Weblog entry #3 for e5z8652
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#3
ntfs-config, hal refuses UID 1000, and NTFS drives
Posted by e5z8652 on Mon 9 Jun 2008 at 02:54
For some reason, ntfs-config hasn't been packaged for Debian. I think there is a wishlist item for it, but no ITP bug filed.
Really, if I knew more about packaging, I would do it. Ubuntu has had this packaged for some time.
In any case if you need to mount NTFS formatted drives automagically while in KDE and you have ntfs-3g installed, but you are tired of seeing a bunch of hal refused UID xxxx errors if you plug in an NTFS formatted external drive (or you want to mount your XP partition for dual boot) the solution is ntfs-config. (A workaround is to log into X as root, but I don't like that.)
Grab the source here: http://flomertens.free.fr/ntfs-config/download.htm
Unpack the source wherever you keep your packages. If you do a simple ./configure, make, make install you will find ntfs-config in /usr/local/bin, which is good enough for me. If you're working with more than one machine check into making debian packages from the source -- checkconfig is easy, but at the time of writing it's not available for Lenny.
It is an X based tool, so: su-to-root -X -c ntfs-config
To avoid the hal errors, enable read/write access for the device class. Classes are either internal or external, for non hot-plug or hot-pluggable devices respectively.
On my dual boot laptop, I chose read-write access for both internal and external drives. That lets me access my XP MCE drive just by clicking on the desktop icon. I can also access USB drives that have NTFS formatting. (And yes, sometimes I need to do this without having the ability to reformat to ext3.)
On my Etch desktop, I chose read-write access for only external drives.
ntfs-config doesn't do much in the way of magic. All it does is drop some XML hal policy files into key directories. If you have ntfs-3g installed and want error free access to NTFS USB hard drives all you need to do is paste the following XML into a file in /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor, on my system the file is titled 20-ntfs-config-write-policy.fdi:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!-- -*- SGML -*- -->
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<!-- file created by ntfs-config -->
<!-- mount ntfs volume with the ntfs-3g driver to enable write support -->
<device>
<match key="volume.fstype" string="ntfs">
<match key="@block.storage_device:storage.hotpluggable" bool="true">
<merge key="volume.fstype" type="string">ntfs-3g</merge>
<merge key="volume.policy.mount_filesystem" type="string">ntfs-3g</merge>
<append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">locale=</append>
</match>
</match>
</device>
Anyway. Hopefully before too much longer, it will be as easy as `apt-get install ntfs-config`
Really, if I knew more about packaging, I would do it. Ubuntu has had this packaged for some time.
In any case if you need to mount NTFS formatted drives automagically while in KDE and you have ntfs-3g installed, but you are tired of seeing a bunch of hal refused UID xxxx errors if you plug in an NTFS formatted external drive (or you want to mount your XP partition for dual boot) the solution is ntfs-config. (A workaround is to log into X as root, but I don't like that.)
Grab the source here: http://flomertens.free.fr/ntfs-config/download.htm
Unpack the source wherever you keep your packages. If you do a simple ./configure, make, make install you will find ntfs-config in /usr/local/bin, which is good enough for me. If you're working with more than one machine check into making debian packages from the source -- checkconfig is easy, but at the time of writing it's not available for Lenny.
It is an X based tool, so: su-to-root -X -c ntfs-config
To avoid the hal errors, enable read/write access for the device class. Classes are either internal or external, for non hot-plug or hot-pluggable devices respectively.
On my dual boot laptop, I chose read-write access for both internal and external drives. That lets me access my XP MCE drive just by clicking on the desktop icon. I can also access USB drives that have NTFS formatting. (And yes, sometimes I need to do this without having the ability to reformat to ext3.)
On my Etch desktop, I chose read-write access for only external drives.
ntfs-config doesn't do much in the way of magic. All it does is drop some XML hal policy files into key directories. If you have ntfs-3g installed and want error free access to NTFS USB hard drives all you need to do is paste the following XML into a file in /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor, on my system the file is titled 20-ntfs-config-write-policy.fdi:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!-- -*- SGML -*- -->
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<!-- file created by ntfs-config -->
<!-- mount ntfs volume with the ntfs-3g driver to enable write support -->
<device>
<match key="volume.fstype" string="ntfs">
<match key="@block.storage_device:storage.hotpluggable" bool="true">
<merge key="volume.fstype" type="string">ntfs-3g</merge>
<merge key="volume.policy.mount_filesystem" type="string">ntfs-3g</merge>
<append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">locale=</append>
</match>
</match>
</device>
Anyway. Hopefully before too much longer, it will be as easy as `apt-get install ntfs-config`