cannot write to usb drives

[jlittle]

Out of question to change the names for all these files, to eliminate colons.

Why do you say that? How about running this in a konsole, having changed to the right directory using cd:

find . | rename 's/:/./g'

[aria]

Why do you say that?

Because of the 2+TB of music and video we already have, because of the new ones we'll download (so run this code almost each time we download a file from youtube or torrent), because we'll have the same issue on all our computers once upgraded to 20.04, because none of us is a geek, and because we are (k)ubuntu committed since 10.04 (or 08.04?). It is for the first time I encounter this issue, and is frustrating.
Need to set FUSE to mount all ntfs drives to ntfs-3g by default. How can this be done?
Thanks,

[Snowhog]

Personally, I think the issue is with the ntfs format of the USB drives. ntfs is a Windows-centric file system, and in Windows, a colon isn’t allowed in a file name.

[aria]

Than why could I do this in 18.04?
Why can't I do it now, in 20.04, with any ntfs drives?
Besides, I have no windows machines anymore, and these drives weren't plugged in a windows machine ever.
And these drives already have files with colons in their names (the back-up from 18.04), but I cannot overwrite such files if I modified them on the computer and want to back-up their new versions to the ntfs drive.
The backup on these drives of all my files in the 18.04 home directory, proves that such things didn't happen in the previous LTS. Nor in any other LTS since 10.04.
It also happens with newly formatted drives to ntfs, with both partition tables (GPT and Windows).

[aria]

How could I permanently change this to read & write for any sdb(1,2,3,...)?

username@MACHINE:~$ ntfs-3g.probe --readwrite /dev/sdb1
Error opening read-only '/dev/sdb1': Permission denied
username@MACHINE:~$

[Snowhog]

Does this help shed light on your issue: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=298987

[aria]

Sorry, no. The issue seems to be the ntfs within the kernel taking over ntfs-3g. I mean, an ntfs drive mounts by default in the kernel's ntfs read&write mode, and not in ntfs-3g (which remains in read-only mode). I need to change this FUSE default to ntfs-3g.
Found a mention of the "fuseblk" saying it defaults FUSE to ntfs-3g, but nothing more, and don't know how to use it. Besides, couldn't find any mention of it in: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/...ntfs-3g.8.html
Also found something about "permissions" in ntfs-3g this time, setting it to the defaults values (found it in the page linked above). But I believe ntfs-3g is set to default, just in Fuse have to change the default from the kernel ntfs to ntfs-3g.
Really need help, this is a new issue, coming with 20.04, and need to set it back to how it was in 18.04 and previous distros.
Thanks,

PS: Maybe it isn't a default setting in FUSE, maybe only a group affiliation (add user to FUSE group - sounds strange as FUSE = Filesystem in Userspace...). Back to 16.04 I used KUser to check and do such things, but KUser was killed with 18.04.

[Snowhog]

Do so from the CLI. See https://www.howtogeek.com/50787/add-...roup-on-linux/

[Snowhog]

Have you seen this: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=326761 Specifically, the last post?

[aria]

Do so from the CLI. See https://www.howtogeek.com/50787/add-...roup-on-linux/

Thanks, very useful, bookmarked it.
But checked if a FUSE group existed, and found none.
Sorry, it remains only the hypotheses of FUSES defaulting to ntfs-3g.

Have you seen this: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=326761 Specifically, the last post?

Will check it.

[aria]

Have you seen this: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=326761 Specifically, the last post?

Not sure I like what they did there, as this procedure is drive-specific (lists drives UUID in /etc/fstab). I checked with a 18.04 system, and fstab lists only the internal drives, just like in 20.04, still mounts them in ntfs-3g mode. I'd better like a non specific procedure to solve this ntfs vs. ntfs-3g issue.
I take a look to FUSE and ntfs-3g manuals, see if I understand something...
Meanwhile, I still wait for your suggestions, thanks.

[aria]

I quite don't understand if FUSE default_permissions are by default enabled, nor what they do exactly (added allow_other and allow_root, because referred to by default_permissions):

default_permissions
By default FUSE doesn't check file access permissions, the filesystem is free to implement it's access policy or leave it to the underlying file access mechanism (e.g. in case of network filesystems). This option enables permission checking, restricting access based on file mode. This is option is usually useful together with the allow_other mount option.

allow_other
This option overrides the security measure restricting file access to the user mounting the filesystem. So all users (including root) can access the files. This option is by default only allowed to root, but this restriction can be removed with a configuration option described in the previous section.

allow_root
This option is similar to allow_other but file access is limited to the user mounting the filesystem and root. This option and allow_other are mutually exclusive.

[aria]

Cannot find why ntfs-3g mounts /deb/sdb1 in read-only mode instead of the default full access, in all directories (/mnt/work or /media/user). Used without sudo, because ntfs-3g manual says that user owns by default the filesystem mounted in its workspace. It doesn't! Tried options like umask and permissions, but access was denied (read-only). Manual says something, system responds differently. But I'm not not used with codes (perfectly comfortable with GUI), so maybe I'm doing something wrong.
Actually, when I mount sdb1, it does in the ntfs mode controlled by the kernel, instead of the ntfs-3g (where it is read-only).

I'm on the brink to go back to 18.04 and stay with it as much possible, supported or not... Only my "Radio", lazy, computer will stay with Neon 20.04, just to monitor distro's evolution (check if this bug was solved). 18.04 was the best distro since 14.04. And 20.04 could have been even better, because it integrated Muon to Plasma 5 and/or Discover (they work now together, not separately). But denying such a simple thing like read&write user access to ntfs-3g (which should have been set by default), that's too much! I'm tired.

PS: Moved back to 18.04 and cannot be happier. Waiting patiently for 22.04.
Bests,