ntfs-3g

Revision 3 as of 2006-08-17 00:11:12

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]:

deb http://givre.cabspace.com/ubuntu/ dapper main
deb-src http://givre.cabspace.com/ubuntu/ dapper main

deb http://flomertens.keo.in/ubuntu/ dapper main
deb-src http://flomertens.keo.in/ubuntu/ dapper main

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 silent,umask=007,gid=46,locale=en_US.utf8,no_def_opts,allow_other 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). See /var/lib/locales/supported.d/local to know which ones are supported.

4. Finally, try it out :-):

sudo modprobe fuse
sudo umount /media/<mount point>
sudo mount /media/<mount point>

You should now be able to browse for files with Nautilus.

5. If it works well and you'd like to keep it, add the fuse module to the end of /etc/modules like so:

echo fuse | sudo tee -a /etc/modules > /dev/null

Tip: If you are using InitNG, look [https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InitNG#fuse here].

If you're having problems and would like to change things back to the way they were (you made a backup, didn't you?), type:

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

and uninstall the ntfs-3g package.

Notes

If you have an NTFS USB device, it's not recommended to add it to /etc/fstab, because by definition /etc/fstab is static, whereas a removable device's name could change. If you want to easily manage your USB device, you can do it with a simple Nautilus script. To get it, install the ntfs-3g-nautilus-tools package and in a terminal type:

nautilus-script-manager enable mount_with_ntfs-3g

When plugged in, your device will be mounted with the NTFS driver, and by right-clicking > nautilus-script > mount_with_ntfs-3g you will be able to have full read/write access. And to unmount it, simply use right-click > eject.

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 Bugs

(fixed in ntfs-3g-20070811-BETA) You may encounter problems when moving a non empty directories (files are ok) created in Windows to a another directory on the same partition (in 50% of the cases).
- Workaround: always copy/paste/delete instead of moving directories.
- If you already encountered an error or a problem, don't worry, a simple chkdsk in windows will solve the problem with no (hopefully) no loss.
Some files created by certain antivirus programs (AVG for exemple) will not be able to be moved or deleted using ntfs-3g. This is probably due to the fact that encrypted files are not yet supported.
If you get the following error:

Couldn't mount device '/dev/hdb1': Operation not supported Windows did not shut down properly. Try to mount volume in windows, shut down and try again. Mount failed.

ntfs-3g needs a clean partition before mounting it. This is to prevent any corruption of data. If the partition wasn't unmounted properly (suspend, hibernate, hard reboot, reset...), you will need to boot into Windows and fix the disk first.

(changed with version 20070803-BETA, see below)

Quote: I've mounted 2 NTFS partitions, Windows and Data2, and they're both accessible from Nautilus, But ubuntu only shows the first one on the Desktop, as well as under Places. Unfortunatly, there is no solution for this problem. ntfs-3g use fuse to mount partition. The system refer to /dev/fuse which refer to all the partition it control... So all for the system, it's like that all your NTFS partition are /dev/fuse. If you do 'more /etc/mtab' in a terminal, you will see it. The consequence is that gnome can only show one (the first one) on the desktop and on place. If you want to be able to access them quikly, you can make a bookmark in nautilus, or you could also mount you partition in your home. Ex:you can make a directory call windows in your home and change the mount point to /home/<your username>/windows in /etc/fstab.

(fixed with patched hal, upgrade to version 0.5.7-1ubuntu19givre1)

Quote: none of my driver are in the desktop with the latest driver Things change with the 20070803-BETA release, they fix the /dev/fuse problem, and now /etc/mtab show the good device, but gnome don't put anymore icone on the desktop. I don't know why yet. I'll try to find a good workaround. For the moment the only thing you can do are describe in common problem 2.

News

16 august 2006 : * New version of ntfs-3g-nautilus-tools, 0.8 : - some cleanup & bugfixing, not more.

14 august 2006 : * Solution for hal bug is now resolve. I patched it so it can manage fuse device. Be sure that you have upgrade hal to version 0.5.7-1ubuntu19givre1 * New version of ntfs-3g-nautilus-tools, 0.7 : - now ntfs-3g-monitor & umount_ntfs-3g are obsolete - to unmount you can now use the normal eject option. - no more need libnotify-bin

11 august 2006 : * New upstream release : ntfs-3g-20070811-BETA - fix directory rename - fix collision with ntfsprogs developer header files

10 august 2006 : * New version of ntfs-3g-nautilus-tools, 0.6 : Label name with space can now be manage.

09 august 2006 : * New version of ntfs-3g-nautilus-tools, 0.5 : add ntfs-3g-monitor