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I'm experiencing a problem with TrueCrypt. The problem is described elsewhere but not resolved for me.

When attempting to mount encrypted containers, the following error is generated:

hdiutil: attach failed - no mountable file systems

Other resources indicate that the problem is related to the version of MacFUSE. I have tried a few versions but have been unable to find a pair that work for my system.

It would be great to:

  • get any fix suggestions
  • learn which version of MacFUSE is used successfully by someone in my situation.

My System:

  • Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard)
  • Mac Mini 1.66Ghz Core Duo
  • 2 GB RAM
  • TrueCrypt 7.1A

Update 1

After switching from MacFUSE to FUSE for OS X (OSXFUSE), as suggested in answers:

  • TrueCrypt volumes could be mounted read only.

Attempts to mount with write access continued to fail with the above error. I can't be sure whether this is new since I changed over.

Update 2

Read/write succeeds for a TrueCrypt container formatted as Mac OS Extended.

The container I wish to open was originally created on a Windows system. diskutil info describes it as FAT16. The size of the container is 10.5 MB on disk when not mounted. When mounted as read only:

enter image description here

(Dates are a bit quirky?)

Rory
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  • Related to http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/20037/ntfs-3g-unmounts-ntfs-partitions-because-it-did-not-receive-signal-in-15-second but I think focussing on a different element – Rory Apr 10 '12 at 12:45
  • Are you using an encrypted partition or a file-hosted volume? If the latter, what is the filesystem of the partition the file is hosted one? – Old Pro Apr 21 '12 at 21:34
  • Errm well it's a normal truecrypt container file, created on windows TC being opened from my mac hard drive so File System: Journaled HFS+ Type: hfs Name: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) – Rory Apr 21 '12 at 21:37
  • Do you have full ownership and read/write permissions to the TC container file on your Mac drive, including rw permission to the folder it is in? – Old Pro Apr 21 '12 at 21:44
  • @OldPro did CHMOD 777 on file and directory to be sure - no change :( – Rory Apr 28 '12 at 11:09
  • For convenience: I think the discussion in Ask Different Chat may be as relevant to the evolving question, as it is to the bountied answer … – Graham Perrin Apr 28 '12 at 17:33
  • Chmod is not sufficient on HFS disks. In general I've only encountered 3 cases where I can only mount a disk read only. First is it is physically read only or a read-only kind of DMG such as one made from a CD. Second is the file system is read-only, such as NTFS (without an add on NTFS driver installed). Third is that I do not have read/write permissions on the disk image file itself. So we've knocked out 1 and 2, and I'm focused on 3. Use the Finder Info window to make yourself the owner of the TC container file and make sure you have read/write access. – Old Pro Apr 30 '12 at 08:02

3 Answers3

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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.

Old Pro
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  • Truecrypt's 7.1a installer actually still installs MacFuse - see screenshot – Rory Apr 21 '12 at 11:14
  • @Rory, I suppose it depends on what OS you are installing onto - see screenshot - or where you got the installer from. – Old Pro Apr 21 '12 at 16:16
  • @Rory - Even TrueCrypt 7 - screenshot - Both these were on to 10.6.8 – Old Pro Apr 21 '12 at 16:24
  • How strange, I downloaded the installer from TrueCrypt again to be sure and it still tries to install MacFuse - I'm also on 10.6.8. Though As I've mentioned above I now believe it to be a problem in opening containers created on windows (FAT16) - do you work with those on TrueCrypt? – Rory Apr 21 '12 at 18:47
  • I don't know what you mean by FAT16. My Mac (with OSXFUSE installed) can create and read/write FAT32 and ExFAT partitions. Check for yourself using Disk Utility to create a new disk image. Go ahead and install OSXFUSE independently, then re-install TrueCrypt. I did a relatively clean install to get my Mac from OS X 10.5 to 10.6, and it's possible I had some FUSE drivers copied over or installed by something else, but I think the FAT drivers are native and the ExFAT drivers came from TrueCrypt. – Old Pro Apr 21 '12 at 20:14
  • Yeah I'd tried that this morning without success - it's a pickle :( Well when I mount the TrueCrypt volume that I had created in TC for windows as read only then do diskutil info it is recorded as a FAT16 volume – Rory Apr 21 '12 at 21:07
  • OK, sorry, a little confused myself about the various FAT flavors. FAT16 is the original, limited to 2GB volume size. Fat32 was introduced in Windows 95. Mac has supported FAT16 and FAT32 read/write since OS 8, gets around volume size limitation, but file size is limited to 4GB. ExFAT is FAT64 is newer (2006) and recomended max of 512TB and has been natively supported on Mac since OS X 10.6.5. So you shouldn't need FUSE of any kind. – Old Pro Apr 21 '12 at 21:30
  • I take that back, probably TC still needs FUSE to be able to read and write the file system from an app rather than from a kernel driver. – Old Pro Apr 21 '12 at 21:47
  • let us continue this discussion in chat – Rory Apr 22 '12 at 11:34
  • So overall I've given up and am going to do a long-winded workaround by copying data from the read only container to a new readable/writeable mac one and then repeat the process whilst I'm on windows at uni. Whilst we weren't successful you're welcome to the bounty - thanks for all your efforts :D – Rory Apr 22 '12 at 11:36
  • Not sure what you mean by "repeat the process whilst I'm on windows". You should definitely be able to create a new FAT32 container on the Mac that you can then carry back and forth from Mac to Windows. Shouldn't need two separate ones. Anyway, thanks for the bounty. – Old Pro Apr 22 '12 at 16:20
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The OSXFuse website FAQ (https://github.com/osxfuse/osxfuse/wiki/FAQ) says this about MacFuse: "The latest release does not fully support Mac OS X 10.6 and will not work at all on OS X 10.7 and later versions".

dsteele
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I had similar problem few days ago, not related to TrueCrypt though. I've also tried few different version of MacFuse and finally end up replacing MacFuse with OSXFUSE that works well so far. And by the way, I discovered that MacFuse is no longer maintained and considered dead.

Michał Kalinowski
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