mount_ntfs: Invalid argument

[wheelnut]

[..Actually apparently completely solved.. ..or maybe not..]

Greetings.

Trying to mount a 1T SSD. The man pages seem to be down, so following this for now. I have actually found -some- things via the downloaded manual on this computer. They seem to be saying the same thing though. /mnt/samsung seems to have been created without incident.

eriadar# disklabel sd2
# /dev/rsd2c:
type: SCSI
disk: SCSI disk
label: PSSD T7 Shield  
duid: 0000000000000000
flags:
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 63
tracks/cylinder: 255
sectors/cylinder: 16065
cylinders: 121601
total sectors: 1953525168
boundstart: 0
boundend: 1953525168

16 partitions:
#                size           offset  fstype [fsize bsize   cpg]
  c:       1953525168                0  unused                    
  i:       1953520065             2048    NTFS                    
eriadar# mount /dev/sd2i /mnt/samsung
mount_ntfs: /dev/sd2i on /mnt/samsung: Invalid argument

I have been using ubuntu now for ages, so I assume that the samsung was formatted, or written to using it. Actually, I think it was written using rsync, so maybe the original drive.. whatever. I think it is highly unlikely these external ssd's were formatted by any windows machine I ever had.

I am aware of this thread, but just looking at it gives me a head-ache, and my ssd is much smaller than his. If people here confirm that I really should try those solutions first, I'll give them a good hard look. The other thing on my list of options, so far, is to try the same thing with ghostBSD.

Checking out the suggestion to use ntfs_3g:

eriadar# pkg_add ntfs_3g
quirks-7.50 signed on 2025-04-08T14:05:06Z
ntfs_3g-2022.10.3: ok
eriadar# ntfs_3g /dev/sd2i /mnt/samsung
ksh: ntfs_3g: not found

[Note that the "tutorials" I found on ntfs_3g use it with doas. I have not yet foud a reason to use doas. I'm sure I will, eventually. But that might be why this isn't working..?]

..So I googled some more. I ended up here, where it suggests that my "NTFS" file system might actually be exFAT. More googling for exFAT finds this, where it suggests exfat-fuse.

eriadar# pkg_info -aQ exfat-fuse
exfat-fuse-1.4.0
eriadar# pkg_add exfat-fuse
quirks-7.50 signed on 2025-04-08T14:05:06Z
exfat-fuse-1.4.0: ok
eriadar# mount.exfat
FUSE exfat 1.4.0 (libfuse2)
Usage: mount.exfat [-d] [-o options] [-V] <device> <dir>
eriadar# mount.exfat -o uid=1000 /dev/sd2i /mnt/samsung
FUSE exfat 1.4.0 (libfuse2)
WARN: volume was not unmounted cleanly.
eriadar# mount.exfat /dev/sd2i /mnt/samsung             
FUSE exfat 1.4.0 (libfuse2)
WARN: volume was not unmounted cleanly.

..so now, if we assume (always dangerous) that I'm not off on a wild-goose chase, we have a bit more information on what is going on.

..Until I get some feedback, I think it's wisest to sit tight.

..well, fancy that.. it occurred to me that a warning was not an error. So maybe the last thing -did- actually work. I tried to see if I could see into the possibly mounted drive. I did an ls to see where I was so I could cd into the right place.. and apparently I was already there.

so.. then the question becomes, 1) all those other things I tried, why did they not work, what's going on? 2) is the last thing I did actually the right thing, and 3) what does it mean that the volume was not unmounted cleanly? is this a problem? what to do about it. ..yes, I can do more googling of all of it..

Edit: Trying now to unmount:

eriadar# umount /mnt/samsung
umount: /mnt/samsung: Device busy

I have also found, and am reading this. Ok, that link essentially answered all my questions, confirming, apparently, that the solution I found -is- indeed the correct one. And gave links for further explanations, which is fantastic. Unfortunately, I can't unmount.

eriadar# pwd                                
/mnt/samsung
eriadar# umount /mnt/samsung
umount: /mnt/samsung: Device busy
eriadar# mount.exfat-fuse /dev/sd2i /mnt/samsung
FUSE exfat 1.4.0 (libfuse2)
WARN: volume was not unmounted cleanly.
eriadar# umount /mnt/samsung                     
umount: /mnt/samsung: Device busy

Bingo. "Is your shell's current directory on the mountpoint path?"

Nice.

..Further research shows that there -is- actually an "eject" command. That will, or should, cause the mounted file-system to no longer be visible, and turn off the light on the external drive.

eriadar# eject /mnt/samsung 
eject: /mnt/samsung: Inappropriate ioctl for device

See fresh thread here.