Hi --I'm having problems compiling under mac os x. I just downloaded version 1.0 of ntfs-3g. The 'configure' script gives me the following error, after loads of 'checking...' messages:

configure: error: ntfs-3g can be built only under Linux.

I know it should be possible to compile on mac os x. any help is much appreciated, thanks.

-Jon

The latest binary package for Mac OS X is available at
http://forums.applenova.com/showpost.ph ... tcount=262

Every link I can find on the web to the NTFS-3G binary for Mac OS X seems broken (including the one in the post to which I am replying). Is there some major issue?
Many thanks.

http://ntfs-3g.org links to the Mac OS X port at http://pdb.finkproject.org/pdb/package.php/ntfs-3g but at the moment it's also source only. You may ask them kindly to distribute the binary too.

The only reason that no binary is available is that nobody is doing it at the moment.

Thanks for the reply. I am probably being brainless but even the link you post for the source above does not seem to have any onward link to download the source code. I'd be willing to try to compile the NTFS-3G driver under Mac OS X - it would be a first for me. I found the following instructions on how to do that: http://forums.applenova.com/showpost.ph ... stcount=11

Now all I need is the source and some luck I guess.

KR,
rtX

I had no trouble with compilation. I installed MacFUSE from google, and then downloaded and compiled the package.

My only query is 'what now?'... it's not automatically used for NTFS volumes, e.g. I have a VISTA volume that is mounted on my desktop automatically, but it's not writable.

What do I do to actually mount something on OSX? the linux commands in the docs didn't seem to work. :)

Ok...

Download and install MacFUSE... done.
Download, build and install the latest ntfs-3g... done.

Now I can mount it at the shell prompt:

$ sudo ntfs-3g /dev/disk0s3 /Volumes/Windows\ HD -o ping_diskarg,volname="Windows HD"

I can then read and write at the shell. However, I CAN'T write from the finder etc.

I also don't know how to get the volumes to mount automatically using ntfs-3g. They still just mount via MacOSX normal reading only method.

I also found a package that installs a precompiled version and that works fine... includes MacFUSE Tools.

I've also noticed that the makefile install doesn't obey the --prefix command. It installs the ntfs-3g file into /bin rather than /usr/local/bin (when --prefix=/usr/local/ is specified)

Cheers

This one is explained in the latest NTFS-3G Release Notes:
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.fil ... .devel/207

The most important change is that the driver binaries are installed
in the /bin and /lib directories on the root file system by default
(--exec-prefix=/) because automount would fail during boot if the fstab
entries are not in the right order. This became one of the most often
reported problems and it was highly mysterious and frustrating for users.

Please note, that FUSE should be also installed the same way
(./configure --exec-prefix=/ [...]) to solve this problem.
Ntfs-3g checks and warns during compilation if this is not the case.
If you are a package maintainer then please consider packaging this
way ntfs-3g and FUSE.

My bad.

The only reason I noticed is that the latest mac package I found installs it in /usr/local/bin and works fine with automounting. Pity it's an older version though.

Thank you all for helping me get this going. I have put a compiled version with help text and everything but XCode at the following URL:

http://www.mrmays.com/ntfs-3g/NTFS-OSX-PPC-10.4.zip

It goes without saying that my small contribution is all GPL and everyone should use it everywhere!

Thank you again,

Steve Mays

Hi, I'm the maintainer for the Fink ntfs-3g package described at http://pdb.finkproject.org/pdb/package.php/ntfs-3g.

To use it, you have to install the Fink project manager and enable the unstable tree. Then get the latest package descriptions with and build and install ntfs-3g with the command Fink takes care of installing all necessary dependencies. Running will give usage information, and be sure to run periodically to get package updates. The unstable tree tends to get updates frequently.

Unfortunately, only packages in the stable tree get built as binaries, and only occasionally, so it will probably be a while before an official Fink binary is available. Until then it'll be necessary to build from source. There is an unofficial unstable bindist described here, but it is wholly unsupported by Fink. That said, a lot of people use it and it generally works well.

Fink has over 6000 open source packages available, including several FUSE filesystems, and I just packaged ntfsprogs to go with ntfs-3g. :)

Hi,

Thanks for the info, but...

When I do a "fink-selfupdate-rsync", fink claims it needs dev-tools to work. Then, when I try to "install from source" the package dev-tools, I get:

### execution of /var/tmp/tmp.0.9Rh0Fr failed, exit code 1
Removing build lock...
/sw/bin/dpkg-lockwait -r fink-buildlock-dev-tools-0-1
(Reading database ... 7405 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing fink-buildlock-dev-tools-0-1 ...
Failed: phase compiling: dev-tools-0-1 failed

Any ideas?

Babak Fakhamzadeh

dev-tools is a virtual package that represents Apple's developer tools, called Xcode. Xcode contains the gcc complier and header files that are needed to build source files. The Mac OS X install DVD that came with your Mac has an XcodeTools.mpkg file which will install the tools. Or sign up at http://developer.apple.com for a free account and download the latest Xcode. Version 2.4.1 is the current one.

If you did install Xcode and fink still says dev-tools isn't installed, then Apple's Installer.app may have "forgotten" to install some file and you need to run the installer again. Installer.app is known to do this from time to time. :/

Thanks for that danielj7. I installed XcodeTools.mpkg from the Mac OS X install DVD and then ran "fink selfupdate-rsync".

Quite a while later, all that needed to be done was done and I entered "fink install ntfs-3g" in a teminal window. To no effect: "Failed: no package found for specification 'ntfs-3g'!".

Also, in the list of packages, when using FinkCommander, ntfs-3g does not show up.

Do I somehow have to add a source for an alternative list of packages to Fink?

Did you enable the unstable tree as I mentioned in my first post? (Don't worry; unstable isn't really unstable.)

If you did, then you might have the old 10.4-transitional distribution installed instead of the "real" 10.4 one. 10.4-transitional was depreciated a year ago and is no longer being updated. If "fink --version" gives you a "0.8.0" under "Distribution version" then you need to upgrade. Look on http://www.finkproject.org at the bottom of the page; the news entry dated "2006-07-24" gives instructions on how to do this.

Thanks. I was under the strong impression I had included the unstable tree. However, I went through the steps again and, indeed, now ntfs-3g does show up in Fink.

Unfortunately, running ntfs-3g still doesn't work for me (I posted this in a thread elsewhere).

Thanks,

Babak