NTFS-3G instead of NTFS-3G-NG

[mecho]

Is it possible to substitute ntfs-3g-ng with ntfs-3g and take advantage of the regular updates without braking the system. The ntfs-3g-ng is never updated. I tried to do it, but pcmanfm won't mount drives afterwards.
My question is - is there any config file which can be reconfigured to use ntfs-3g and have pcmanfm mount normally

[klaus2008]

I think that the program ntfs-3g used is the one inside the initial ramdisk minirt.gz. Thus you have to update your initial ramdisk with an updated ntfs-3g. This new program, I think, has to be a statically linked executable file which may not use any call to a shared library. I do not think that the Debian packages include such a file.

[mecho]

I don't quite understand your answer, but for it means if I don't understand the answer then I should not touch it. Thanks anyway

[fadirocks]

well I went already with the updates now I can't even revert back to ntfs-3g-ng it's not showing up in synaptic and ntfs-config is not holding settings for external HDs argh!!!

[mecho]

I also broke my system trying to do it, but I keep a back-up of my entire knoppix usb under windows and it was easy for me to restore to the previous working state. I can try and repackage ntfs-3g-ng from my instalation for you and upload it somewhere, but I am not sure if it would work. This is somewhat modified version of the original ntfs-3g and I can not figure what the difference is

[kl522]

ntfs-ng, despite the name 'ng' ( next generation ), is actually less recent compared to the ntfs-3g maintained by Tuxera. For your NTFS integrity, please don't use ntfs-ng.

[mecho]

Thank you for reply kl522, but that's exactly what we are trying to do. Substitute ntfs-3g-ng with ntfs-3g.
Knoppix comes with ntfs-3g-ng by default and there are no updates for it.
The thing is that after installing ntfs-3g, pcmanfm won't mount ntfs drives anymore. There is Arch Linux link which I think would be helpful, but I did not try it.
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PCManFM
I would need some free time to try and see if it's working

[kl522]

OK you try it out and let us know. For me I have also completey removed ntfs-ng. I have also removed pcmanfm. I am using pcmanfm version 2. But the pcmanfm mounting ntfs thing is still not very robust. Mounting from root scripts/commands is not a problem but mounting from pcmanfm can sometimes fail. I don't quite bother to fix it, since don't plug in and plug out NTFS formatted USB. ;)

[mecho]

@kl522

I tested the new ntfs-3g just as I promised.It works just fine with a little tweak to /usr/sbin/rebuildfstab.
Turns out that the new ntfs-3g is incompatible with some of the options in fstab which rebuildfstab generates.
Line 104 in rebuldfstab reads ntfs*) options="${options},umask=000";; where ${options}=noauto,users,exec
I changed the line to read ntfs*) options="ro,noauto,umask=000";; I added ro because I only need ntfs mounted in read only mode, removed ${options} and added noauto. Now pcmanfm mounts ntfs just fine
I guess the option users is the incompatible option, not 100% sure though, because I removed both users and exec

[kl522]

After reading your post, I go and try it again, you know what, I don't have the problem of unable to mount ntfs anymore with pcmanfm2 ! I don't know what has caused the difference, perhaps due to some of the newer libraries I upgraded. So since it is not broken now, I am not going to fix it ! ;)

[kl522]

As a side note, you know what the pcmanfm 0.9.7 is still kind of odd, after you eject the removable media, the right hand side is still displaying the icons of the files on the ejected volume.

I read somewhere that the author of pcmanfm is a full time medical doctor. Kind of interesting. :)

[mecho]

I am talking about NTFS-3G and the latest version of the old pcmanfm 0.5.2. Sorry for the misunderstanding I did not test the new pcmanfm2 as it is still incomplete and I did not upgrade to it

[utu]

I installed pcmanfm 0.9.7-1 from debian testing
and I'm not too happy with it, because

1. Mine is missing a capability to load and tweak the desktop
cube background in compiz that pcmanfm 0.5-3 from the
original 6.2.1 setup; the original set-up suits me, but
I can't change it anymore;

2. Mine won't mount ntfs volumes, but I'd rather it didn't
anyway, noting some comments I've seen even here;

3. Mine has one menu selection, applications, that's a lock-up.
I have no idea what the author had in mind; and

4. Working with Synaptic, it looks too scary (to me) to try to
revert to the earlier pcmanfm, because some wholesale lxde
changes are involved.


FWIW, I think pcmanfm and lxde have the same author.
Also, FWIW I have ntfs-3g-ng not ntfs-3g. If that's not the
6.2.1 original, then this change must have occurred unbidden
with the 'upgrade' to pcmanfm 0.9.7-1.

[mecho]

I think you are missing the point of this thread. It is about upgrading ntfs-3g. The version of ntfs-3g with the suffix ng is not upgradeable that's why I was looking for a way to change to the original ntfs-3g supported by tuxera and updated regularly. Since it is a crucial driver it is very important to get all the updates that released.
You can revert back to the old pcmanfm - just download it from debian and use dpkg -i to install it over the new one.I don't think you will encounter any problems

[mecho]

For anyone who wants to revert back to the old pcmanfm here is a link to the latest pcmanfm1 version
http://universo.canaima.softwarelibre.gob.ve/pool/main/p/pcmanfm/pcmanfm_0.5.2+svn20091029-1_i386.deb

Notice 0.5-3 is older version then 0.5.2
This is about the only link I can find for the latest pcmanfm1 updated in 31-october-2009.This is the one I am using too

[kl522]

OK sorry I am the one who bring in the topic of pcmanfm2. But I have my reason :-
pcmanfm there is no more development on it, it's buggy and very "unpredictable" - it's as bad as 'ntfs-ng'. So if you are using 'pcmanfm' with 'ntfs-ng', it's bad combined with bad. I am using pcmanfm2, despite making noise about it, I think it's still better than pcmanfm.

Next. The older and dead program for mounting ntfs is called 'ntfs-ng', it's not called 'ntfs-3g-ng'. There is no 'ntfs-3g-ng'.

'ntfs-ng' = second generation
'ntfs-3g' = third generation

[mecho]

Depends on the knoppix version you are using - in 6.2 it is called ntfs-3g-ng
Anyway I tried the new pcmanfm and I found it to be still very buggy,so I went back to the old one, which works perfect for me. I can wait a while longer until the new ones becomes stable enough

[mecho]

And I am sorry Utu and kl522 - I did not mean to offend anyone. Probably the way I express myself in english sounds a bit strange. My personal apologies to both of you if you felt offended in any way. I certainly did not mean to

[krishna.murphy]

For anyone who wants to revert back to the old pcmanfm here is a link to the latest pcmanfm1 version
http://universo.canaima.softwarelibre.gob.ve/pool/main/p/pcmanfm/pcmanfm_0.5.2+svn20091029-1_i386.deb

Notice 0.5-3 is older version then 0.5.2
This is about the only link I can find for the latest pcmanfm1 updated in 31-october-2009.This is the one I am using too

Could this function not be done in the Synaptic Package Manager, as well? It seems like you could just search for "pcman" and find all the stuff related to that, then go back to the previous version.

Cheers!
Krishna :mrgreen: