Hello,
I’m on Tumbleweed 20231215. I updated the system as usual and I noticed that my ntfs partition configured to automount in fstab won’t mount using ntfs3. It turns out that the update suddenly blacklisted ntfs3. I can just unblacklist it by modprobe, but why did it get blacklisted? Was it after the update and did anyone else get this blacklisted?
I found a file /lib/modprobe.d/60-blacklist_fs-ntfs3.conf
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!
#
# The ntfs3 file system is blacklisted by default because it isn't actively
# supported by SUSE.
blacklist ntfs3
# The filesystem can be un-blacklisted by running "modprobe ntfs3".
# See README.md in the suse-module-tools package for details.
install ntfs3 /usr/lib/module-init-tools/unblacklist ntfs3; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install ntfs3
ote
I see that the update is the reason for the blacklist, but who thought that blacklisting the new ntfs3 will be more convenient for users? Blacklisting the old ntfs module would make sense, but why the new ntfs3?
ntfs3 corrupted already filesystems from users. there are bugreports about it. As long as this is not fixed upstream, openSUSE keeps the right to protect users data by blacklisting broken/unsupported drivers…
Thanks for clarifying why was it blacklisted. So was it enabled earlier and opensuse maintainers decided to blacklist the module now because of reported issues? Do you know if they are working on it upstream?
@piotrus3g no, there is no fix… use at your own risk… if you have an issue then take it upstream, but openSUSE/SUSE maintainers have no interest in supporting.
Blacklisting a very critical part of a business workflow without properly announcing it on the web (e.g. openSUSE news) is completely unprofessional. openSUSE is a Global project, however it has several German maintainers/developers. It is extremely easy to check with Paragon Software GmbH, which is probably being sponsored by MSFT for their NTFS3 driver development.
If a file system module severely corrupts a foreign file system, logic says it should be reported to upstream (the Linux kernel) with hard evidence, not some random “NTFS??! It broke my OS, it is M$” posts. At least a secure image of MFT etc. should be given over a private/secure channel. It isn’t really ethical to flame GNU/GPL licensed modules without posting appropriate bugreports to right parties.
AFAIK ntfs3 is already an opt-in driver, needing manual -t argument or manual editing of /etc/fstab
As we are now enabling/disabling kernel upstream drivers using random anecdotes, here is mine: I once had 10 TB of data in NTFS formatted drives and had to process the data on them while running Linux. An userspace driver can be way safer, however it has absurd amounts of speed difference compared to in-kernel drivers. After I managed to get a proper, verified double backup of the data, I converted everything to BTRFS and I could have a properly supported, open standards based file system. It took days. It is simply impossible for a freelancer wondering around with external drives and being forced to use company supplied laptop/workstation.
You should definitely read all the linked articles and threads.
blacklisting the kernel module in openSUSE terms only means, it is officially not supported. You can enable it if you want but don’t ecpect any support. And you are free to destroy your data on your own risk. This is described in the linked SDB. Also the rationale behind blacklisting unsupprted filesystems is explained.
if you do a basic search, you will find all bugreports regarding ntfs3
the blacklisting was announced on the ML
a “business workflow” uses business software and resources. ntfs3 was never one of the supported filesystems of SLES. Read the SLES documentation.
First of all, I just need to read the LKML if I manage dozens of Linux workstations as a system administrator of a Windows/Linux mixed environment. 90% of my tech news reading is occupied by FOSS already and sorry, I didn’t see “openSUSE announced they disable ntfs3 driver citing unfixable errors resulting from its usage in fstab” story. I don’t see Linus removing ntfs3 module from mainline kernel since one of the 3 professionally used distributions reports serious issues. ntfs3 requires manual work because of this and it was included just because of professionals having petabytes of unmovable data in ntfs formatted storage.
As a person who actively worked in media for decades, I have several people around who are actively testing a stable (as in LTS) Linux after the advancements in raw image processing and extended colour profiles support. These people wonder around with terabytes of data with them and they really don’t have time to watch highly technical nature Linux mailing lists.
I use Linux since Slackware 7 and I spotted this issue after my 6th search after a fresh TW install here when I noticed I can’t mount the drive with ntfs3 option. Drive only has GNU/GPL/BSD licensed torrents and downloads, it is trivial data. If it contained originally created data, I would immediately assume it is a drive mechanism/corruption issue and have a small heart attack. I had to dig dmesg and the only thing I see is this:
sudo journalctl |grep ntfs
[sudo] password for root:
Jan 20 08:31:41 hp mount[2076]: mount: /mnt/ext: unknown filesystem type ‘ntfs3’.
Please ask the first designer who tests openSUSE for possible switch/addition of Linux if they understand a single character of it. They don’t have to. They do CMYK graphics for living. Not kernel development and seriously they don’t have 10 minutes to check while working. Especially after this AI fashion.
As a person who happens to know people in design etc circles, I just posted my opinion and I really don’t want to create an argument. I actually deleted the possible argument creating paragraph I wrote because of it, in the OP.
It is up to openSUSE management to decide whether if it is right or wrong. They seem to have decided. I provided end user feedback.
On the other hand, SLES is getting a feedback about this.