MacOS – TrueCrypt mount fails with cryptic error

macmacostruecrypt

I am trying to mount a TrueCrypt file on my Mac (OS X 10.8).

When I do so I get the following error:

hdiutil: attach failed – no mountable file system

That is all there is. I tried running from the command line, but it switches to the GUI and then gives the same error.

The password is correct. It gives a different error, if I mistype it.
The file is mountable and readable on Linux (Kubuntu 12.08 and 13.04)
I have two files were this happens (one is 470 Gb, the other is 300 Gb). One file where this is not the problem and at least reading works fine (haven't tested writing). That file is only 90 Gb.
The external disk where these files are on is formatted as ext4, which I mount through ext4fuse.

Please help me, I am in the process of copying the data onto a Mac compatible external disk. At the moment I am rsyncing over Wifi and it requires two computers running and takes ages.

UPDATE

Yesterday night, I copied the 300 Gb file to my Mac formatted external disk. The same problem happened, thus I'd conclude that it is not an ext4fuse issue.
The TrueCrypt volume is internally formatted as ext4.
It does not contain a hidden volume.

Best Answer

In the end, I did not find a way to make this work under OS X. I copied the file to a Linux machine, mounted it and then scp'd everything to my OS X running machine. Reasonably simple but takes some time and one needs access to two machines.

Related Solutions

MacOS – NTFS-3G unmounts NTFS partitions because it “did not receive signal in 15 seconds”—what signal

I stumbled on a post on IM.GETTING(THIS);, which explained the issue — and even provided a fix!

The problem seems to stem from the binary "fuse_wait" from NTFS-3G that's run as a final part of the mounting procedure - for some reason it can't detect that ntfs-3g mounted the volume and stays on a hopeless loop trying to detect this condition until it gives up after 15 seconds. So my workaround involves replacing the fuse_wait binary with a script that does more or less the same thing, but actually detecting (sort of) the mount operation and not timing out.

The fix

(Assuming the use of MacFUSE & NTFS-3G)

sudo mv /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait.original
sudo touch /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait
sudo chmod 0755 /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait
sudo chown 0:0 /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait
sudo nano /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait

Copy & paste:

#!/bin/bash

MNTPOINT=$1
shift
TIMEOUT=$1
shift
MNTCMD=$1
shift

$MNTCMD "$@" &> /var/log/ntfsmnt.log
MNTCMD_RETVAL=$?

if [ $MNTCMD_RETVAL -eq 0 ]; then
        until [ `/sbin/mount | /usr/bin/grep -c "$MNTPOINT"` -ge 1 ] || [ $TIMEOUT -eq 0 ]
        do
                       sleep 1
                let TIMEOUT--
        done
fi

[ $TIMEOUT -eq 0 ] && RETVAL=1 || RETVAL=$MNTCMD_RETVAL

exit $RETVAL;

Save. Then:

sudo nano /System/Library/Filesystems/ntfs-3g.fs/ntfs-3g.util

Change the following line:

DEFAULT_NTFS_MOUNT_OPTIONS="auto_xattr"

to:

DEFAULT_NTFS_MOUNT_OPTIONS="auto_xattr,noatime,noappledouble,auto_cache"

Save. Reboot. Smile.

For details and alternative methods I wholeheartedly recommend reading through the aforementioned article and thank him, not me.

Why is FAT16 limited to read-only with TrueCrypt on Snow Leopard

I have used TrueCrypt 7.1a on Mas OS X 10.6.8 with OSXFUSE 2.3.8 with no problems. MacFuse is dead. TrueCrypt's official Mac installer 7.1a installs OSXFUSE as did 7.1. Not sure how you installed TrueCrypt but if not with the Mac installer, then uninstall what you have (including MacFuse) and install using the installer.

Also make sure you have read/write/ownership of the TC container file on the disk.

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