Have just installed Centos 6.2 LiveCD to a 2Gb usb stick using the Fedora USB installation utility. Booted a second machine with it (the desktop on which I installed it doesn't support booting from USB sticks), and the desktop loaded ok, and everything seems to run, except for some major issues with the filemanagement. When I try to open the PC's hard drive, Centos pops up an error message:

Unable to mount location unknown file system "ntfs".

Opening the add/remove software function also fails to do anything. It opens a blank window, and after a while, closes it automatically.

Since the hard drive is inaccessible, it's difficult to test the native applications. The only access is to the web, via the browser, which I'm using to type this.

I'm trying to at least test the persistence function, without which this installlation is not much good. But without being able to install or remove any software, or update any, or even copy any files from the hard drive, about the only test I can think of is the saving of my login info into the browser. I guess I could also try saving something from the web, if I can find a medium to save it to.

Are these characteristics defects, or design features of the OS?

Have now tried saving pictures and web pages from the browser, but each attempt is met with "you cannot write to the folder" or "folder is write,-protected". OTOH, when I try a second time, the system tells me the file already exists, do I want to replace it, before giving me the same messages above...

So I guess this installation is not very useful.

The only thing left for me to test is whether my login info and bookmarks survive a reboot.

Well, it turns out that the software upgrade function seems to work. I set it for hourly updates, and in due course it found 17. I installed the xorg server updarte.

My browser bookmarks and login info also survived reboot. And it turns out that I can save to a folder called centoslive's home on the desktop, which comes with some precreated subfolder.s However, I continue to be puzzled by the filemanager's claim that 1.9GB are available for use, when clearly at least 1GB has been consumed. I wonder how I'll be able to tell when the USB stick is close to full?

Of course there remains the problem of the nonfuctioning add/remove software function, and most importantly, the inability to access the system's ntfs hard drive.

CentOS doesn't contain any software that's likely to violate copyright and NTFS is Microsoft proprietary. You can find a package called 'ntfs-3g' in the EPEL repository which will allow you to mount NTFS drives.

Thanks, any idea where or how I can find this package? My first attempt failed:

[root@livecd centoslive]# yum install ntfsprogs fuse-ntfs-3g
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, refresh-packagekit, security
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: ftp.telus.net
* extras: ftp.telus.net
* updates: ftp.telus.net
Setting up Install Process
No package ntfsprogs available.
No package fuse-ntfs-3g available.
Error: Nothing to do
[root@livecd centoslive]#

Have gone down other search forks but found only documentation, no download sites. The add/remove tool doesn't find anything when ntfs-3g is entered.

regarding my other problem reports:


add/remove required me to download the list of packages, and then offered the repository apps.

USB3 is supported, at least it recognizes the two ntfs external drives on the expresscard adapter, and allows hotplugging (at least when the expresscard adapter is attached at startup. I was able to access vfat filesystems via a USB3 cardreader on the adapter as well.

Online security is cause for concern, as I wasn't able to find any indication whether a firewall is available. The only hint came from the add/remove software module, which showed firewall modules already installed. But I haven't found any way to turn any firewall on, off, or to configure one.

Another frustration is the inability to get a meaningful indication of remaining free space on the USB drive. After installing the LiveCD, and with a copy of the iso still on the usb stick, the "properties" tab for Centoslive reported 1.9GB of free space, whereas the actual remaining space was less than 1GB. Now that figure is at 1.7GB, but my best guess is that there's less than 200MB left to use.
:

Please do not mix your other threads with this one. That just causes confusion and amounts to self-hijacking.

Please read about Installing Software and Repositories, and note the warnings and advice about installing and configuring the yum priorities plugin. Non-core repos should have a higher numeric value, which is a lower priority. Lower is "better" as in golf scores.

Configure the EPEL repo and try again,

Erm, its in the wiki! It's the first result when I google it:
http://wiki.centos.org/TipsAndTricks/NTFS

And right there it explains how to add the repository.

Thanks for the tip. But having read the linked pages several times, I'm left unsure as to its current relevance. For one thing, the offered download link is not to an rpm but to a tgz file. And it's from tuxera.org, not rmpforge, which seems at odds with the other installation pointers.

I've found another site that seems to offer ntfs-3g packages appropriate for CentOS specifically, but no matter how many times I go through the links, I can never find the actual download, only downloads of unwanted packages.

I really wonder why such an essential tool should be made so difficult to access.

I have no idea what link you are looking at, but there is no mention of a tarball on the NTFS Wiki page. There is nothing as hard about it as you imply. On the other hand page currently that recommends RPMforge, and EPEL was recommended here because they have a later version.

If you had read the Repositories page and looked for EPEL as recommended, you would have installed epel-release. It is then as easy as You may also want tofor additional functionality.

To see what was available after installing EPEL one might tryor if you want it disabled by defaultthen to find out more about any particular package, say ntfsprogs-gnomevfs

Quote:

He's looking at the first link on the NTFS Wiki page, which is a link to http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-download/ , which mentions a tarball.

Is fuse-ntfs-3g still necessary? I can access NTFS partitions with only ntfs-3g, but I'm using the centosplus kernel, and perhaps that makes a difference. If the Wiki page is no longer accurate, it should be corrected.

Guess that's what happens if one fails to read the whole reference, or to listen to other advice.

Made some corrections and additions to TipsAndTricks/NTFS.

Quote:

Sorry. I should have quoted the preceding post for clarity. It was the first link in the page cited in the post immediately above my own, which leads to tuxera.org.

Although I have only skimmed through some of the several weighty pages linked in the replies, I believe I've learned that the ntfs-3g support in the CentosPlus kernel provides only read access.

I need read-write access to my ntfs partitions.

Quote:

You're right. Thank you. I've installed both packages now, following your instructions, and I'm now able to mount my ntfs partitions with read-write access.

You are welcome. Thanks for reporting back. Marking this thread [SOLVED] for posterity.

[root@localhost ~]# yum install fuse fuse-ntfs-3g
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, refresh-packagekit, security
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: centos.biz.net.id
* extras: centos.biz.net.id
* rpmforge: fr2.rpmfind.net
* updates: centos.idrepo.or.id
rpmforge | 1.1 kB 00:00
rpmforge/primary | 1.5 MB 00:06
rpmforge 4310/4310
Setting up Install Process
Package fuse-2.8.3-4.el6.i686 already installed and latest version
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package fuse-ntfs-3g.i686 0:2010.10.2-1.el6.rf will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Installing:
fuse-ntfs-3g i686 2010.10.2-1.el6.rf rpmforge 637 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 1 Package(s)

Total download size: 637 k
Installed size: 1.4 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
fuse-ntfs-3g-2010.10.2-1.el6.rf.i686.rpm | 637 kB 00:02
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Warning: RPMDB altered outside of yum.
Installing : fuse-ntfs-3g-2010.10.2-1.el6.rf.i686 1/1

Installed:
fuse-ntfs-3g.i686 0:2010.10.2-1.el6.rf

Complete!
its works....