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

[flipfone]

first let me say this was an excellent how to. Worked perfectly. Thank you! My only question is that after i delete files on the ntfs drive the free space doesnt update. i had 646 megs free and i just deleted about 15 gb and it still says 646 free. Any ideas?
Thank you again!

[givré]

first let me say this was an excellent how to. Worked perfectly. Thank you! My only question is that after i delete files on the ntfs drive the free space doesnt update. i had 646 megs free and i just deleted about 15 gb and it still says 646 free. Any ideas?
Thank you again!

If you just select 'put in trash' or use the delete button, it'll not go in the trash but in a folder call .Trash-<username> that is hidden.
Don't ask me why, i don't really know, that's not a driver issue but a gnome one, we have the same problem fo FAT32.
So there is two way of doing things :
- Select explicitly 'delete' or use the <Shift><del> button, so the file/folder will really be deleted (no possibility of recovery)
- You could still use the 'put in trash' function, but don't forget that the trash will be in that case .Trash-<username>, and that you'll have to explicitly delete the files in this folder to 'empty the trash'

[flipfone]

excellent!!
jim@jim-desktop:/media/windows/.Trash-jim$ rm -r -d *

now 30gbs free!! thank you again. !!

[Cariboo1938]

Hello givré...
I'm so close, I feel it...I did everything over again and there were no errors at all.
The only problem seems to be that I can't mount the Windows partitions. Here is what I did so far:

1) I show you the content of /fstab, /mnt and Computer

/etc/fstab:
..
/dev/sdb2 /mnt/Widows ntfs-3g ro,defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0..
/dev/sdb2 /mnt/WinUser ntfs-3g rw,defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0

/mnt entries:
owner@Owner-Desktop:~$ cd /mnt
owner@Owner-Desktop:/mnt$ ls -l
total 4
drwxrwxrwx 2 777 777 1024 2006-09-17 15:59 cdvdwriter
drwxrwxrwx 2 777 777 1024 2006-09-26 12:28 cdwriter
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 2006-09-12 09:23 Windows
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 2006-09-27 14:16 WinUser

Computer - File Browser shows beside others:
.
Icon Windows
Icon WinUser

2) This is the 'umount/mount' procedure

I first do

sudo umount -a

And get this

umount: /var: device is busy
umount: /usr: device is busy
umount: /home: device is busy
umount: /boot: device is busy
umount: /dev: device is busy
umount: /var/run: device is busy
umount: /: device is busy
owner@Owner-Desktop:/$

If I click now on Icon Windows/WInUser to mount or open it,
I get the message

Unable to mount the selected volume.
>Show more details
mount: only root can mount /dev/sdb1(/dev/sdb2) on /mnt/windows (/mnt/winuser)

So I do

sudo mount -a

If I click on Icon Windows/WinUser now , I get the message

Unable to mount the selected volume.
>Show more details
mount: according to mtab, /dev/sdb1(/dev/sdb2) is already mounted on /mnt/windows (/mnt/winuser)
mount failed

I want to share good news but I don't know ...Where is my mistake? What do I do wrong??

[givré]

/dev/sdb2 /mnt/Widows ntfs-3g ro,defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0..
/dev/sdb2 /mnt/WinUser ntfs-3g rw,defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0

Is it a copy/past. If it is, be careful with to the two time /dev/sdb2 entry, but i'm sure it's just a typo in the message (otherwise you'll have an other error).

Unable to mount the selected volume.
>Show more details
mount: according to mtab, /dev/sdb1(/dev/sdb2) is already mounted on /mnt/windows (/mnt/winuser)
mount failed

gnome or kde ? In gnome, only device mounted on /media can be show as an icone, you should change the mount directory if you want to use them like that. If you use kde, i can't really help you.
But your partitions are mounted for sure.
You should always be able to browse them with nautilus konqueror or even the command line, by going to /mnt/Windows or /mnt/WinUser

[Cariboo1938]

/dev/sdb2 /mnt/Windows ntfs-3g ro,defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0..
/dev/sdb2 /mnt/WinUser ntfs-3g rw,defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0

Is it a copy/past. If it is, be careful with to the two time /dev/sdb2 entry, but i'm sure it's just a typo in the message (otherwise you'll have an other error).

