From the ntfs-3g faq:
Unprivileged block device mounts work only if all the below requirements are met:
ntfs-3g is compiled with integrated FUSE support
the ntfs-3g binary is at least version 1.2506
ntfs-3g: No device is specified.
ntfs-3g 2021.8.22 integrated FUSE 28 - Third Generation NTFS Driver
Configuration type 7, XATTRS are on, POSIX ACLS are on
Copyright (C) 2005-2007 Yura Pakhuchiy
Copyright (C) 2006-2009 Szabolcs Szakacsits
Copyright (C) 2007-2021 Jean-Pierre Andre
Copyright (C) 2009-2020 Erik Larsson
Usage: ntfs-3g [-o option[,...]] <device|image_file> <mount_point>
Options: ro (read-only mount), windows_names, uid=, gid=,
umask=, fmask=, dmask=, streams_interface=.
Please see the details in the manual (type: man ntfs-3g).
Example: ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows
Plugin path: /usr/lib64/ntfs-3g
News, support and information: http://tuxera.com
the ntfs-3g binary is set to setuid-root
rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 121176 Jan 20 22:38 lowntfs-3g
rwsr-s---. 1 root ntfsuser 166888 Jan 20 22:38 ntfs-3g
rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 16248 Jan 20 22:38 ntfs-3g.probe
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 7 Jan 20 22:38 ntfsmount -> ntfs-3g
the user has access right to the volume
$ groups nox
nox : nox wheel ntfsuser
the user has access right to the mount point
$ ls -l /mnt/ | grep win
drwxr-xr-x. 1 nox nox 0 May 25 17:40 windows
fstab entry
LABEL=windows /mnt/windows ntfs-3g defaults,users,noauto 0 0
(I did not set uid,gid,umask,fmask and dmask because their default value are sufficient)
I’m kind of stumped. Any help would be appreciated !
After some research I found that on other distros, udisksctl has suid root. Mine didn’t have it so I added it in the same manner as described in the ntfs 3g faq
After which I could mount my partition using udisksctl.
[I] ~ ❯❯❯ udisksctl mount -b /dev/sdb4 /mnt/windows/
Mounted /dev/sdb4 at /mnt/windows
Using my graphical file explorer, the password still gets asked.
I will mark this thread as solved since I can mount ntfs partitions as an unprivileged user.
Upon hitting the “details” button when I get asked for authentification, I can see that the x-udisks-auth option is specified in my fstab (even if I didn’t!). This is the problem.
Out of my curiosity, I’m not sure why you don’t find good - for security reasons - to be asked a password (* see note below about password-less mount), but anyway, more importantly, if I follow the suid root instructions as above then my partition is mounted with root as owner, which is not what I want in my situation, likely because we have different “desiderata” (for me it is acceptable to be asked a password, when mounting the partition from the terminal or from nautilus, but it’s important to be the owner of the mounted folders, e.g. to npm -i there, etc…).
BTW thank you for sharing the github issue you opened I also subscribed it, just to be informed.
* Note about password-less mount
See this answer and this example
As explained above I’m able to do the following without being asked for a password.
[giuliohome@localhost ~]$ sudo vim /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/10-udisks2.rules
[giuliohome@localhost ~]$ udisksctl mount -b /dev/sda3
Mounted /dev/sda3 at /run/media/giuliohome/Acer
[giuliohome@localhost ~]$ ls /run/media/giuliohome/Acer/dev/git/ -l
total 31504
drwxrwxrwx. 1 giuliohome giuliohome 4096 May 30 13:29 fe-react-01
notice that it works the same from nautilus gui as well, so now it’s also not asking for a password when mounting the partition, if such a rule is present.