Mounting and interacting with removable drives.

Vapourstreak · 2011-02-07 22:10:28

Hey, I can't figure out how to get access into my usb drives and stuff. I'm using Thunar and I have ntfs-3g, thunar-volman and the gvk-whatever, packages installed.

I have a 20GB NTFS partition on the save drive as my Arch installation, and I absolutely need access to it. I mounted it with ntfs-3g, and edited the fodisk, but I still don't understand how to gain access to it, as it's not in the Thunar sidebar or anything.

Another thing, what's the mount point for an empty NTFS partition? I just put it as '/', which seems to work when I mount it through guake with ntfs-3g, but fdisk doesn't seem to automount it. Is there steps I'm missing or somthing?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Vapour

karol · 2011-02-07 23:38:33

I have no idea about the GUI stuff (Thunar etc.), but can you access the NTFS partition from the commandline? What is the output of 'mount'?

You can mount partitions anywhere you like. Are you having problem with mounting or automounting the partition?

Last edited by karol (2011-02-07 23:40:45)

anonymous_user · 2011-02-08 04:19:06

For Thunar, make sure you have gvfs installed.

SeanM · 2011-02-08 06:01:54

Alright, well, I don't know how much you know and don't know about it, so I figure I should offer a quick two minute primer. Might help you out a bit, or not, but whatever :-)

Mounting under Linux is quite different then it is under Windows. Basically, every partition you want access to in Linux has to be 'mounted' to a directory. This directory is called the mount point, and is specified when you mount a device, partition, or other resource.

So, for instance, lets say you have nothing set to automatically mount (no gvfs, etc.) If you plug a USB drive into your computer, you have to tell it to mount, and where to mount it. You can mount it anywhere you please on the filesystem (except the root / ). You could, for instance, create a folder in /home/username/ named "USB". You could mount it with the command `mount /dev/USBDRIVE /home/username/USB` (assuming that USBDRIVE is the device name... It's likely sdb/sdc/sdd/etc...)

All this does is tell the system that when it accesses that directory, it should instead access the resource (drive/parition/etc) specified. Now all file access attempts on /home/username/USB will be redirected. If there were files in /home/username/USB they are still there, but they are inaccessible while the mount is in place. They will reappear as soon as the device is unmounted.

To find out what is currently mounted on your system, you can run `mount` without any arguments. Here is an example:

-----------------------------------------
> mount
sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=10240k,nr_inodes=1022763,mode=755)
/dev/sda3 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=continue,barrier=0,data=ordered)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
shm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext2 (rw)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
/dev/sda2 on /mnt/windows type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096)
-----------------------------------------

Now, some of those are special devices you can just pretend don't exist for the purposes of this explination (sys, udev, devpts, shm, fusectl). The one that is a good demo is the last one. It says that /dev/sda2 is mounted on /mnt/windows (with some misc options).

Now when I go to /mnt/windows, I am actually seeing the contents of /dev/sda2.

Now, how that applies to you:
You have ntfs-3g installed. That means that you can mount NTFS partitions with full read/write support. That there should be all the tools you need. To mount it manually, you can simply go to the command line and make a folder where you want to mount it (the mount point). Generally this is in /mnt/, but feel free to go against the grain. Once done, you can run the mount command to gain access to that partition. You need to know the device address of this partition.

To find the partition device name (if you don't know it already), I suggest running `fdisk -ls`, which should list out all the drives and partitions on them. Once you figure that out, you can mount it with `mount DEVICE MOUNTPOINT`, where MOUNTPOINT is the path of the directory you made (or already exists, whatever), and DEVICE is the device path (/dev/sda2, for instance).

Hope that helps. If not you, then someone :-)

Vapourstreak · 2011-02-08 07:53:39

karol wrote:

I have no idea about the GUI stuff (Thunar etc.), but can you access the NTFS partition from the commandline? What is the output of 'mount'?
You can mount partitions anywhere you like. Are you having problem with mounting or automounting the partition?

mount
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=10240k,nr_inodes=215440,mode=755)
/dev/sda6 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,barrier=1,data=ordered)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
shm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext2 (rw)
/dev/sda7 on /home type ext4 (rw)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/dk/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=dk)
/dev/sda3 on /mnt type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096)

I'm having trouble mounting it at all. What's FUSE, BTW? NTFS-3G seems to talk lot about that.

