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

[EAL]

Following is the error I get. I have ntfs-3g installed, I've enabled it, and that's when I began getting this error. My ntfs drives that I am wanting to access are external usb drives. I have plugged them back into the windows box. Before I installed and enabled ntfs-3g they would mount and I could read, but not write or set permissions on them.

If you get this error :

Code:

$LogFile indicates unclean shutdown (0, 0)
Failed to mount '/dev/hdc1': Operation not supported
Mount is denied because NTFS logfile is unclean. Choose one action:
Boot Windows and shutdown it cleanly, or if you have a removable
device then click the 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon in the Windows
taskbar notification area before disconnecting it.
Or
Run 'ntfsfix' on Linux unless you have Vista, then mount NTFS with
the 'force' option read-write, or with the 'ro' option read-only.
Or
Mount the NTFS volume with the 'ro' option in read-only mode.boot windows, and then shutdown and boot ubuntu (100% guarentee of success).
If you don't dual boot, get ntfsfix from the ntfsprogs package, run it on the windows device, and add the 'force' option in /etc/fstab for your windows device.

boot windows, and then shutdown and boot ubuntu (100% guarentee of success).
If you don't dual boot, get ntfsfix from the ntfsprogs package, run it on the windows device, and add the 'force' option in /etc/fstab for your windows device.

If I understand your instructions correctly for my system, I need to reboot my Ubuntu box, and then I should be able to reset the permissions, write and read, etc? The part that has me confused is where you say "boot windows." My Ubuntu box has nothing but ubuntu on it, the drives in question are external drives with 125g and 250g or something like that, and they connect USB.

If the directions following "If you do not dueal boot..." are intended for my situation, I must admit they go right over my head, and I'd kindly ask that someone explain exactly what it is I need to do.

What is a ntfsprogs package?

By windows device, does that mean I have to run it from windows before moving the ext drives to my Linux box?

How do I add the "force" option in /etc/fstab for my "windows device."

What exactly is my "windows device" again? Is that the external drives?

Thanks. I'm a newb, but teachable.

-Eric

[Paperclips4u]

That was a great fix. Thanks a million to Givre

[Isitari]

I at first got the error message saying I had to shut down windows properly, I did that. It did not work. Then I tried the manual way and that didn't work. Now I've uninstalled it and edited fstab manually just to read NTFS and it won't even do that. I keep getting the error message every time I try to mount it '[mntent]:line 11 in /etc/fstab is bad'. What do I do now? many thanks for any help.

[ftv00es]

Eric, I have the same problem that you have. I could read my external drive and when I installed ntfs-3g it stopped working. Now I get the same error you get. I also just have Ubuntu in my system...
Hope someone can help. At least to put it back to read only.
Thanks.
F!

[ftv00es]

Hi. Got ntfs-3g uninstalled and now I can acces the external drive as read only.
I don't know what to do now... due to the lack of space in my hard disk, I use this external drive as main storage, and now I cannot use it properly... do I really need to go back to Windows?
I'll keep trying.....

[mahiyar]

Hope this helps with people with Windows error. I had the same exact error message i.e shut down windows properly, and it turned out exactly that, In my case due to some windows error I had problem shutting down windows (regarding auto update). When the windows error was resolved the problem in linux too was resolved.

[maxehhh]

great, worked perfect ... some errors but start reading and got them all solved... great work

[Lizard King]

Perfect Article

[trenog]

this happend to me also. try to do

sudo aptitude remove fuse-utils ntfs-3g && sudo aptitude purge fuse-utils ntfs-3g

then you did add givre's repo's to your /etc/apt/sources.list correctly right? the dapper ones. if you did make sure you do the folowing next

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude upgrade

then do

sudo aptitude install ntfs-3g

and this should fix it.

