Mageia 6 and pendrive NTFS

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Mageia 6 and pendrive NTFS

Postby adhefe » Jun 5th, '19, 03:49

This link is similar but not quite the same:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=12408&p=72916&hilit=ntfs#p72916

I've formatted two USB sticks (32GB and 64GB) as NTFS to be able to handle files greater than 4G.

In mageia 6 (up to date), the pendrive is mounted OK but cannot be unmounted if any new file is written to the pendrive (or it takes a long long time to do it).
I've formatted the pendrive using partitionmanager at mageia 7. In mageia 7 I see no problem to work with the pendrive ntfs formatted.
Also, if I format as FAT32 mageia 6 doesn't have this problem.

Is there a workaround to work with pendrives NTFS formatted in mageia 6? I could update to mageia 7 but this is still a beta or RC yet.

Thanks
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Re: Mageia 6 and pendrive NTFS

Postby ITA84 » Jun 5th, '19, 10:50

I assume you've used partitionmanager on Mageia 6 as well; you might want to try formatting the USB drive with the command line utility in case it's a problem with partitionmanager. Plug the USB pendrive in, find the name of the NTFS partition (e.g. /dev/sdb1), then, as root

Code: Select all
umount /dev/sdb1
mkfs.ntfs /dev/sdb1

Note: make sure /dev/sdb1 is the correct drive, or you may accidentally format your HDD instead (although the commands shouldn't work if the drive is in use)

Another possible workaround, since you've mentioned Mageia 7 works fine, would be to install Mageia 7 in a VM with VirtualBox, configure USB passthrough and format the USB drive from within the VM, but that's a lot of work just to format one drive ^^
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Re: Mageia 6 and pendrive NTFS

Postby adhefe » Jun 6th, '19, 03:29

I have used partitonmanager at MGA7 beta/RC 1 and it works fine for mounting, copying files, and unmounting a NTFS formatted pendrive. It also works fine in CENTOS 6.9 and at windows.

Although I don't see the point of reformatting the pendrive at MGA6 I'll do it as soon as possible.

Any way, I think there are kernel issues with pendrives in MGA6. MGA7 have some odd things with pendrives too since it does not allow for a USB 3.0 pendrive to be mounted if it is plugged in a USB 2.0 port, no matter if it is NTFS or FAT32 or anything else.
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Re: Mageia 6 and pendrive NTFS

Postby JoesCat » Jun 6th, '19, 06:55

> (or it takes a long long time to do it).

USB drives are normally slow devices, so you have to expect it to take time to write to it.
In terms of speed improvement, you should use a non-journalling file system, because journals also have to be written too.
Suggestion is instead of ntfs, use fat32 instead, or instead of ext4, use ext2. ext2 will allow you to write large files, however, some computers have trouble booting up and you will require a small fat or fat32 partition at the start of the USB. The fat32 also allows you to have a UEFI bootable USB even if the rest of the USB is ext2.

> it does not allow for a USB 3.0 pendrive to be mounted if it is plugged in a USB 2.0 port, no matter if it is NTFS or FAT32 or anything else

To switch from USB_2.0 to USB_3.0 will need to do some sort of reset or restart of the USB port.
From the point of view of the penddrive, this is similar to dismounting and remounting the drive.
The only solution that can work is to start the USB in mode 3.0 during BIOS bootup.
If you can run everything from RAM, you might be able to unmount, mount, but the only benefit you'd get is read speeds, not write speeds. If you want fast speeds, you would be better off using a USB to SATA adapter with a true SATA drive plugged in, this is also seen as a real drive too, not a USBpen.
example: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/ ... ND/6928293
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Re: Mageia 6 and pendrive NTFS

Postby adhefe » Jun 7th, '19, 02:08

>To switch from USB_2.0 to USB_3.0 will need to do some sort of reset or restart of the USB port.

I really don't know much about this. It is somewhat common to plug pendrives with compatibility to 3.1/3.0/2.0 at any USB port greater than 2.0. In fact, this is what I have seen most of the time. This is why it sounds a little odd to me to have problems to mount a USB 3.0 pendrive in MGA7 and no problem at all at CENTOS and windows.
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Re: Mageia 6 and pendrive NTFS

Postby adhefe » Jun 7th, '19, 02:11

Forgot to consider that this could be related to the motherboard and other hardware. Still investigating...
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Re: Mageia 6 and pendrive NTFS

Postby JoesCat » Jun 7th, '19, 08:39

Mageia on the pendrive - the working drive partution is on the USB stick. You don't expect to unmount and remount the USB because it is the working drive.
Centos on the computer, the working drive is on the PC, not the USB, so it is ok to restart the USB at a higher speed, and if it fails the higher speed, then come back to 2,0, because it is not the working drive. Same with Windows.
If you mean the pendrive has Centos, boots from the pendrive and can still change to 3, then yes, it is an improvement that would be great to see on Mageia too. Same for Windows, if you meant you can make a pendrive with windows and it can boot from the pendrive and change to 3.0, then that is also good.
In any case, if you use a USB stick as a bootdrive, you will get a speed improvement changing to a nonjournaling file system since the journal also takes a hit for writing too.
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