# [SOLVED] Can't automount external drive w/ NTFS partition

## agent_jdh

Hi,

This used to work, but somewhere along the line it seems to have broken.

Running ~arch, got an external firewire hdd with 2 partitions on it - one ext3, one ntfs.  Powering on the hdd used to mount both partitions OK (using KDE and ntfs-3g w/ suid USE flag).  Now, only the ext3 partition gets mounted - when I try to access the ntfs partition, all dolphin says is -

 *Quote:*   

> An error occured while accessing 'Portable', the system responded:
> 
> org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.UnknownFailure: TODO: have to rethink extra options

 

I can mount the partition as root.  This is doing my nut in.

----------

## irgu

Does this help?

```

ln -s /sbin/mount.ntfs-3g /sbin/mount.ntfs

```

----------

## agent_jdh

Both /sbin/mount.ntfs-3g and /sbin/mount/ntfs are symlinks to /bin/ntfs-3g

Thing is, I've got an NTFS partition on my local hard drive, which I can mount fine as a normal user.  It's just the NTFS partition on my external drive that can only be mounted as root.  When I try to mount as a normal user from konsole, I get "mount: only root can do that"

The plot thickens.

----------

## thomo

As root

nano /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/20-ntfs-config-write-policy.fdi

Paste this:

```
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!-- -*- SGML -*- -->

<deviceinfo version="0.2">

    <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>

</deviceinfo>

```

----------

## agent_jdh

 *thomo wrote:*   

> As root
> 
> nano /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/20-ntfs-config-write-policy.fdi
> 
> Paste this:
> ...

 

YOU BEAUTY.  THANKS V V MUCH.  Works a treat!

----------

## feiticeir0

 *thomo wrote:*   

> As root
> 
> nano /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/20-ntfs-config-write-policy.fdi
> 
> Paste this:
> ...

 

That did the trick !! Thanks !

----------

## doedel

On my ~x86 gentoo it worked, too! Thank you very much!

----------

## timeBandit

 *thomo wrote:*   

> As root:
> 
> nano /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/20-ntfs-config-write-policy.fdi
> 
> Paste this:
> ...

 

Right solution, wrong location: This belongs in /etc/hal/fdi/policy. See here.

----------

## FastTurtle

This partially solved a problem I've had mounting an external drive using ntfs partition but although I can access it as root, can't access it as normal user though I have users listed in the fstab permissions. Note that I don't need write capabilities and don't have them enabled in the kernel.

What's got me baffled is that I have no problem with flash drives (fat32 format) as a normal user. Just the ntfs external. 

```
/dev/sdc1      /mnt/usb   auto      noauto,users,noexec,nodev,ro   0 0
```

 and the user is in the plugdev group so any help would be appreciated

----------

## VoidMage

ntfs, as opposed to fat, actually implements something alike file permisions.

I actually run into a similar problem myself recently. See, if 'fmask=111,dmask=0' helps.

Oh, and nice grave-digging.

----------

