Can we use USB disk in cdf now? How?

[Gordon Shi Sun]

I still remember in summer, there was a icon named "USB device" on the
desktop of cdf machine. It was really easy to use.
But now it's gone. How can we use USB now?

btw: I have a USB external hard drive with NTFS system. Can I use it at
cdf?

[Henry Zaccak]

You can use any USB Mass Storage device... however I "think" that you
can only read from an NTFS drive and not write to it (yet) from linux.
I might be wrong.

Cheers,
Henry

PS - That icon (I think) should still be there.

Post by Gordon Shi Sun
I still remember in summer, there was a icon named "USB device" on the
desktop of cdf machine. It was really easy to use.
But now it's gone. How can we use USB now?
btw: I have a USB external hard drive with NTFS system. Can I use it at
cdf?

[Petrov Andrey]

You can use any USB Mass Storage device... however I "think" that you can
only read from an NTFS drive and not write to it (yet) from linux. I might be
wrong.

That's true. There's some hack of using the Windows NTFS dll to write to
an ntfs partition, but for the most part writing is unreliable. Reading is
pretty reliable but it has to be enabled in the kernel, I don't know if
CDF supports it by default. If it's an option, you're better off FATting
the drive.

- Andrey

Cheers,
Henry
PS - That icon (I think) should still be there.

Post by Gordon Shi Sun
I still remember in summer, there was a icon named "USB device" on the
desktop of cdf machine. It was really easy to use.
But now it's gone. How can we use USB now?
btw: I have a USB external hard drive with NTFS system. Can I use it at
cdf?

[Gordon Shi Sun]

But I still do not know if I can use NTFS in cdf, where I do not have
the root user.
It seems impossible for me. The system always says"I can not recognize
the filesystem."

By the way, what do you mean by "FATTING the drive" ?
Do you mean I can use it at cdf if the drive is FAT32?

Post by Petrov Andrey

Post by Henry Zaccak
You can use any USB Mass Storage device... however I "think" that you
can only read from an NTFS drive and not write to it (yet) from linux.
I might be wrong.

That's true. There's some hack of using the Windows NTFS dll to write to
an ntfs partition, but for the most part writing is unreliable. Reading
is pretty reliable but it has to be enabled in the kernel, I don't know
if CDF supports it by default. If it's an option, you're better off
FATting the drive.
- Andrey

Post by Henry Zaccak
Cheers,
Henry
PS - That icon (I think) should still be there.

Post by Gordon Shi Sun
I still remember in summer, there was a icon named "USB device" on the
desktop of cdf machine. It was really easy to use.
But now it's gone. How can we use USB now?
btw: I have a USB external hard drive with NTFS system. Can I use it
at cdf?

[David Warde-Farley]

Post by Gordon Shi Sun
I still remember in summer, there was a icon named "USB device" on the
desktop of cdf machine. It was really easy to use.
But now it's gone. How can we use USB now?
btw: I have a USB external hard drive with NTFS system. Can I use it
at cdf

Yes, almost certainly. FAT32 in Linux has been virtually perfect for
many years. mount /usbdrv should work if it's FAT.

[Gordon Shi Sun]

Thank you very much!
I will FAT it.

Post by David Warde-Farley

Post by Gordon Shi Sun
I still remember in summer, there was a icon named "USB device" on the
desktop of cdf machine. It was really easy to use.
But now it's gone. How can we use USB now?
btw: I have a USB external hard drive with NTFS system. Can I use
it at cdf

Yes, almost certainly. FAT32 in Linux has been virtually perfect for
many years. mount /usbdrv should work if it's FAT.

[Mike C]

Post by Henry Zaccak
You can use any USB Mass Storage device... however I "think" that you
can only read from an NTFS drive and not write to it (yet) from linux. I
might be wrong.
Cheers,
Henry
PS - That icon (I think) should still be there.

Post by Gordon Shi Sun
I still remember in summer, there was a icon named "USB device" on the
desktop of cdf machine. It was really easy to use.
But now it's gone. How can we use USB now?
btw: I have a USB external hard drive with NTFS system. Can I use it
at cdf?

It depends if support is enabled for write access in the kernel. My
guess is it isn't. Menuconfig warns admins very clearly about the
dangers of mounting an NTFS partition with any kind of write ability.

Also, a USB key _SHOULD NOT_ be formatted with NTFS. You'll notice that
the NTFS option is not included amongst file system types to select when
formatting a USB key under windows. Why? It's very dangerous to run a
journaling filesystem on removable media.

An interesting story, I run many partitions on my home computer. Once I
decided to add write support for NTFS in my kernel and tried mounting my
windows partition. Then I added the partition to /etc/fstab, and bam,
the entire partition become unusable. The lesson, NTFS + linux is dangerous.


-Mike

[David Warde-Farley]

Post by Mike C
An interesting story, I run many partitions on my home computer. Once I
decided to add write support for NTFS in my kernel and tried mounting my
windows partition. Then I added the partition to /etc/fstab, and bam,
the entire partition become unusable. The lesson, NTFS + linux is dangerous.

I've had success with the captive ntfs.sys method, actually, and it ran
quite smoothly and stably(is that even a word?). But you're right, the
open/free/libre implementation is useless, and will continue to be since
as soon as NTFS is figured out completely, Microsoft will just change
the spec to protect their monopoly, or better yet, sick their lawyers
and the DMCA on the unlucky programmer. All this because Linux users
want to access what is undoubtedly *their* data, which for some
ridiculous reason they chose to store in this boobytrapped cellar called
NTFS. The lesson? Don't use "standards" that aren't open and well
documented.

And yes, journals on removable media filesystems is about as smart as
flying a kite in an electrical storm.