[Bug 1132392] Re: Unable to mount NTFS partition during system boot while having a separate /usr partition

[Peter Bašista]

Okay, thank you for changing the affected package. To complete the
information already given, I am using ntfs-3g 1:2013.1.13-1+0ubuntu1.

As you have suggested, a simple and quick workaround would be to copy
libntfs-3g.so.84 from /usr/lib/ to /lib. I can confirm that this makes
mounting NTFS partitions during boot working again. However, when the
package ntfs-3g updates in the future, one would need to copy the new
version of this library to /lib again. This not only makes the
maintenance of this package uncomfortable, but as the copying step can
easily be forgotten, it could result in a system which can not boot
without user interaction. Therefore, I see why you have marked the
importance of resolving this bug as high.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1132392

Title:
  Unable to mount NTFS partition during system boot while having a
  separate /usr partition

Status in “ntfs-3g” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  I am using the beta version of 64 bit Ubuntu 13.04 with the latest
  updates as of today (mountall 2.47).

  A few weeks ago, my Ubuntu started to experience mount issues during
  every boot (Press S to skip mounting ...). The problem is that
  mountall is unable to mount my NTFS partition during system boot. I
  don't know why is this happening, but I know that it was definitely
  possible earlier.

  The issue is caused by the fact that I have a separate /usr partition.
  This partition is higher in /etc/fstab than my NTFS partition, so it
  should get mounted with a higher priority and preferably earlier. From
  what I have been able to find out, the boot order is correct and /usr
  partition gets mounted before NTFS partition, just like it should.

  However, mountall somehow tries to mount the NTFS partition "without
  being aware" that /usr partition has already been mounted. The thing
  is that despite /usr is already mounted (or already being in the
  process of mounting, I don't know), I always get this error message
  that mount.ntfs-3g can not find the shared library libntfs-3g.so.84,
  which is obviously located in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libntfs-
  3g.so.84. So, there is definitely some race condition or something
  else, which causes mountall not to realize that /usr is already
  mounted.

  Maybe it is because mountall does some mounting parallelism and
  doesn't wait until /usr is mounted. But even if I set  fs_passno of my
  /usr partition to 1, my NTFS partition still refuses to mount with the
  above mentioned error. If it makes any difference, my /usr partition
  and the NTFS partition in question are located on different physical
  drives.

  So, I think it would be nice if mountall could be able to determine
  which mount points must be available and mounted before executing any
  particular mount command. This could be, in my opinion, easily
  determined using ldd on a fully running system. Once this information
  is available, it could be stored in some mountall-specific
  configuration file which would determine partial mount ordering of the
  mount points which are currently present in /etc/fstab. I suppose it
  sould be as easy as that.

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