Accessing APFS Volume from Linux
#post #writing/guide #linux
This post originally appeared on Blog 2.0
For someone wired like me who runs Windows, MacOS, and Linux on the same laptop and from the same SSD (which I don’t suppose there are many), it is very frustrating if a file you want happens to be on another system. Restarting several times just to get a file from one system to another is probably what I prefer not to do.
The operating systems I am using are listed below. It should also work for some similar configuration. (Disclaimer: I dodn’t test them.)
- MacOS Catalina
- Ubuntu 20
H2 Step 1: installing apfs-fuse
APFS FUSE is an open-source linux driver for reading Apple’s file systems. It’s not available through apt so we have to compile and install it.
First, install some necessary libraries by running:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install fuse libfuse-dev libicu-dev bzip2 libbz2-dev cmake clang git libattr1-dev
Then download the source code from the repository:
git clone [<https://github.com/sgan81/apfs-fuse.git>](<https://github.com/sgan81/apfs-fuse.git>)
cd apfs-fuse
git submodule init
git submodule update
Compile:
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
H2 Step 2: fixing fatal errors
Well that didn’t work. The build process threw me two errors, and this is how I fixed it. If you didn’t see any error skip this step
Error 1:
[ 72%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/apfs.dir/ApfsLib/Sha256.cpp.o
[ 75%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/apfs.dir/ApfsLib/TripleDes.cpp.o
[ 77%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/apfs.dir/ApfsLib/Util.cpp.o/home/chaosarium/apfs-fuse/ApfsLib/Util.cpp:36:10: fatal error: zlib.h: No such file or directory
36 | #include <zlib.h>
| ^~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/apfs.dir/build.make:427: CMakeFiles/apfs.dir/ApfsLib/Util.cpp.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:198: CMakeFiles/apfs.dir/all] Error 2
make: *** [Makefile:130: all] Error 2
How to fix:
sudo apt-get install libz-dev
Error 2:
Scanning dependencies of target apfs-fuse
[ 87%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/apfs-fuse.dir/apfsfuse/ApfsFuse.cpp.o/home/chaosarium/apfs-fuse/apfsfuse/ApfsFuse.cpp:31:10: fatal error: fuse3/fuse.h: No such file or directory
31 | #include <fuse3/fuse.h>
| ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/apfs-fuse.dir/build.make:63: CMakeFiles/apfs-fuse.dir/apfsfuse/ApfsFuse.cpp.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:115: CMakeFiles/apfs-fuse.dir/all] Error 2
make: *** [Makefile:130: all] Error 2
How to fix:
cmake ..
sudo apt install cmake-curses-gui
ccmake .
Navigate to USE_FUSE3, hit enter to turn toggle the option so that reads “OFF”.
Press c to configure, then press g to exit.
now execute make again
H2 Step 3: installation
First you need to move the binaries files into the proper place.
sudo cp apfs-* /usr/local/bin
H2 Step 4: magic (how to use)
To list partititions on your computer:
sudo fdisk -l
It should show you something like this:
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 2048 411647 409600 200M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2 413696 391041023 390627328 186.3G unknown
/dev/nvme0n1p3 391041024 659476479 268435456 128G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p4 659476480 660488191 1011712 494M Windows recovery environment
/dev/nvme0n1p5 660488192 1918377983 1257889792 599.8G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p6 1918377984 1937907711 19529728 9.3G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p7 1937907712 2000408575 62500864 29.8G Linux filesystem
Then you need to create a directory where it mounts:
sudo mkdir -p /media/$USERNAME/macos
To mount:
sudo apfs-fuse -o allow_other <partition> /media/<your userame>/macos
Done :D
No more restarting!
Reference: