Can you mount logical ntfs partitions?

[Broodjegehaktmetmayo]

Hi all

I am now the proud owner of the box with FreeBSD 8, KDE4, Nvidia-driver, updated system and ports, and even got my sound working after tweaking with sysctl.

I am gradually trying to do a little bit more, on my todo list are:
- Getting printing to work ()
- Install flash (youtube)
- Install openoffice3 (no package available, so I'll wait until I have a week of spare time for my PC to build it from source ).

However, currently I am trying to get my NTFS-drives to automatically mount at boot time.

I found this thread:

http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=11473

And was planning to go according to these instructions. I went into sysinstall/configure/fdisk to explore the layout of the windows HDD (dedicated). It seems sysinstall doesn't recognize the logical partitions within the extended partition (windows terminology) although they are there (at least 4 of them).

Am I correct that I can not mount the logical partitions from XP under FreeBSD Because I am googling and goofling and goobling () but I can not seem to find an answer.

If it isn't possible that would be a giant pain in the a**, since then I would have to move a couple of hundred gigabytes off these partitions to external disks in order to be able to repartition the disk

Thank you for any help again,

Your soon to be FreeBSD-guru

[Carpetsmoker]

Yes, you can use logical partitions.

IIRC device numbering starts with s5 (i.e. /dev/ad0s5). What devices do you see in /dev/? (Post output of ls /dev/ad*)

Do you want read-only access (Included in FreeBSD) or read-write access provided by ntfs-3g and/or ntfsprogs?
For normal read access a standard fstab entry with type ntfs should work.

[Broodjegehaktmetmayo]

Originally Posted by Carpetsmoker

Yes, you can use logical partitions.

IIRC device numbering starts with s5 (i.e. /dev/ad0s5). What devices do you see in /dev/? (Post output of ls /dev/ad*)

Do you want read-only access (Included in FreeBSD) or read-write access provided by ntfs-3g and/or ntfsprogs?
For normal read access a standard fstab entry with type ntfs should work.

Holy spaghetti Carpetsmoker

(I am still into food )

Can you imagine I have spent at least 60 minutes to google/doogle/froogle/loogle/woogle-whatever to find out how my XP-disks are seen from FreeBSD, to finally end up with sysinstall (an article by Dru), and now you post something as usefull as ls /dev/ad*?

Happy are the ignorant such as me

Thanks, that command shows it very clearly, so I should be able to get the stuff working now. I think I would prefer to have r/w since knowing me I am sure I will mess up this installation sooner or later, and being able to copy what I have gathered on FreeBSD to my ntfs-disks (for example the backup of config files as you have tought me) would come in handy.

So I guess I will try to mess up my box by trying to use the ntfs-3g stuff from the link I mentioned above.

Thanks again (!)

(The day will come that I will show up at your office in EHV with a box of good beer ).



ls /dev/ad* gives:

/dev/ad10       /dev/ad10s1a    /dev/ad10s1d    /dev/ad10s1f    /dev/ad6s1      /dev/ad6s5      /dev/ad6s7
/dev/ad10s1     /dev/ad10s1b    /dev/ad10s1e    /dev/ad6        /dev/ad6s2      /dev/ad6s6      /dev/ad6s8

[Beastie]

/dev/ad10s1* are for FreeBSD; /dev/ad6s1 and /dev/ad6s2 must be primary NTFS partition or something; /dev/ad6s5 to /dev/ad6s8 are your logical partitions.

Even though many people use the fusefs NTFS implementation successfully, many have also experienced problems. I personally wouldn't trust anything but Windows to write on an NTFS partition. I'd use FreeBSD's ntfs module to access the partition as read-only. All it takes is a line such as /dev/ad6s5 /mnt/XYZ ntfs ro 0 0 in /etc/fstab, then you create the mount-point (mkdir /mnt/XYZ) and mount the partition (mount /mnt/XYZ). Of course you need the ntfs module loaded (kldload ntfs), or you can simply reboot and have the system load the module and mount the partition.

