So, I got the magnificent idea of formatting an external HDD to ext4.
Everything was fine, until I had to mount it on macOS (I still use that OS for some tasks). Okay… Not a problem, I think, I just have to install macFUSE and ext4fuse.
Yes, done. Now… let's plug in the drive and mount it, and… Oh! Surprise! "You don't have permissions to access this drive." What? I try and retry and nothing happens… So I get another ext4 drive (this one had a Linux system on it, not just files) and it worked!
Well, I cannot figure out how to make it work with my files drive then. But I do not give up.
"Time to VM!" I think. I install VirtualBox, make a VM with a lightweight Debian-based distro and when I'm about to activate USB passthrough… I just can't. I search for a solution and it turns out that it's something to do with permissions, again. And a lot of people have this issue in forums. I'm fed up. I uninstall VirtualBox and go to sleep.
…
A new day, a new way to suffer.
"I won't be beaten by a file system" I say to myself, determined to make it work this time. Since VMing still has the best chances to work, I give it another try, this time with UTM, a VM host and system emulator for macOS based on QEMU.
Surprisingly, UTM is simple and easy to work with, very user-friendly. So I have my VM running in no time, and (as if it wasn't enough complication) I decide to try out an Arch-based distro, EndeavourOS.
USB passthrough on UTM works flawlessly, and it's easy to use. Problem solved? Hell no, now I have to be able to share a folder between host and VM.
Thankfully, UTM's documentation is clear and, after a few package installs and a reboot, I manage to get it set up. And yes, folks, problem solved, this time for good.
May my problem have been solved another simpler way? Yes, quite likely. But as someone who hadn't used VMs on macOS, and had little to no experience with Arch-based systems (only Manjaro but didn't actually use it as my main OS), I learnt a lot.
P.S.: I'm aware of anylinuxfs, but I have an Intel Mac, so, that's not an option.
#Linux #macOS #ext4 #FileSystem #mounting #VirtualBox #UTM #VM