Mounting an NTFS filesystem on Oracle Enterprise Linux


To access an NTFS file system from Linux (OEL) you need either:
  • (a) need to have NTFS support compiled in the kernel or
  • (b) need to download and install packages that allow NTFS file systems to be mounted in userspace

Historically, few of the Linux distributors have ship with out-of-the-box support for NTFS file systems. As pointed out here, while there is a lot of public information about about MSDOS and VFAT, Microsoft has not published much details of NTFS, so the implementations vary in stability and features.

Initially you should check whether NTFS modules are already installed on your system.
$ ls -l /lib/modules/2.6.32-35-generic/kernel/fs/ | grep ntfs
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  4096 2011-11-08 09:12 ntfs
In case no modules are found, you need to download and install NTFS packages.
  • NTFS-3G is an open source implementation of Microsoft's NTFS file system that includes read and write support.
  • NTFS-3G developers use the FUSE file system to facilitate development and to help with portability

Step 1: Download fuse and ntfs-3g
fuse: get it from http://www.atrpms.net/dist/el5/fuse/ or http://sourceforge.net/projects/fuse/files/fuse-2.X/
ntfs-3g: You can download it from http://pkgs.repoforge.org/fuse-ntfs-3g/

Step 2: Install fuse components
# yum install fuse
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
This system is not registered with ULN.
ULN support will be disabled.
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package fuse.i386 0:2.7.4-8.el5 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved
================================================================================================
Package            Arch             Version             Repository           Size
================================================================================================
Installing:
fuse               i386             2.7.4-8.el5         ol5_u6_base          84 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================================
Install       1 Package(s)
Upgrade       0 Package(s)

Total download size: 84 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
fuse-2.7.4-8.el5.i386.rpm                                                  |  84 kB     00:00     
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing: fuse    1/1 
Installed: fuse.i386 0:2.7.4-8.el5                                                                                                      

Complete!
#
  • If you can't perform a yum installation, you can try installing fuse from your OEL media or performing a manual installation with the package downloaded from forgesource, as described here.

Step 3: Install fuse-ntfs-3g
# rpm -Uvh fuse-ntfs-3g-2010.5.22-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm 
warning: fuse-ntfs-3g-2010.5.22-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 6b8d79e6
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
1:fuse-ntfs-3g           ########################################### [100%]

Step 4: Mount the NTFS file system.
  • Once installed, reconnect the device and OEL should recognize it automatically
# mount.ntfs-3g  

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