This may not be the right place to post this, but here goes…
I am now trying SUSE 11 on my computer; have installed it and it is up and running as I type this into gedit and post it via firefox. But I have some questions. First - it is vitally important to me to be able to mount the windows partition and be able to write to it safely. I even know the command:
mount -rwv -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/win
But I am aware that you will screw up your windows filesystem if you don’t use “ntfs-3g” (instead if just “ntfs” and the “3g” is an added on driver of some kind.) The question is …
How can I be sure that NTFS-3G is installed? Does it come already installed with Suse 11? Or do I have to download and install it? If I need to install ntfs-3g, what should I do?
I also have questions about customozing the desktop, but I’ll save those for later. I am using Suse 11.1 with Gnome, NOT KDE.
NTFS-3g comes by default with openSUSE.
Writing permissions however do not.
If you want to ensure yourself that ntfs-3g is in fact installed, in a console as root use the command: zypper se ntfs-3g
If it has the letter i infront of it, it’s installed, if it isn’t do a zypper install ntfs-3g.
If you want write permissions, please see NTFS - openSUSE
Or simply,
Start up Partitioner*]Select the ntfs partition*]Hit the edit button*]Hit the fstab button*]Add umask=0002 to the Arbitary option value field (it’s a comma seperate list so you need to add ,umask=0002).
This is all assuming the ntfs partition already has been mounted, as it is by default in the /windows/ directory.
Thanks.
I did that command and NTFS-3G is marked with an i, so it should be already installed. I also read in the reference link that by default only root can write to NTFS. That’s good; that’s the way I want it. I only want the person who has the root password - me - to be able to write to NTFS. So I guess I wont have to change any umask settings?
“ntfs” is the older ntfs driver which worked reasonably well for read only, but did not work well for read/write to an NTFS partition. NTFS-3G is a software fork to NTFS driver, where NTFS-3G provided read/write to NTFS.
If I read this correctly, you are operating your openSUSE with root permissions. This is VERY BAD practise. I can not over state that. As a matter of course you should never operate nominally as user root, but rather should operate as a regular user, and only switch to root permissions when absolutely essential. Do not apply MS-Windows practises here to Linux as you will invariably either:
a. mess up your system by inappropriate use of root permissions, or
b. be compromised by a hacker who takes advantage of your inappropriately operating too much as user root, and then you will be a menace to everyone else on the internet.
If you are looking at copying data files to the NTFS parttion, then setup your NTFS permissions for either all regular users, or for a specific user, but do NOT restrict it to user root.
The ntfs-config didn’t work exactly like I wanted it to so I used the above link and got my system just the way I wanted it. A very helpful site, all in all.
