# Mount exFat as single user



## NaN (Jan 13, 2021)

I need to be able to get to a tar archive on a UFS partition from Linux. I am not able to mount that partition no matter how many mount samples I run. The UFS partition was created with FreeBSD version 12. Ideally, if someone can tell me how to mount this FreeBSD partition under Linux, this would be the easiest thing for me.

Failing that, I thought about formatting an external drive with a filesystem that FreeBSD could mount in single user mode (no fuse option) and then I can just copy to that instead.

I would like to know if someone here is familiar enough with Linux to provide a mount sample to mount a UFS partition, or, provide a filesystem I can format an external drive with that FreeBSD can access in single user mode.

Thanks.


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## SirDice (Jan 13, 2021)

NaN said:


> if someone can tell me how to mount this FreeBSD partition under Linux


As far as I know Linux doesn't have support for FreeBSD's UFS filesystem. The UFS that Linux supports is Solaris's UFS if I recall correctly. They're quite different, just named the same.



NaN said:


> Failing that, I thought about formatting an external drive with a filesystem that FreeBSD could mount in single user mode (no fuse option) and then I can just copy to that instead.


Fuse can be used in single user mode, you just need to load the appropriate kernel modules by hand. Single user mode isn't that different from multiuser on FreeBSD. The biggest difference is that only the root filesystem is mounted (read-only) and lots of things aren't enabled or running. But there's nothing stopping you from loading things by hand. 



NaN said:


> provide a filesystem I can format an external drive with that FreeBSD can access in single user mode.


What about good ol' FAT32? mount_msdosfs(8)


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## NaN (Jan 13, 2021)

Thank you Sir. I'm aware of the kldload option but if memory serves me, don't I have to use 3g-ntfs command for that? That is part of the fuse package which wouldn't be available to me in single user mode. Am I correct?


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## SirDice (Jan 13, 2021)

NaN said:


> I'm aware of the kldload option but if memory serves me, don't I have to use 3g-ntfs command for that?


You need to kldload(8) the fusefs(5) module. The ntfs-3g(8) command is to mount NTFS filesystems, not sure what sysutils/fusefs-exfat uses. 



NaN said:


> That is part of the fuse package which wouldn't be available to me in single user mode.


Why do you think it's not available in single user mode? The only reason it may not be available is when /usr/ and/or /usr/local isn't mounted. But there's nothing stopping you from mounting those in single mode; `mount -a -t ufs` for UFS or `zfs mount -a` for ZFS.


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## NaN (Jan 13, 2021)

I'm going by memory, but remember having to install the fuse package to be able to use any of the fuse functions. The one I used was for ntfs, so I'm just making the assumption that exfat would also have its own function. If you're saying it's already available in a live environment, then I agree, I should be able to find it after I mount the user partition.

Also, I would like to use fat32 but the tar archive I need to copy over to this new drive is over the 2G limitation. Unless I'm misunderstanding, I agree, FAT32 would be the easiest. Isn't there a limit to this? My archive is 200GB


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## T-Daemon (Jan 13, 2021)

NaN said:


> I am not able to mount that partition no matter how many mount samples I run.


Have you checked if the Linux ufs kernel module is loaded, assuming the distribution you are using is compiled with one (`lsmod | grep ufs`)? If it's not: `sudo modprobe ufs`.


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## Snurg (Jan 13, 2021)

Umm... what I don't understand, why not use ext2?
Because, both Linux and FreeBSD don't have any difficulties with that, and it can deal with files up to 2TB, according to Wikipedia.
You do not need fuse or single user mode for this.

For my personal usage it was always sufficient, but I never had files >16GB.
Maybe it is best to create the ext2 fs using Linux, to make sure that the block size is sufficient?


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## Phishfry (Jan 13, 2021)

I use ext2 alot myself. It is easier than disabling ext3/4 journaling.
R+W and it suits my needs.


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## tingo (Jan 13, 2021)

I also use ext2 (it is sufficient). One of the downsides of ext2 is no journal, so you need to remember to run fsck on the filesystem if you have had an unclean shutdown or crash.


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## T-Daemon (Jan 14, 2021)

NaN said:


> I would like to know if someone here is familiar enough with Linux to provide a mount sample to mount a UFS partition


I have myself a FreeBSD/Linux installation on one of my hard disks.

The following command will mount the FreeBSD partition: `mount -t ufs -o ufstype=ufs2,ro /dev/sdxy /mnt`

UFS can be mounted read only, replace /dev/sdxy with the device name on your system.

Before executing the command make sure the ufs Linux kernel module is loaded as I asked in post #6.


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