firmware for NTFS read/write

[kopi_bean]

Hi

I would like to format my USB external HD using NTFS and connect to the WL-700ge to function like a NAS. I connected by 500GB NTFS drive to the WL-700ge and it only recognised as NTFS read-only drive.

Is there anyway that I can make my NTFS writeable by WL-700ge as well? Thanks

[GerardNL]

As I understood it from other fora, the NTFS filesystem is propriatry filesystem. Linux fans have been able to write drivers for it, but they don't work that well yet. To ensure they don't mess up the structure on the disk, these drivers have been set as read-only.

So, if you could set it to read+write, it's quite likely that you'll end up with a corrupt disk lossing all your date on it.

A simple solution would be to use FAT32. That way you can still move your drive between Router and PC. If you just want to use it as a NAS, then it's just as easy to use one of the Linux filesystems.

[hal2k1]

As I understood it from other fora, the NTFS filesystem is propriatry filesystem. Linux fans have been able to write drivers for it, but they don't work that well yet. To ensure they don't mess up the structure on the disk, these drivers have been set as read-only.

So, if you could set it to read+write, it's quite likely that you'll end up with a corrupt disk lossing all your date on it.

This was true until recently.

http://www.osnews.com/story.php/1732...-1.0-Released/

http://www.ntfs-3g.org/

Without doubt the NTFS driver provided with the ASUS firmware was the earlier version of Linux NTFS driver (which could not write NTFS reliably, and was therefore set to read-only), and not the newer ntfs-3g driver which is a read/write driver.

[kopi_bean]

So is it possible to update the Asus NTFS driver to the latest which supports read/write for NTFS filesystem?

[GerardNL]

I stand corrected. That's good news to see that there is now a read+write version of the NTFS drivers for Linux.

I guess that will make it possible then to do what you want, but that will require that it is included in the image. Maybe kfurge could do this. I just hope that the footprint is not to big or uses to much CPU...

[kopi_bean]

Hi

I have intended to use the WL-700ge connected to my external NTFS formatted HD as my NAS. I came to know that ASUS firmware currently only supported read mode for NTFS filesystem.

Will it be possible for expert here to help compile a firmware with NTFS read/write support? Thanks.

[d3viant]

Chances are, probably not.

The NTFS write limitation happens with anything Unix based, mainly because Microsoft refuses to release the specification for it. As such, everything is being reverse-engineered. NTFS write support still isn't quite 100% there - you couldn't guarantee that no data would be lost from your drive. I would recommend using something like gparted to convert the drive to FAT32 or reformat it as ext3. Windows can still read a NAS drive that isn't NTFS or FAT32 thanks to the wonders of the samba sharing service.

[wirespot]

Actually, ntfs-3g.org has just reached version 1 stable, and they claim to have subjected it to various tests and that it's indeed very stable. So there is NTFS support for Linux.

I use it myself, both for HDD partitions and for some of my USB sticks and external HDD's, and I haven't had any trouble yet. The only problem is that sometimes a partition would be left in a "dirty" state due to being unplugged improperly while on Windows. But that can be bypassed using ntfsfix from the ntfsutils package, and then using "force" as a mount option.

The big question is whether it's possible to compile FUSE (both the userspace utils and the kernel module) and ntfs-3g + ntfsutils for the Asus environment and for whatever kernel you're using on your 700gE. I used it on a desktop computer, where most utils and modules where ready available from the distro, and I had kernel 2.6 too.

[n00ben]

https://dev.openwrt.org/changeset/6279

openwrt has NTFS-3G... but I have no idea if it compiles with the 700ge

/regards
Henrik

[d3viant]

I agree - ntfs-3g is definitely getting there.

Getting fuse running on the wl-700ge however, is another matter

openWRT may get support at some point in the near future, but for someone who is new to linux, I wouldn't recommend trying to get it to compile.

It's much easier to convert the drive to a format that Linux will support in read/write mode. (FAT32 or ext3) Unfortunately, this becomes harder if there's already data on the drive. I think gparted will let you convert NTFS back to FAT32 without losing any data.

[pcf111]

I have seven external hard drives (formatted with NTFS) and a printer (connected to the PC via two USB-hubs), that I would like to share in the network via a wireless router. So I need a router that does all the 'normal' things, PLUS that it has one or more USB-ports where I can connect SEVERAL hard drives.

Does Asus have any router that can do this? If you connect several USB-drives to it, does it see them as different drives AND share them correctly? Can it read and write NTFS?

And if the original OS doesn't allow writing NTFS, are there any modified OS'es/patches that make it possible?

Or maybe someone knows about other routers that does all this?

Thanks!

[hal2k1]

I have seven external hard drives (formatted with NTFS) and a printer (connected to the PC via two USB-hubs), that I would like to share in the network via a wireless router. So I need a router that does all the 'normal' things, PLUS that it has one or more USB-ports where I can connect SEVERAL hard drives.

Does Asus have any router that can do this? If you connect several USB-drives to it, does it see them as different drives AND share them correctly? Can it read and write NTFS?

And if the original OS doesn't allow writing NTFS, are there any modified OS'es/patches that make it possible?

Or maybe someone knows about other routers that does all this?

Thanks!

I went to the optware site, and searched for NTFS. There was one package that matched:

ntfsprogs_1.13.1-1_mipsel.ipk                      16-Nov-2007 08:53  356K

That doesn't look all that promising. The Linux driver which can read/write NTFS filesystems goes by the name of ntfs-3g. Not ntfsprogs.

I did a google search for ntfsprogs, which lead me to this site:
http://www.linux-ntfs.org/doku.php

This is hopeful:

We just have released ntfsprogs 2.0.0 with full read/write support!

It didn't look so hopeful when I saw that ntfsprogs was "various tools for managing ntfs" ... and that the driver which featured "fast, reliable, read/write, userspace" was called ntfsmount, which wasn't an optware package.

Also, when I looked again at the optware ntfsprogs package, I saw it was only version 1.13.1-1

Hence it looks like the answer to your question is: Sorry, but no. No read/write support for NTFS formatted drives at this time.

[al37919]

ntfs-3g requires 2.6 kernel

[Arise]

d3viant, you can't store files bigger than 4GB on FAT partitions. That means you can't store big torrents or DVD images on it.

[Birdy]

Hence it looks like the answer to your question is: Sorry, but no. No read/write support for NTFS formatted drives at this time.

In this post on ntfsprogs/fuse on 2.4.26 and/or 2.4.31 juanito and cha0smaster are discussing a possibility to access NTFS formatted partitions using the Linux kernel version 2.4. I'll submit a report if I succeed in getting it work in my Asus WL-500G Premium router.