You can always backup your FreeBSD home directory and system settings on a FAT32 local partition or USB pendrive.

[Beastie]

I almost forgot...

Originally Posted by Broodjegehaktmetmayo

- Getting printing to work ()
- Install flash (youtube)
- Install openoffice3 (no package available, so I'll wait until I have a week of spare time for my PC to build it from source ).

Printing might be problematic, especially for cheap ink-jet printers. Some may not even be recognized by FreeBSD or might cause lockups. If you can get past this, you can install the many printing-support ports and it should work fine.

Flash will probably work with Firefox and the GNU/Linux layer. If you only need to download videos from YouTube, you can use the excellent www/youtube_dl port (a simple Python script). Most similar websites have "online downloaders" (e.g. Vimeo).

As for OOo, there are packages available.

[Broodjegehaktmetmayo]

Originally Posted by Beastie

/dev/ad10s1* are for FreeBSD; /dev/ad6s1 and /dev/ad6s2 must be primary NTFS partition or something; /dev/ad6s5 to /dev/ad6s8 are your logical partitions.

Even though many people use the fusefs NTFS implementation successfully, many have also experienced problems. I personally wouldn't trust anything but Windows to write on an NTFS partition. I'd use FreeBSD's ntfs module to access the partition as read-only. All it takes is a line such as /dev/ad6s5 /mnt/XYZ ntfs ro 0 0 in /etc/fstab, then you create the mount-point (mkdir /mnt/XYZ) and mount the partition (mount /mnt/XYZ). Of course you need the ntfs module loaded (kldload ntfs), or you can simply reboot and have the system load the module and mount the partition.

You can always backup your FreeBSD home directory and system settings on a FAT32 local partition or USB pendrive.

Thank you very much for your helpfull response

I decided your reasoning about the dangers of having anything else than Windows write on ntfs makes sense, so I decided to go with your recommendation.

That didn't exactly work out

I created /mnt/xp1, xp2, xp3 and xp4, and added this to /etc/fstab:

/dev/ad6s5             /mnt/xp1        ntfs    ro              0       0
/dev/ad6s6             /mnt/xp2        ntfs    ro              0       0
/dev/ad6s7             /mnt/xp3        ntfs    ro              0       0
/dev/ad6s8             /mnt/xp4        ntfs    ro              0       0

And rebooted.

Which gave me during the intial startup:

Mounting /etc/fstab filesystems failed, startup aborted.

ERROR: ABORTING BOOT (sending SIGTERM to parent)!

/bin/sh on /etc/rc terminated abnormally, going to single user mode

This is where I completely reinstalled FreeBSD in order to try again ().

(No, seriously, if I hadn't learned about mount -u / and mount -a before I would have done that since in single user mode there is no way you can edit /etc/fstab if you don't first do that - at least I learned something ).

So I am wondering if there is something else I need to customize somewhere else in order to make the boot go right, or

I will start investigating this, but thanks again for your help; I really do appreciate it (!)

[Broodjegehaktmetmayo]

Originally Posted by Beastie

I almost forgot...

Printing might be problematic, especially for cheap ink-jet printers. Some may not even be recognized by FreeBSD or might cause lockups. If you can get past this, you can install the many printing-support ports and it should work fine.

Flash will probably work with Firefox and the GNU/Linux layer. If you only need to download videos from YouTube, you can use the excellent www/youtube_dl port (a simple Python script). Most similar websites have "online downloaders" (e.g. Vimeo).

As for OOo, there are packages available.

Thanks again, I am in your debt

As to the Flash: I wouldn't want to download clips but just watch them as they pass on news I read. Actually, I am still rather confused as to 'linux emulation layer' versus 'linuxulator' () and stuff like that. I need to find me a 'dumb' step by step guide that simply works, as I have read so many threads about installing Flash and for some reason most of the people complain that it doesn't work. As a noob coming from Windows, this is all very complex for me (and even without coming from Windows it is complex ).