Alrighty, I tried what you did (although I didn't upgrade since I don't want new headers to mess up my ndiswrapper config that connects my dongle to the network) and I got the following error:

trenog@trenog-desktop:~/Desktop/totem-2.18.2$ sudo aptitude remove fuse-utils ntfs-3g
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Building tag database... Done
The following packages are BROKEN:
  ntfs-config
The following packages have been kept back:
  hal hal-device-manager libhal-dev libhal-storage1 libhal1 libsmbclient
  linux-headers-2.6.15-28 linux-headers-2.6.15-28-386
  linux-image-2.6.15-28-386 makedev pmount samba-common smbclient
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  fuse-utils ntfs-3g
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 13 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 356kB will be freed.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  ntfs-config: Depends: ntfs-3g but it is not installable
Resolving dependencies...
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

Remove the following packages:
ntfs-config

Score is -299

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] y
The following packages will be automatically REMOVED:
  ntfs-config
The following packages have been kept back:
  hal hal-device-manager libhal-dev libhal-storage1 libhal1 libsmbclient
  linux-headers-2.6.15-28 linux-headers-2.6.15-28-386
  linux-image-2.6.15-28-386 makedev pmount samba-common smbclient
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  fuse-utils ntfs-3g ntfs-config
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 3 to remove and 13 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 799kB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] y
Writing extended state information... Done
(Reading database ... 164270 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing ntfs-config ...
Removing configuration files created by the program...
Removing ntfs-3g ...
Removing fuse-utils ...
No override present.
trenog@trenog-desktop:~/Desktop/totem-2.18.2$ sudo aptitude purge fuse-utils ntfs-3g
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Building tag database... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  hal hal-device-manager libhal-dev libhal-storage1 libhal1 libsmbclient
  linux-headers-2.6.15-28 linux-headers-2.6.15-28-386
  linux-image-2.6.15-28-386 makedev pmount samba-common smbclient
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  fuse-utils{p}
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 13 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] y
Writing extended state information... Done
(Reading database ... 164205 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing fuse-utils ...
Purging configuration files for fuse-utils ...
No override present.
trenog@trenog-desktop:~/Desktop/totem-2.18.2$ sudo aptitude update
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Building tag database... Done
Get:1 http://www.getautomatix.com dapper Release.gpg [189B]
Get:2 http://www.getautomatix.com dapper Release [8412B]
Get:3 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper Release.gpg [189B]
Get:4 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-updates Release.gpg [191B]
Get:5 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports Release.gpg [191B]
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper Release
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-updates Release
Get:6 http://www.getautomatix.com dapper/main Packages [4452B]
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports Release
Ign http://flomertens.free.fr dapper Release.gpg
Ign http://people.ubuntu.com ./ Release.gpg
Get:7 http://security.ubuntu.com dapper-security Release.gpg [191B]
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper/main Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper/restricted Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper/main Sources
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper/restricted Sources
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper/universe Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper/universe Sources
Get:8 http://archive.canonical.com dapper-commercial Release.gpg [191B]
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-updates/main Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-updates/restricted Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-updates/main Sources
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-updates/restricted Sources
Get:9 http://wine.budgetdedicated.com dapper Release.gpg [191B]
Get:10 http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports Release.gpg [191B]
Get:11 http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-updates Release.gpg [191B]
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports/main Packages
Ign http://people.ubuntu.com ./ Release
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com dapper-security Release
Hit http://archive.canonical.com dapper-commercial Release
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports/restricted Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports/universe Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports/multiverse Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports/main Sources
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports/restricted Sources
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports/universe Sources
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports/multiverse Sources
Get:12 http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-security Release.gpg [191B]
Get:13 http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper Release.gpg [189B]
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports Release
Ign http://flomertens.free.fr dapper Release
Ign http://people.ubuntu.com ./ Packages
Hit http://wine.budgetdedicated.com dapper Release
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com dapper-security/main Packages
Hit http://archive.canonical.com dapper-commercial/main Packages
Get:14 http://wine.lowvoice.nl dapper Release.gpg [191B]
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-updates Release
Hit http://people.ubuntu.com ./ Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com dapper-security/restricted Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com dapper-security/main Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-security Release
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper Release
Ign http://wine.budgetdedicated.com dapper/main Packages
Hit http://wine.lowvoice.nl dapper Release
Ign http://flomertens.free.fr dapper/main Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports/main Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports/restricted Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com dapper-security/restricted Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports/universe Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports/multiverse Packages
Ign http://wine.budgetdedicated.com dapper/main Packages
Ign http://wine.budgetdedicated.com dapper/main Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-updates/universe Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-updates/multiverse Packages
Ign http://wine.lowvoice.nl dapper/main Packages
Ign http://flomertens.free.fr dapper/main-all Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-security/main Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-security/restricted Packages
Hit http://wine.budgetdedicated.com dapper/main Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-security/universe Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper-security/multiverse Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com dapper/multiverse Packages
Hit http://wine.lowvoice.nl dapper/main Packages
Hit http://wine.budgetdedicated.com dapper/main Packages
Hit http://flomertens.free.fr dapper/main Packages
Hit http://wine.budgetdedicated.com dapper/main Sources
Hit http://flomertens.free.fr dapper/main-all Packages
Fetched 13.1kB in 1s (7325B/s)
Reading package lists... Done
W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://wine.budgetdedicated.com dapper/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/wine.budgetdedicated.com_apt_dists_dapper_main_binary-i386_Packages)
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
trenog@trenog-desktop:~/Desktop/totem-2.18.2$ sudo aptitude upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Building tag database... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  hal hal-device-manager libhal-dev libhal-storage1 libhal1 libsmbclient
  linux-headers-2.6.15-28 linux-headers-2.6.15-28-386
  linux-image-2.6.15-28-386 makedev pmount samba-common smbclient
13 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 36.7MB of archives. After unpacking 16.4kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] n
Abort.
trenog@trenog-desktop:~/Desktop/totem-2.18.2$
trenog@trenog-desktop:~/Desktop/totem-2.18.2$ sudo aptitude install ntfs-3g
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Building tag database... Done
The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
  fuse-utils
The following packages have been kept back:
  hal hal-device-manager libhal-dev libhal-storage1 libhal1 libsmbclient
  linux-headers-2.6.15-28 linux-headers-2.6.15-28-386
  linux-image-2.6.15-28-386 makedev pmount samba-common smbclient
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  fuse-utils ntfs-3g
0 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 13 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/113kB of archives. After unpacking 356kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] y
WARNING: untrusted versions of the following packages will be installed!

