What is the compatibility status on Snow Leopard?

I'm having trouble even installing SL on my boot volume (cannot install on disk message) and am wondering if this is a candidate for the cause?

I installed Snow Leopard today (final build) and installed NTFS-3G after I finished installing Windows via Boot Camp. It installed OK, but after a reboot my Windows installation disappeared from the "Startup Disk" menu. I don't know if it's related.

Also, I can't seem to uninstall NTFS-3G.

Trying to uninstall it via the System Preferences pane yields this message: "ERROR(Non-zero exit value: 101)"

Trying to uninstall it via the .sh file using Terminal doesn't work either, as it simply reports that NTFS-3G can't be uninstalled because it's not installed.

So huh.

Ok, duh. Yes, it's always been that when NTFS-3G has its hooks a NTFS drive, it won't show up under "Startup Disks" - because I think in order to show up the NTFS drive has to be mounted using the OS X native (read only) NTFS driver.

So I guess the only real issue is that I can't get it to uninstall.

Thunderclap:~ kbanas$ sudo /System/Library/Filesystems/ntfs-3g.fs/Support/uninstall-ntfs-3g.sh
Password:**************
This script will remove all NTFS-3G files installed with NTFS-3G.pkg.
You may be asked for your Administrator password.

NTFS-3G not installed... aborting.

After reading other threads in this forum I see that this issue has been addressed. Thanks!

I just upgraded from Leopard to Snow Leopard, and left NTFS-3G in place. It didn't report any errors - however NTFS-3G was constantly using about 40% CPU. For that reason, I uninstalled it.

When NTFS-3G uses CPU, it's working. My guess is that the CPU usage is caused by Spotlight reindexing the volume.

- Erik

For when will there be an update that serves for Snow Leopard?

On SnowLeopard you can always use the built-in kernel NTFS driver (which I wrote btw. :)) instead of NTFS-3g...

To make read-write the default for a volume simply create a file /etc/fstab and put a line like the following for each NTFS volume:

LABEL=mylabel none ntfs rw

Where "mylabel" is the label of the NTFS volume (the name under the icon of the NTFS volume on your desktop).

Alternatively you can use UUID=myuuid instead of LABEL=mylabel in which case myuuid is obtained by running:

echo `sudo /System/Library/Filesystems/ntfs.fs/ntfs.util -k disk0s4`

That assumes disk0s4 is the NTFS volume containing device so you need to change that accordingly to match your device. To find out on which device an NTFS volume is mounted at present run "mount".

Best regards,

Anton

i'm sorry but i can't get my ntfs drive write enabled. specifically i am not understanding what you mean by "simply create a file /etc/fstab."

once i've created this file how do i add the line "LABEL=mylabel none ntfs rw" to it.

i was able to run the mount command and the drive is named "disk1s2" but when i type "echo `sudo /System/Library/Filesystems/ntfs.fs/ntfs.util -k disk1s2`" into the command line all i get back is "sudo /System/Library/Filesystems/ntfs.fs/ntfs.util -k disk1s2". where is the device ID?

thanks in advance for your help. c

Hi,



With a text editor. E.g. nano or pico or vi or emacs or whatever you like. Or without an editor for example like so:

echo "LABEL=mylabel none ntfs rw" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

That will add the line to the end of /etc/fstab creating it first if it doesn't exist already.



You used quotes rather than backticks. The backtick is a special character that means "execute everything between the two backticks as a shell command then paste the output from the command in place of the command". An alternative way of writing it is:

echo $(sudo /System/Library/Filesystems/ntfs.fs/ntfs.util -k disk1s2)

That will avoid the quote versus backtick confusion whilst giving the same result...

Best regards,

Anton

I would heavily recommend against using anton's tip. As of now I had several reports of native driver corrupting folders on ntfs volumes, which are afterwards repairable only with chkdsk in Windows.

titan4,

Could you give us a bit more information? Any links to such reports?

- Erik

1) here with more info here
2) and small confirmation here

These are reports from Non-Apple computers running hacks to install 10.6?

I wonder if this could be from scanning the posts x64 kernel related? I was under the impression that x64 kernel is not quite ready due to drivers.

I am newly installing NTFS-3G on my system running Snow Leopard.

After rebooting there is no NTFS option for formatting in Disk Utility. Only the standard Mac default options and FAT.

I uninstalled and re-installed again. Rebooted again with the same result.

Does anyone know what might be wrong?

Steve

hello. so are you saying if one wants read/write on an external drive on a mac 10.6, one can use the native NTFS driver instead of NTFS-3G, provided we create that text file you described?

if so, great! but what are the pros & cons of doing this? im using 3G because i believed it was the only way to write to my external NTFS drive. but the problem im having w/ 3G is that when the volume is mounted as such it no longer appears able to share itself over the network. if i unmount and remount via standard NTFS it properly shows up as a share again; however then the drive is read-only on the host mac which is no good


thanks,
matt

I follow Anton's instructions. After mounting my drive writable, the Finder fail to copy files with a dialog box saying "The Finder can't complete the operation ... because some data cannot be read or written"

then I cannot eject the drive

then shutdown hang

force reboot, mount the drive again and copy file fail with the same dialog

but I can eject and shutdown okay

but can't write anything to the ntfs drive.

still don't know what to do with regards to NTSF-3G on Snow Leopard. Do I uninstall it and try this terminal hack? Do I keep it installed and dare to use my NTSF volume?

Is there some kind of new version (beta or otherwise) available? If so, where, because all the home page says is some sort of new product is coming out....

Is NTSF-3G dead because of the the "built-in" method, also written by a Tuxera kernel dev?

It was asked above what the pros and cons are...

Thanks for not leaving us hanging any longer.

It's really unacceptable for there not to be more clarity about this, particular the questions I (and others) ask above. I mean we're dealing with people's file systems here. Thank you, devs, for being considerate about this in advance.

Hi,



Yes.



Pros: probably quicker, native driver, supported by Apple, works 64-bit and 32-bit, supports NFS exporting, etc...

Cons: none as far as I know(-:

And yes your network sharing will work fine.

Best regards,

Anton

Sounds like your volume is corrupt. Run "chkdsk /f" on Windows on the volume to repair it, then try again.

Best regards,

Anton

The x64 kernel is just fine on Apple hardware.

Anyone running Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware gets what they deserved.

I can't actually believe people's ignorance and stupidity!

Honestly, trying to run OS X on AMD CPUs is like slitting your wrists and expecting not to die...

There are so many reasons why this can not work stably without a lot of kernel changes it's not even funny.

Best regards,

Anton

I think I have answered all the questions now...

Best regards,

Anton

Anton, I followed your instructions (I'm on a Macbook, Snow Leopard) and everything seemed to work ok. But when I tried ejecting the drive, it displayed an error message saying I had to shutdown.

When I restarted, I tried to eject the drive again, and now the drive looks faded, but is still not ejected.

Is there a way to change the drive back to read-only on my system?

Hi,

Just remove the /etc/fstab file and reboot and it will go back to being read-only.

I would recommend you allow Windows to run chkdsk on your NTFS partition and to then try again.

Also, why are you ejecting it? Just keep it mounted... Or is it an external drive, in which case ejecting obviously makes sense...

Best regards,

Anton