Wait actually, the last line says its mounted, which seems to be right, as I inputted

ntfs-3g /dev/disk/by-uuid/6CCD866A0C583E82 /mnt

But when I go fdisk -ls, it shows nothing, and when I go fdisk -ls /dev/disk/by-uuid/6CCD866A0C583E82/, or fdisk -ls /dev/sda3 (Same NTFS Partition), it outputs:

Cannot open /dev/disk/by-uuid/6CCD866A0C583E82

and

Cannot open /dev/sda3

And I still don't understand how to access the mounted partitions.

anonymous_user wrote:

For Thunar, make sure you have gvfs installed.

Yeah, I have that installed along with all the other gvfs-* 's.

SeanM wrote:

Alright, well, I don't know how much you know and don't know about it, so I figure I should offer a quick two minute primer. Might help you out a bit, or not, but whatever :-)
Mounting under Linux is quite different then it is under Windows. Basically, every partition you want access to in Linux has to be 'mounted' to a directory. This directory is called the mount point, and is specified when you mount a device, partition, or other resource.
So, for instance, lets say you have nothing set to automatically mount (no gvfs, etc.) If you plug a USB drive into your computer, you have to tell it to mount, and where to mount it. You can mount it anywhere you please on the filesystem (except the root / ). You could, for instance, create a folder in /home/username/ named "USB". You could mount it with the command `mount /dev/USBDRIVE /home/username/USB` (assuming that USBDRIVE is the device name... It's likely sdb/sdc/sdd/etc...)
All this does is tell the system that when it accesses that directory, it should instead access the resource (drive/parition/etc) specified. Now all file access attempts on /home/username/USB will be redirected. If there were files in /home/username/USB they are still there, but they are inaccessible while the mount is in place. They will reappear as soon as the device is unmounted.
To find out what is currently mounted on your system, you can run `mount` without any arguments. Here is an example:
-----------------------------------------
> mount
sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=10240k,nr_inodes=1022763,mode=755)
/dev/sda3 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=continue,barrier=0,data=ordered)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
shm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext2 (rw)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
/dev/sda2 on /mnt/windows type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096)
-----------------------------------------
Now, some of those are special devices you can just pretend don't exist for the purposes of this explination (sys, udev, devpts, shm, fusectl). The one that is a good demo is the last one. It says that /dev/sda2 is mounted on /mnt/windows (with some misc options).
Now when I go to /mnt/windows, I am actually seeing the contents of /dev/sda2.

Now, how that applies to you:
You have ntfs-3g installed. That means that you can mount NTFS partitions with full read/write support. That there should be all the tools you need. To mount it manually, you can simply go to the command line and make a folder where you want to mount it (the mount point). Generally this is in /mnt/, but feel free to go against the grain. Once done, you can run the mount command to gain access to that partition. You need to know the device address of this partition.
To find the partition device name (if you don't know it already), I suggest running `fdisk -ls`, which should list out all the drives and partitions on them. Once you figure that out, you can mount it with `mount DEVICE MOUNTPOINT`, where MOUNTPOINT is the path of the directory you made (or already exists, whatever), and DEVICE is the device path (/dev/sda2, for instance).
Hope that helps. If not you, then someone :-)

I think it successfully mounts, as seen in mount command output, but when I try running fdisk -ls, it shows nothing, and when I go fdisk -ls /dev/disk/by-uuid/6CCD866A0C583E82/, or fdisk -ls /dev/sda3 (Same NTFS Partition), it outputs:

Cannot open /dev/disk/by-uuid/6CCD866A0C583E82

and

Cannot open /dev/sda3

. (Yeah, copy paste from the top. )

I don't have any folders in the NTFS partition at all, it was freshly formatted.

