ntfs external device - mount without filemanager and fstab

orschiro · 2009-11-14 20:31:10

Hello guys,

I used to access my external ntfs device via a filemanager like pcmanfm. So it was never necessary to add a fstab entry. But how does that work when I want to access my external device via the shell?

How does mounting then work?

Hal is already installed and started, ntfs-3g too. What do I need else to mount it as user with full permissions?

Thank you.

fsckd · 2009-11-14 23:19:30

You can use pmount (policy mount). You can also mount it directly using something like mount -t ntfs-3g -o uid=YOUR_USR_ID /dev/xxx. See man mount.ntfs-3g for more info.

orschiro · 2009-11-15 08:27:50

Hello fsckd,

thanks for the tip with pmount. But what I don't understand, how does a filemanager decide where he mounts the device?

Is it specified or every time different?

orschiro · 2009-11-18 16:54:14

Is nobody working without any filemanager and is mounting his devices automatically?

I can't imagine it is so difficult to mount plugged devices automatically without X and any WM/DE.

Andrwe · 2009-11-18 17:03:47

A search in the archwiki helps a lot:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Udev

orschiro · 2009-11-18 18:36:35

Hello Andrwe,

thank you for that link. I should indeed better search for information before asking questions here.

Well I tried the method Mounting to /media using the partition label if it exists , restarted hal and connected a usb stick but mounting in /media or /mnt fails. dmesg says:

usb 2-2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
usb 2-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
scsi6 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 3
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access     USB2.0   Flash Disk       2.20 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
usb-storage: device scan complete
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] 4098048 512-byte logical blocks: (2.09 GB/1.95 GiB)
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
 sdb:
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

Last edited by orschiro (2009-11-18 18:37:17)

perbh · 2009-11-18 19:39:29

It would seem to me (from the above) that you do not have any partitions on your stick!
Have you by chance tried to do a 'mkntfs /dev/sdb' (instead of /dev/sdb1)?
If this is the case, you have hosed your partition table and you have to use 'fdisk' to re-establish it and then 'mkntfs /dev/sdb1'

orschiro · 2009-11-18 20:14:06

Hmm I tried my external harddrive. It was mounted with the correct label. My usb stick uses fat and there is data on it. So there also has to be a partition on it?

Last edited by orschiro (2009-11-18 20:14:24)

perbh · 2009-11-18 20:53:18

Connect it and then do a 'fdisk -l /dev/sdb' and show us the result (do not mount it yet)

And actually - it doesn't have to have a partition on it - you _can_ use vfat on a whole device ... (mkdosfs -I -F 32 /dev/sdb)

And - your external harddisk has got nothing to do with this - we _are_ talking about your usb-stick!

Last edited by perbh (2009-11-18 20:57:00)

orschiro · 2009-11-29 09:18:29

Hello guys,

sorry that I'm answering so late, but it work's now. You were right perbh, there was no partition on it. You say it's not necessary to have one, but is it still recommened to use a partition instead of the whole device?

But now back to my external drive. I encrypted it with Luks and formatted it with ext4, opened it via luksOpen and then tried to mount it via the following mount command to have read and write access as normal user

cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdb1 external

mount -t ext4 -o uid=1000 /dev/mapper/external /mnt/external

But I still have no permissions. The same command works very well with my usb stick, that isn't encrypted. Why that?

Last edited by orschiro (2009-11-29 09:18:59)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-11-14 20:31:10

ntfs external device - mount without filemanager and fstab

#2 2009-11-14 23:19:30

Re: ntfs external device - mount without filemanager and fstab

#3 2009-11-15 08:27:50

Re: ntfs external device - mount without filemanager and fstab

#4 2009-11-18 16:54:14

Re: ntfs external device - mount without filemanager and fstab

#5 2009-11-18 17:03:47

Re: ntfs external device - mount without filemanager and fstab

#6 2009-11-18 18:36:35

Re: ntfs external device - mount without filemanager and fstab

#7 2009-11-18 19:39:29

Re: ntfs external device - mount without filemanager and fstab

#8 2009-11-18 20:14:06

Re: ntfs external device - mount without filemanager and fstab

#9 2009-11-18 20:53:18

Re: ntfs external device - mount without filemanager and fstab

#10 2009-11-29 09:18:29

Re: ntfs external device - mount without filemanager and fstab

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