As to the printer: luckily I don't have a cheap inktjet printer, I decided to stay with the old and proven HP Laserjets from previous generations, the ones that even have a normal LPT-port (I upgraded my HP Laserjet 6P to include more memory and refused to buy these cheap throwaway inktjet printers with an USB connection that ask you to drop EUR 30 every 500 pages). Come to speak about this: during boot, FreeBSD complains about ppc0 no parellel printer port found whereas under XP everything works normally. Food for another rainy day and too much free time on my hand

As to openoffice: I will send you a PM in order not to make this post too long

[Broodjegehaktmetmayo]

Originally Posted by Broodjegehaktmetmayo

Thank you very much for your helpfull response

I decided your reasoning about the dangers of having anything else than Windows write on ntfs makes sense, so I decided to go with your recommendation.

That didn't exactly work out

I created /mnt/xp1, xp2, xp3 and xp4, and added this to /etc/fstab:

/dev/ad6s5             /mnt/xp1        ntfs    ro              0       0
/dev/ad6s6             /mnt/xp2        ntfs    ro              0       0
/dev/ad6s7             /mnt/xp3        ntfs    ro              0       0
/dev/ad6s8             /mnt/xp4        ntfs    ro              0       0

And rebooted.

Which gave me during the intial startup:

Mounting /etc/fstab filesystems failed, startup aborted.

ERROR: ABORTING BOOT (sending SIGTERM to parent)!

/bin/sh on /etc/rc terminated abnormally, going to single user mode

This is where I completely reinstalled FreeBSD in order to try again ().

(No, seriously, if I hadn't learned about mount -u / and mount -a before I would have done that since in single user mode there is no way you can edit /etc/fstab if you don't first do that - at least I learned something ).

So I am wondering if there is something else I need to customize somewhere else in order to make the boot go right, or

I will start investigating this, but thanks again for your help; I really do appreciate it (!)

So I have all these settings in fstab I made earlier commented out (#), now I am downloading a pdf, it asks me where to save, I browse around and to my surprise all my ntfs-drives have been mounted already (), and come to think of it, they have been mounted even before I tried the entries in fstab (I just didn't realize it as for example, in my /home/ I have a folder 'Downloads' and under XP I also have a partition 'Downloads'. So I saw 'Downloads' but didn't realize this wasn't the one in my /home/ but instead an XP-partition.

FreeBSD 8.0 automatically mounts ntfs-partitions

[Beastie]

No it does not. KDE is most likely responsible. It's possible the fstab entries were not working because the devices were already mounted. And automounting (through HAL) is incompatible with fstab entries AFAIK.

[Broodjegehaktmetmayo]

Originally Posted by Beastie

No it does not. KDE is most likely responsible. It's possible the fstab entries were not working because the devices were already mounted. And automounting (through HAL) is incompatible with fstab entries AFAIK.

Thanks for your answer

So how come then that I still have these disks mounted (except for 1 FAT32 partition of 1 GB ???)? Which part of KDE does this? I looked in the control center but I can't seem to find anything relating to automounting?

This is my fstab:

# Device                Mountpoint      FStype  Options         Dump    Pass#
/dev/ad10s1b            none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/ad10s1a            /               ufs     rw              1       1
/dev/ad10s1e            /tmp            ufs     rw              2       2
/dev/ad10s1f            /usr            ufs     rw              2       2
/dev/ad10s1d            /var            ufs     rw              2       2
#/dev/acd0              /cdrom          cd9660  ro,noauto       0       0
#/dev/ad6s5             /mnt/xp1        ntfs    ro              0       0
#/dev/ad6s6             /mnt/xp2        ntfs    ro              0       0
#/dev/ad6s7             /mnt/xp3        ntfs    ro              0       0
#/dev/ad6s8             /mnt/xp4        ntfs    ro              0       0
linproc /usr/compat/linux/proc linprocfs        rw              0       0

[Beastie]

Well, most probably KDE does this indirectly through HAL. I can't give you a more precise reply since I've never used KDE.
AFAIK automounting cannot be configured/disabled in kcontrol.

You can always try to disable and shutdown KDM and HAL, log out of KDE, and try manual mounting again.