How to write startup script to run NTFS

neosirex · 05-31-2005, 02:47 PM

Hi i'm like a bigtime newbie to linux and i'm trying to write a startup script that will both run modprobe to run ntfs and then follow up by mounting the drives. Like i have no idea how to start writing the script but i think they should go into rc3.d and rc5.d right?

As of now the way i mount my ntfs drives is that i startup goto console and goto the etc folder and type "modprobe ntfs" and then that loads the ntfs module
then i have to mount each of the drives.

Any help would be appreciated!

Tino27 · 05-31-2005, 03:39 PM

You didn't mention what distrobution you are trying to get this to work on. However, I can generally give you the two steps you need to take.

To get the ntfs module to load at boot time, you need to make sure that the appropriate line in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules is commented in (search for 'ntfs' inside the file). That is for Slackware. For other distros, check out the /etc/init.d directory. There will be a file that is similar to the one in Slackware -- it generally has 'modules' as part of its name.

The second part of the question is to get the partition mounted. For this, simply place an entry into the /etc/fstab file for the partition(s) you want mounted. You can tell the computer to automount the partition at boot-up or on demand. Simply do a 'man fstab' at the CLI to find out more information about how to alter the fstab file.

neosirex · 05-31-2005, 04:49 PM

ok i guess i shoulda told you i'm running fedora 3, as for the rc modules file i can't find it anywhere
i see rc1, rc2, blah blah, rc local and rc.sysinit but no rc file with any type of modules in it.

Tino27 · 05-31-2005, 06:30 PM

You can put the command in rc.local as well.

/sbin/modprobe ntfs

Electro · 05-31-2005, 07:25 PM

If the kernel was compiled with auto module loading then you do not have to write a script to load NTFS during mounting. The kernel should be able to load the module to mount a partition.

If you want the NTFS partition to be mounted at bootup, just add a line in /etc/fstab. Let's say that the NTFS partiton is on /dev/hdb1 and you want to mount it on /mnt/windows. Also you made a directory called /mnt/windows.

/dev/hdb1 /mnt/windows ntfs ro,users,umask=222 1 2

The mounting command should tell the kernel that it needs the ntfs module. Hopefully, NTFS was compiled either as builtin or as a module.

Slackware also uses /etc/modules.conf (for 2.4.x) or /etc/modprobe.conf (for 2.6.x). Other distributions are the same depending on the setup or scripts that they use.