Untrusted packages could compromise your system's security.
You should only proceed with the installation if you are certain that
this is what you want to do.

  fuse-utils ntfs-3g

Do you want to ignore this warning and proceed anyway?
To continue, enter "Yes"; to abort, enter "No": yes
Writing extended state information... Done
Selecting previously deselected package fuse-utils.
(Reading database ... 164204 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking fuse-utils (from .../fuse-utils_2.6.3-0givre2_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package ntfs-3g.
Unpacking ntfs-3g (from .../ntfs-3g_1%3a1.417-1_i386.deb) ...
Setting up fuse-utils (2.6.3-0givre2) ...
creating fuse device node...
/sbin/MAKEDEV: don't know how to make device "fuse"
dpkg: error processing fuse-utils (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ntfs-3g:
 ntfs-3g depends on fuse-utils (>= 2.6); however:
  Package fuse-utils is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing ntfs-3g (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 fuse-utils
 ntfs-3g
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install.  Trying to recover:
Setting up fuse-utils (2.6.3-0givre2) ...
creating fuse device node...
/sbin/MAKEDEV: don't know how to make device "fuse"
dpkg: error processing fuse-utils (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ntfs-3g:
 ntfs-3g depends on fuse-utils (>= 2.6); however:
  Package fuse-utils is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing ntfs-3g (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 fuse-utils
 ntfs-3g

I always seem to get the bolded set of errors when I try and do some install. Could you help me out?

[MKR.]

After being told for so many years that NTFS write support is unreliable, I'm a little paranoid about it. Has anyone had significant problems with it?