so we have to be sure that just pmount /dev/sd* work so all will be automatic (plug & play ;) )

No worries. It's like you get paid for doing what you do :).

Quote:

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P.S: did you check that you have something in /media which could be the reason why ntfs-3g stuck.

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Code:

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~$ dir /media
cdrom  cdrom0  FAT32  hda1  hda2  hdc5  hdc6  hdc7  macdisk  Vista  External  WinXP

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I deleted the "External" directory in the /media folder and re-ran testa.

Test 1:

Code:

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~$ pmount /dev/sda1
Filesystem: 'udf'
Filesystem: 'udf'
Filesystem: 'iso9660'
Filesystem: 'iso9660'
Filesystem: 'vfat'
Filesystem: 'vfat'
Filesystem: 'ntfs-3g'
Filesystem: 'ntfs-3g'
Filesystem: 'ntfs'  <-- stopped here

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Test 1 mounted with ntfs driver (no write support).

Test 2:

Code:

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:~$ pmount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1
Filesystem: 'ntfs-3g'
fusermount: mountpoint is not empty
fusermount: if you are sure this is safe, use the 'nonempty' mount option
fuse_mount failed.
Unmounting /dev/sda1 (External)

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Test 3:

Code:

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~$ sudo mkdir /media/External
~$ pmount /dev/sda1 External
Filesystem: 'udf'
Filesystem: 'udf'
Filesystem: 'iso9660'
Filesystem: 'iso9660'
Filesystem: 'vfat'
Filesystem: 'vfat'
Filesystem: 'ntfs-3g'

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Test 3 mounts but doesn't place the drive icon on the desktop. As I posted earlier, i needed to browse to the /media directory go gain access to the drive.