I’m dual-booting my machine right now with CachyOS linux and Windows 10. A have a few VeraCrypt volumes originally created on Windows on an NTFS formatted disk that I’m trying to use and I’m having issues with one in linux.
One volume when it’s mounted in VeraCrypt isn’t writable (4.9TB volume) and the other is (3.0TB). Both volumes reside on the same physical disk and in the same directory. The disk they resides on is writable and my user has read, write and execute enabled on both volume files and the mount directory. If I try to copy a file to the 4.9TB volume however I get a message that it’s a read-only file system. Checking the volume properties in Dolphin it shows it’s writable though.
Output from mount does suggest it’s mounted read-only though. Here you can see the difference between the two volumes, 1 and 2:
veracrypt on /tmp/.veracrypt_aux_mnt1 type fuse.veracrypt (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,allow_other)
/dev/mapper/veracrypt1 on /run/media/veracrypt1 type ntfs (ro,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1000,dmask=0077,fmask=0077,iocharset=utf8)
veracrypt on /tmp/.veracrypt_aux_mnt2 type fuse.veracrypt (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,allow_other)
/dev/mapper/veracrypt2 on /run/media/veracrypt2 type exfat (rw,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0077,dmask=0077,iocharset=utf8,errors=remount-ro)
So why exactly is VeraCrypt mounting it “ro” vs “rw” and is there anyway I can change that? Not sure if it matters but I’m using VeraCrypt version 1.26.24 on Linux, whereas on Windows I’m using 1.25.9.
In my experience when running into writing or deleting issues, simply right clicking and then selecting open as administrator is the work around. NTFS does not store POSIX permissions, so when VeraCrypt mounts, the kernel can’t tell who should have what access to it. NTFS on Linux is handled by the ntfs‑3g or ntfs3 driver, which maps Windows ACLs to Linux permissions. Without the proper fstab entries, the system falls back to it being a privileged mount. So opening as an administrator is your best bet to add or remove files to the drive.
I have to admit I’m confused by the suggestion to right-click and open as an administrator. I don’t see anything like that in Dolphin and wonder where I should be looking for such an option.
In on of the Veracrypt forums someone suggested and scan the disk in Windows because Linux is more sensitive to NTFS issues and that might be the source of the trouble. I tried that and while Windows reported no issues, it kind of helped. Kind of…
When I reboot back into Linux and try to mount the volume I get the following error message:
device-mapper: create ioctl on veracrypt1 failed: Device or resource busy Command failed.
Veracrypt then shows no volume mounted but with Dolphin opened I notice the volume is in fact mounted. A little testing with it showed I can read and write to it. Using Veracrypt to mount my 2nd volume and then running the mount command to see what it shows, I see the following output related to my Veracrypt volumes:
/dev/mapper/veracrypt1 on /run/media/fred/447EC5337EC51F14 type ntfs3 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1000,iocharset=utf8,uhelper=udisks2) binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime) veracrypt on /tmp/.veracrypt_aux_mnt1 type fuse.veracrypt (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,allow_other) /dev/mapper/veracrypt2 on /run/media/veracrypt2 type exfat (rw,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0077,dmask=0077,iocharset=utf8,errors=remount-ro) /dev/mapper/veracrypt2 on /run/media/fred/980B-86A5 type exfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0077,dmask=0077,iocharset=utf8,errors=remount-ro,uhelper=udisks2)
So being pretty new to Linux I don’t know what this is telling me but I see the one volume I’m having issues with has a single line referencing it whereas the 2nd volume that Veracrypted mounted without issue seems to have created four. I assume there’s some kind of clue in here about what’s wrong with the 1st mount and it’s not a good thing, but I have no idea what.
No worries, we were all new at one point! But to get the open as admin option when right clicking in dolphin, you need to go to the settings tab and select “Configure Dolphin”. A window will popup, and you’ll want to go into the “Context Menu” options. Here, you are able to add/remove the options you see when right clicking. Towards the top of the list there’s an option called “Administrative Actions”. Enable this option and then apply the change. Now when you right click in the mounted VeraCrypt drive you’ll see the ability to Open as Administrator!
I’ve seen a few cases where Linux tries to be very careful and not mess with NTFS if there’s features in use that it doesn’t support. Is there any chance you had a swap file or hibernation file on that volume? Do you see any messages about the volume being dirty when mounted or in your dmesg? Was bitlocker ever used with those volumes?
Nope, no message and bitlocker wasn’t ever used… this is a Windows 10 Home edition. Also no swap or hibernate file. The disk nor these volumes were ever a boot drive.
Hmm, well I appreciate you considering my hypothesis. The last thing I would try is unmounting using the terminal (not GUI, as this will remove the underlying device) and then mounting that mapper device again in the terminal, to see if it gives me any messages about why it can’t satisfy a request to mount as writable.
Beyond this, and based on the available information, I am not sure.