Yes, it is a typo......sorry. Correct entry in /etc/fstab is

/dev/sdb1 /mnt/Windows ntfs-3g ro,defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0

Unable to mount the selected volume.
>Show more details
mount: according to mtab, /dev/sdb1(/dev/sdb2) is already mounted on /mnt/windows (/mnt/winuser)
mount failed

gnome or kde? In gnome, only device mounted on /media can be show as an icone, you should change the mount directory if you want to use them like that.

I use/like Gnome!!! The content of /media:

owner@Owner-Desktop:~$ cd /media
owner@Owner-Desktop:/media$ ls -l
total 2
drwxrwxrwx 2 777 777 1024 2006-09-12 12:55 cdrom1
drwxrwxrwx 2 777 777 1024 2006-09-12 12:59 cdvdrw
owner@Owner-Desktop:/media$

There is no directory Windows or WinUser in /media.
Why do I have icons for Windows and WinUser in 'Computer - File Browser"? Shall I create /media/Windows and /media/WinUser instead and delete /mnt/Windows and /mnt/WinUser and then change the entries in /etc/fstab correspondingly???

But your partitions are mounted for sure.
You should always be able to browse them with nautilus konqueror or even the command line, by going to /mnt/Windows or /mnt/WinUser

Eureka!!! It works!!! It works at the amd64 platform!!! Thank you very much givré!!! You did an exceptional job!!! I can do text with Office.org back and forth!!! I can exchange/work on *.jpeg's, *.mp3's!!! I can create/delete directories...it's like being logged in to Windows...Thanks again for your great, excellent support...

[givré]

Why do I have icons for Windows and WinUser in 'Computer - File Browser"? Shall I create /media/Windows and /media/WinUser instead and delete /mnt/Windows and /mnt/WinUser and then change the entries in /etc/fstab correspondingly???

Right, that should be a good idea if you want to use them. They were probably still in place>computer because of an old entry in /etc/fstab. place>computer is only reload at more after a reboot.

Eureka!!! It works!!! It works at the amd64 platform!!! Thank you very much givré!!! You did an exceptional job!!! I can do text with Office.org back and forth!!! I can exchange/work on *.jpeg's, *.mp3's!!! I can create/delete directories...it's like being logged in to Windows...Thanks again for you great, excellent support...

Great.

[ZiZi]

Hi Givré,

thanks for the driver, good job I suppose, since there are no more 'Cannot do this/that' error messages when I'm manipulating with files on the ntfs partition.

However, I'm using it under KDE, where your new HAL + libhal packages (or possibly something else) broke automounting media devices. Before the update, I was able to go to media:/sda1 (when using an USB pen drive or external HDD) and the device was automatically mounted for me. This does not work any more after installing your packages, and the error message is useless (Error - KIOExec: an unknown error occured). However, 'pmount /dev/sda1' works just fine.

Several people in this thread have the same problem, but got no answer to their questions Since you claim you only use Gnome, couldn't you find someone who understands KDE/HAL/NTFS to do some testing? Otherwise it is not an improvement for KDE users, it's just a trade-off

[givré]

Hi Givré,

thanks for the driver, good job I suppose, since there are no more 'Cannot do this/that' error messages when I'm manipulating with files on the ntfs partition.

However, I'm using it under KDE, where your new HAL + libhal packages (or possibly something else) broke automounting media devices. Before the update, I was able to go to media:/sda1 (when using an USB pen drive or external HDD) and the device was automatically mounted for me. This does not work any more after installing your packages, and the error message is useless (Error - KIOExec: an unknown error occured). However, 'pmount /dev/sda1' works just fine.

Several people in this thread have the same problem, but got no answer to their questions Since you claim you only use Gnome, couldn't you find someone who understands KDE/HAL/NTFS to do some testing? Otherwise it is not an improvement for KDE users, it's just a trade-off

I am aware of the problem, and i really want to fix that, but it seams to be difficult to trace the error, all is manage by kded, but i don't know how to get good debug info with him. If somebody could help with that, it's could be great. Thanks.

[givré]

zizi, i can't reproduce the error on edgy (with the same patch for hal & pmount). I'll try on my dapper box, but first, i need some more information :
- The 'unknown error' seems to mean simply that the driver is unmounted & it can't mount it. Were you able to mount an unmounted removable device using media:/ before. If not, we don't really have to care of this error (pmount is probably not default in dapper (it is in edgy)), it means simply that the drive isn't mount when plug.
- What's happens if you revert hal to the official version, but keep the patched mount ?
- What is the version of kde you use ?