[SOLVED] mounting an NTFS drive located on a different computer

aagaag · 08-31-2014, 04:42 AM

i use Archlinux on server with IP address 10.10.10.10, and I wish to access an entire NTFS drive which belongs to a different computer that lives at 10.10.10.18.

I have installed NTFS-3G, and I modified the fstab - but I managed to prevent archlinux from booting. I recovered from that blunder, but now I'd rather get some advice. Also, I guess that I need to provide appropriate credentials for accessing the NTFS drive, and I have no idea of where to insert those.

many thanks in advance!

gengisdave · 08-31-2014, 05:24 AM

you can't mount remote filesystems that way, you must use nfs/samba/netatalk (it depends on the os installed to the computer owning the drive)

aagaag · 08-31-2014, 05:27 AM

thank you for your advice. The host is a Win8.1 computer. What would I need to install for it to serve the drive to Linux? Thanks again.

gengisdave · 08-31-2014, 05:34 AM

On Win8, you must share the folder/partition (remember to set the appropriate read/write permissions).

On the Linux:

Code:

mount -t cifs //10.10.10.18/name_of_the_share /where/to/mount

from a root shell or preceded by 'sudo'.

To make this a permanent mount, add this to fstab:

Code:

//10.10.10.18/share_name /mount_point cifs rw,user,noauto 0 0

where rw means to mount it in write mode, user means a user can mount it and noauto means it won't be mounted during arch boot (delete it if you're sure the share is always available, or you have to wait several seconds at boot for the timeout)

ending zero means to don't check at mount/boot

ADD: two more parameters are needed if the mounted share belongs to root, so you don't have permissions to write or read : uid and gid

you can have this number simply by running 'id' in a shell

Code:

//10.10.10.18/share_name /mount_point cifs rw,user,noauto,uid=100,gid=200 0 0

means the mount user owner is 100 and the group owner is 200 (every user on linux have an unique uid and is a member of many gid - at least one)

aagaag · 08-31-2014, 05:58 AM

Thank you for your crystal-clear walk-through! I think that I am almost there. However, it seems that the command

Code:

sudo mount -t cifs //10.10.10.18/kellerpcroot /home/aag/test

wants to log into the share as root.

Code:

Password for root@//10.10.10.18/kellerpcroot

And it cannot, hence it throws:

Code:

mount error(13): Permission denied

How can I tell it to log in as user "aag" instead of root?

aagaag · 08-31-2014, 06:05 AM

never mind, I found the option -o username:foo
thanks!

gengisdave · 08-31-2014, 06:07 AM

Code:

sudo mount -t cifs //10.10.10.18/kellerpcroot /home/aag/test -o username=aag

basically, every option to mount must be preceded by '-o'

Code:

sudo mount -t cifs //10.10.10.18/kellerpcroot /home/aag/test -o username=aag -o rw

etc. see man mount.cifs for a full list

aagaag · 08-31-2014, 06:10 AM

..but I still have the problem that I do not know how to specify username and password in the fstab entry!

gengisdave · 08-31-2014, 06:22 AM

use credentials=filename, see man 'mount.cifs' for the filename syntax, be sure to protect the file (chmod 600)