I inputted

ntfs-3g /dev/disk/by-uuid/6CCD866A0C583E82 /mnt

ntfs-3g /dev/disk/by-uuid/6CCD866A0C583E82 /

ntfs-3g /dev/sda /

and

ntfs-3g /dev/sda3 /

And it all gives the same output, which is nothing, just \n, so I think it mounted, but fdisk still says can't open.

Vapourstreak · 2011-02-08 07:54:58

Actually, I tried sudoing fdisk -ls and it worked:

Disk /dev/sda: 32.0 GB, 32006733824 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 30524 cylinders, total 62513152 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000963ff

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *          32     2000895     1000432   83  Linux
/dev/sda2         2000896    17999871     7999488    5  Extended
/dev/sda3        17999872    62513151    22256640    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5         2000928     6000639     1999856   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6         6000672    14000127     3999728   83  Linux
/dev/sda7        14000160    17999871     1999856   83  Linux

/dev/sda3 is the partition I'm trying to access, so it's mounted, now cow do I access it?

Vapourstreak · 2011-02-08 13:08:37

Ok, I think I got it to automount the drives, even the hotplugged ones. But now I don't know how to access them in thunar. I have gvfs installed, and all that, but I don't see it on the sidebar of thunar or anything. How do I go and brownse it?

I set the thunar-volman settings so it mounts the devices automatically, and browse automatically, but it somehow doesn't seem to let me browse them.

How do I gain access to the removable drives?

EDIT: Scratch that, I just read the console outputs of thunar-volman, and it comes up with this:

thunar-volman: Unsupported USB device type.
thunar-volman: Unsupported USB device type.
thunar-volman: Unknown block device type.
thunar-volman: Could not detect the volume corresponding to the device.

It seems to have mounted properly according to fdisk though, but I still don't know how to gain access to it.

What do I do?

EDIT2: I launched thunar using dbus-launch thunar, and the volumes show up, but it says I'm not authorized when I click them. Permission problems, I'm guessing, so it should be an easy fix, I'll update when I do.

Last edited by Vapourstreak (2011-02-08 13:13:32)

Vapourstreak · 2011-02-08 13:32:21

Kay I don't know. I tried Googling and searching as to why I'm not authorized to view the removable disk, to no avail.

I tried adding myself to 'storage' and 'power'

I already have dbus-launch in front of ck-launch-session

And still I'm getting the Not Authorized error.

I can access it perfectly using root though.

And how come when I launch thunar in the command line and through Chrome show in folder, it launches the regular thunar with only my home folder and File System, without the removable disks, trash, or network. Is there any way to default it to dbus-launch thunar? I thought adding dbus-launch in front of ck-launch-session would do it, but apparently not.

Vapourstreak · 2011-02-08 16:15:04

Any help?

Mast · 2011-02-08 18:53:01

Vapourstreak wrote:

I already have dbus-launch in front of ck-launch-session

Wait, isn't it supposed to be the other way around? That is, first ck-launch-session and then dbus-launch? At least that's what everybody was saying on this forum a couple of days ago.
Also, don't forget to log out and log in again after modifying the relevant files.

Inxsible · 2011-02-08 18:58:17

VapourStreak, please don't keep bumping your thread with multiple posts consecutively.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … te#Bumping

Arch Linux

#1 2011-02-07 22:10:28

Mounting and interacting with removable drives.

#2 2011-02-07 23:38:33

Re: Mounting and interacting with removable drives.

#3 2011-02-08 04:19:06

Re: Mounting and interacting with removable drives.

#4 2011-02-08 06:01:54

Re: Mounting and interacting with removable drives.

#5 2011-02-08 07:53:39

Re: Mounting and interacting with removable drives.

#6 2011-02-08 07:54:58

Re: Mounting and interacting with removable drives.

#7 2011-02-08 13:08:37

Re: Mounting and interacting with removable drives.

#8 2011-02-08 13:32:21

Re: Mounting and interacting with removable drives.

#9 2011-02-08 16:15:04

Re: Mounting and interacting with removable drives.

#10 2011-02-08 18:53:01

Re: Mounting and interacting with removable drives.

#11 2011-02-08 18:58:17

Re: Mounting and interacting with removable drives.

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