Ubuntu Version:
LUBUNTU 25.04 live
Desktop Environment (if applicable):
default LXQt
Problem Description:
Want to test video editing. d/l Lubuntu 25.04 iso and put it on stick with Rufus and boot to it. I can install OpenShot fine but I cannot access any of my disks - says can’t mount. Worked fine on Kubuntu LIVE. 80yo geek here. Done a lot on linux, Mint and Ubuntu.
Relevant System Information:
– Asus ROG STRIX Z790-E Gaming wifi-6E, I9-13900k, UEFI/GPT, 32GB, Sam 980 Pro 1T M.2, Win11 24H2 current, GeForce RTX™ 3060 Ti VISION OC 8G (rev. 2.0)
parts: CoolerMaster TD500 case, Corsair RM750E PSU, Thermalright aio A-E-360 V4.
Win 11 24H2 current.
Been on Linux many times.
Trying to pick flavor for this attempt.
Screenshots or Error Messages:
I’d love to post a screenshot but Lubuntu won’t let me access any of my partitions (they are all NTFS for windows)
What I’ve Tried:
Booted to Lubuntu 25.04 twice with same result - can’t access my disks (SSDs - 3 NVMe’s formatted GPT NTFS - about 9 partitions total. Again, This worked fine with Kubuntu LIVE - I could easily access my disks.
Most often issue is that you booted Windows & Windows turned fast startup which is hibernation flag on. Windows turns that back on with updates, so you may have to regularly turn it off.
It can be bitlocker or if only one NTFS, it could be partition needs chkdsk from Windows.
Boot Windows & turn fast startup off.
With that system, you can run any flavor of Ubuntu you like. I happen to like Kubuntu. Because my main working system is current LTS version, the 3 year life does not limit me. And I often try newer releases, flavors or distributions in other / partitions.
Light weight flavors:
Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Budgie
Flavors of Ubuntu only come with three years of supported life (five years applies to Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server but not flavors)
I think the most likely problem would be hibernation as suggested above as this is sometimes turned on with windows updates and no notification is given the user nor is the user asked. Try this first and the other options suggested above.
I haven’t used hibernate on windows in decades. Always shut it off right after any new install.
It is actually false that WU has turned it on. But in any case I have no hiberfil file in C:
Also BIOS/ADV/BOOT/Fast Boot = disabled.
I’ve been on windows since 3.11 DOS.
Been on computers since IBM 7070 ('62).
Lubuntu 25.04 LIVE is defective.
Fast boot is an UEFI boot setting.
Fast startup is the default for Windows shutdown. It also sets the hibernation flag on all NTFS partitions & then the Linux NTFS driver will not mount it.
About 3 years ago a new NTFS driver ntfs3 was added to kernel. The old ntfs-3 is being phased out.
Have seen a very few complain about ntfs3 and recommend going back to ntfs-3.
That’s jumping to a conclusion. To test, I downloaded lubuntu-25.04-desktop-amd64.iso and booted it and mounted several ntfs partitions on two drives with no problems. It may be that your download of Lubuntu might have been bad, did you do an md5 or sha checksum on your downloaded iso?
1 Like
I too have had no issues mounting NTFS partitions, either during QA testing (prior to release) or just now when I booted the ISO on a dual boot box which contains a windows partition; that windows partition mounted without issue for me.
In my cases though; I’d only have tried to mount a clean file-system, as don’t forget that Microsoft Windows fastboot and hibernate can leave a file-system in an unclean state (its faster to resume), thus I won’t be asking a live system to attempt to ignore errors. FYI: I also tend to not use BitLocker.
If it didn’t mount as I expected, I’d be exploring system logs, OR just performing the mount at terminal so I can see all messages.
I’d also expect identical results with Kubuntu and Lubuntu IF the software stack was the same (ie. same release including same point release, given all flavors change kernel stacks together; only default packages differ between them). You didn’t provide kubuntu release details for comparison.