Mounting Windows' NTFS on [Open]Solaris x86/x64

The steps outlined in this blog post are derived from the Miscellaneous filesystem support for OpenSolaris on x86 web page. I just added few examples to illustrate the steps to mount a partition with NTFS filesystem that exists on the external hard drive (in this case, it is a Seagate FreeAgent external hard drive).

Step-by-Step instructions to mount NTFS filesystem on [Open]Solaris

1. Install the packages : FSWpart and FSWfsmisc.

   • Download http://www.belenix.org/binfiles/FSWpart.tar.gz and http://www.belenix.org/binfiles/FSWfsmisc.tar.gz

   • Uncompress and install the packages with 'root' privileges.

     
     % gunzip -c FSWpart.tar.gz | tar xvf -
     # pkgadd -d . FSWpart
     
     % gunzip -c FSWfsmisc.tar.gz | tar xvf -
     # pkgadd -d . FSWfsmisc
     
     

2. Find the logical device name for the NTFS partition. -l option of the rmformat command lists all removable devices along with their device names.

   
   # rmformat -l   
   Looking for devices...
        1. Logical Node: /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0p0
           Physical Node: /pci@0,0/pci-ide@1f,1/ide@1/sd@0,0
           Connected Device: MATSHITA UJDA750 DVD/CDRW 1.60
           Device Type: DVD Reader
   	Bus: IDE
   	Size: 
   	Label: 
   	Access permissions: 
        2. Logical Node: /dev/rdsk/c2t0d0p0
           Physical Node: /pci@0,0/pci1179,1@1d,7/storage@1/disk@0,0
           Connected Device: Seagate  FreeAgentDesktop 100F
           Device Type: Removable
   	Bus: USB
   	Size: 953.9 GB
   	Label: 
   	Access permissions: 
   
   

3. Identify the NTFS partition on the external disk with the help of fdisk

   
   # fdisk /dev/rdsk/c2t0d0p0
                Total disk size is 60800 cylinders
                Cylinder size is 32130 (512 byte) blocks
   
                                                  Cylinders
         Partition   Status    Type          Start   End   Length    %
         =========   ======    ============  =====   ===   ======   ===
             1                 IFS: NTFS         0  60800    60801    100
   
   SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
      1. Create a partition
      2. Specify the active partition
      3. Delete a partition
      4. Change between Solaris and Solaris2 Partition IDs
      5. Exit (update disk configuration and exit)
      6. Cancel (exit without updating disk configuration)
   Enter Selection: 6
   #
   
   

   In this example, partition #1 i.e., c2t0d0p1 has the NTFS filesystem.

4. Mount the NTFS partition just like mounting an UFS filesystem using the mount command. Use the argument ntfs to the command line option -F. Since the filesystem was mounted in a slightly different way than the conventional way, use /usr/bin/xlsmounts to see the detailed mount table information.

   
   # mount -F ntfs /dev/dsk/c2t0d0p1 /mnt
   
   # /usr/bin/xlsmounts
     PHYSICAL DEVICE                 LOGICAL DEVICE      FS    PID         ADDR Mounted on
   /dev/dsk/c2t0d0p1              /dev/dsk/c2t0d0p1    ntfs   6755  127.0.0.1:/ /mnt
   
   # ls /mnt
   expForSun.dmp             MySQL5.1                   RECYCLER
   medium-64-bit             $RECYCLE.BIN               System Volume Information
   
   

   Notice the 127.0.0.1:/ under ADDR column in the output of xlsmounts. NTFS mount uses userland NFSv2 server to access the filesystems on raw partitions. That is why the mount was shown as NFS client mounted from 127.0.0.1:/

5. To unmount the NTFS filesystem, use /usr/bin/xumount. Solaris standard umount command unmounts the filesystem but does not terminate the background NFS server process.

   
   # /usr/bin/xumount /mnt
   
            - OR -
   
   # /usr/bin/xumount /dev/dsk/c2t0d0p1
   
   

Check the Miscellaneous filesystem support for OpenSolaris on x86 page and Moinak Ghosh's blog post Mount and Access NTFS and Ext2FS from Solaris x86 for the rest of the fine details.

Posted at 02:17AM Feb 08, 2009 by Giri Mandalika in Solaris  |  Comments[3]