Warning: ntfs-3g is still in beta. You should not use it on production machines.

Introduction

Support for reading and writing to NTFS partitions under Linux has always been a problem; most existing projects are experimental and often buggy. However, a new project called ntfs-3g is capable of unlimited file creation and deletion. Note that although many people have had success using this driver, it is still in beta stage. Make sure you back up all valuable data before using it!

Based off givre's excellent guide, which can be found [http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=217009 here].

Installation

1. First you will need to add one of the following [https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu#head-155b53308911d4d3869b3650856a41550f57f891 repositories]:

For DAPPER :

deb http://givre.cabspace.com/ubuntu/ dapper main main-all
deb http://ntfs-3g.sitesweetsite.info/ubuntu/ dapper main main-all
deb http://flomertens.keo.in/ubuntu/ dapper main main-all

For EDGY :

deb http://givre.cabspace.com/ubuntu/ edgy main-all
deb http://ntfs-3g.sitesweetsite.info/ubuntu/ edgy main-all
deb http://flomertens.keo.in/ubuntu/ edgy main-all

The main channel contains the ntfs-3g package and an up to date fuse package.

The main-all channel contains modified version of pmount and hal to have a better integration of ntfs-3g in the desktop. If you don't want those package, just remove main-all.

If you use edgy, all needed packages are already in the ubuntu repo (main and universe), except the modified pmount, that is needed for removable device.

Packages are authenticated with a gpg key. To use it, you should execute one of the following command :

wget http://flomertens.keo.in/ubuntu/givre_key.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
wget http://givre.cabspace.com/ubuntu/givre_key.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Be sure to reload the package configuration and updating your system before continuing.

2. Next you must [https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto#head-9a2bcc5a697205e980d6b8b3cac02f799e1bd5f0 install] the ntfs-3g package for drivers and other tools.

3. Find the name of your NTFS drive. In a terminal, type

sudo fdisk -l | grep NTFS

The name of the drive is in the first column, and should be something like /dev/hda1.

You will now need to edit your partition list, namely /etc/fstab. Make sure to save a backup first, and then open it:

sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak
gksu gedit /etc/fstab

After entering your password, find the line that matches the drive name you just found. Change it to read:

/dev/<your partition> /media/<mount point> ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0

Replace <mount point> with the location you would like the drive to be mounted, such as Documents. You will also need to make this directory, by running:

sudo mkdir -p /media/<mount point>

Note: you can change your locale option (for example locale=fr_FR.utf8). Execute 'locale -a' in a terminal to know which ones are supported.

4. Finally, try it out :-):

You'll need to restart your computer to the change to take effect.

If you want to revert to your previous configuration :

sudo mv /etc/fstab.bak /etc/fstab
sudo umount /media/<mount point>

and uninstall the ntfs-3g package.

Notes

• About NTFS removable device :

The modified hal & pmount that i provide in the main-all channel, make NTFS removable device automatically mounted with ntfs-3g. If you want to change this policy, have a look at : For dapper : /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/15-ntfs-policy.fdi For edgy : /etc/hal/fdi/policy/15-ntfs-policy.fdi

• If you compiled your own kernel, you probably won't have fuse installed. You can get the source with

sudo apt-get install fuse-source

and have a look at /usr/share/doc/fuse-source/README.Debian for instructions on how to compile it.

Known Issues

The present limitations of this driver are

• access to encrypted files
• writing compressed files
• change file ownership and access right

News

22 september 2006 : New upstream release : ntfs-3g-20070920-BETA

• fix: file creation at disk-full may lead to i/o errors
• fix: statistic of inodes and free inodes was incorrect (df -i)
• fix: the 'umask' option wasn't always parsed as an octal number
• fix: "too long filename" handling wasn't posix compliant
• fix: mount failed if $MFTMirr had unused garbage at the file end

10 September 2006 : New upstream release : ntfs-3g-20070910-BETA

• fix: rename was always denied if the target file or directory existed

• fix: renaming like 'foo' -> 'FOO' was denied in the WIN32 namespace

• fix: fuse kernel module is automatically loaded, no need for config
• fix: verbose mount error messages with hints for solutions
• fix: compilation failed with gcc 2.96
• change: top request: full read-write access to everybody by default
• change: file lookups are always case-sensitive