NTFS-3G on OpenIndiana

Updated: May 13th, 2013

Several problems have been reported when running ntfs-3g on OpenIndiana. Digging into them showed they stemmed from defects in the FUSE kernel module which was originally developed by Sun and appears to be orphaned now.

Here is a FUSE kernel module with all the identified defects fixed. Moreover ntfs-3g has now been upgraded to support requirements specific to OpenIndiana. They have been tested with oi_151a* desktop versions, both in 32-bit and 64-bit modes, and the 1964 tests from Posix file system test suite now pass with no error.

Note that the extended attributes and the Posix ACLs have not been implemented in this FUSE kernel module.

Attention is drawn on the fact that the modifications to the FUSE kernel module have not been reviewed by a kernel expert, and it may have hidden defects. You should be cautious and you should backup your important files. Do not expect to get support if the modified packages lead to loss of data.

Installation steps

Apart from downloading the packages, all the steps below have to be executed as root.

Download one of the ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs package files, unpack and install it. Both packages contain the integrated FUSE library, the ntfs-3g driver and several ntfsprogs utilities. The one in 32-bit mode can be used on 32-bit or 64-bit computers, the one in 64-bit mode can be used on 64-bit computers only. Do not install both packages.
```
# If ntfs-3g was already installed :
pkgrm ntfs-3g
# On any computer :
unzip -x ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2013.1.13AR.2.pkg.zip
pkgadd -d ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2013.1.13AR.2.pkg all
# Alternately, on 64-bit computers only :
unzip -x ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2013.1.13AR.2.pkg64.zip
pkgadd -d ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2013.1.13AR.2.pkg64 all
```
Download the FUSE kernel module package file, unpack and install it. This package contains the kernel modules for both the 64-bit and 32-bit kernels, but only the one matching your OpenIndiana kernel will be used. Unless stated otherwise, there is no version dependencies between fusefs and ntfs-3g, any fusefs version can be used for any ntfs-3g version.
```
# If a fuse kernel module was already installed :
pkgrm fusefs
# Anyway :
unzip -x fuse-kernel-1.1AR.2.pkg.zip
pkgadd -d fuse-kernel-1.1AR.2.pkg all
# The commands below only for the first installation
add_drv -m 'fuse 0666 root sys' fuse
ln -s /devices/pseudo/fuse@0:fuse /dev/fuse
# Rebooting may be needed to use the new module
```
This is all you need, you can now mount an ntfs file system. You can use either the ntfs-3g or the lowntfs-3g driver, both of them provide the full range of features :
```
# device path and mount point to be adjusted to configuration
mount -F lowntfs /dev/dsk/c2t1d0p1 /mnt/windows
```

Of course you can recompile the driver and utilities from the provided source tarball. Doing so, you may use either the FUSE library from the tarball, or an external one, such as the one available from the SFE repository.

ntfs-3g is distributed according to GPL v2 or higher,
and the fuse library is distributed according to GPL v2 only.

2013.1.13AR.2 release	Source tarball	ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2013.1.13AR.2.tgz
	OpenIndiana package (32-bit executables) (1)	ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2013.1.13AR.2.pkg.zip
	OpenIndiana package (64-bit executables) (2)	ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2013.1.13AR.2.pkg64.zip
2013.1.13AR.1 release	Source tarball	ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2013.1.13AR.1.tgz
	OpenIndiana package (32-bit executables) (1)	ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2013.1.13AR.1.pkg.zip
	OpenIndiana package (64-bit executables) (2)	ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2013.1.13AR.1.pkg64.zip
Global	Changelog	changelog

(1) This contains executables and library in 32-bit mode, usable with 64-bit and 32-bit kernels.
(2) This contains executables and library in 64-bit mode, usable with 64-bit kernels only.

Below are the fuse kernel module source files and the pluggable kernel modules. Users wanting to use OpenIndiana standard tools have to get the development files from github. Compiling a kernel module also requires the kernel headers which you have to collect from OpenIndiana.

The compiled kernel module and the source files are also available from the SFE repository.

The fuse kernel module for OpenIndiana is distributed according to CDDL and/or BSD-type license.

1.1AR.2 release	Source tarball	fuse-kernel-1.1AR.2.tgz
1.1AR.2 release	Kernel module (3)	fuse-kernel-1.1AR.2.pkg.zip
1.1AR.1 release	Source tarball	fuse-kernel-1.1AR.1.tgz
1.1AR.1 release	Kernel module (3)	fuse-kernel-1.1AR.1.pkg.zip
Global	Changelog	fuse-kernel-changelog

(3) this contains two kernel modules for oi_151a* on 32-bit (i386) and 64-bit (x86_64) kernels.

To report any problem, please post to the support forum hosted by Tuxera

Page is maintained by Jean-Pierre André