NTFS mount using nls=utf8

[TitanFan]

I have the following version of ntfs-3g installed on my debian system:

ntfs-3g 1.2531 integrated FUSE 27 - Third Generation NTFS Driver

I have the following fstab entry for an external usb disk:

/dev/sdc1               /mnt/usbdisk    ntfs-3g         rw,nls=utf8 0 0

During boot, a "mount -a" command is executed in rc.local, which mounts my usb disk, but I can't see the filenames with foreign characters. The mount command isn't taking the nls=utf8 option during boot. So, I login as root and do a "umount /dev/sdc1" and "mount -a", and now I can see my filenames with foreign characters!!

Why doesn't the "mount -a" command in rc.local recognize the nls=utf8 option?

[birdman]

ntfs-3g 1.2531 integrated FUSE 27 - Third Generation NTFS Driver

I have 2010.3.6-1 from squeeze, and the man page makes no mention of an nls option, but if it works at non-boot time it must be there...

Why doesn't the "mount -a" command in rc.local recognize the nls=utf8 option?

What does the file /var/log/dmesg (== boot time messages) say about it?
One possibility(?) is that it's relying on something that isn't mounted when this ntfs partition is being mounted, but that seems unlikely.

[TitanFan]

I don't see anything in the log indicating an issue.  Very strange problem.  I created a shell script that I can run after login to umount and mount my disk, and that works - I can see the filenames with foreign characters. I added a line to call the same shell script at the end of rc.local, and just like before, I can't see the filenames with foreign characters after the boot is finished (my disk mounts fine). For some reason, I have to login as root and run the script for it to fully work.

#!/bin/sh

# Due to nls=utf8 option not being recognized during boot
# We need to umount and remount the usb external disk

/bin/umount /dev/sdc1
/bin/mount -a

[sfzhi]

What about your locale? Is it also UTF-8?

When you start your script manually the ntfs-3g process probably inherits the locale from your interactive shell, but with rc.local that is not the case.

[TitanFan]

Yes, that was it – brilliant!  I needed to set the LANG environment variable to “en_US.UTF-8” (without the quotes) in rc.local.  Without setting LANG, the locale variables were set to POSIX. Now that I’ve set LANG, all the locale variables are automatically set to “en_US.UTF-8” (quotes included) and the mount -a in rc.local correctly mounts my disk and I can see all the filenames with foreign characters.

Thank-you!

[TitanFan]

Oh, I found out that utf8 is the default for the ntfs-3g driver, so my fstab line looks like this now:

/dev/sdc1               /mnt/usbdisk    ntfs-3g         defaults 0 0

Of course, you have to have the locale variables set to “en_US.UTF-8” so you can see your filenames with foreign characters.