Can I get the LIBRELEC install to make the large media partition NTFS instead of EXT4?

  • BACKGROUND:
    I am using LIBREELEC 11.0.6 on a Raspberry Pi 5, using a 256GB microSDXC. I have put several MP3s and MP4s in the relevant directories for playing via Kody to my TV. There's probably about 100GB or media loaded. That all works fine.

    When I power down the RPi/Kodi and then insert the microSDXC into an SD reader on a Linux system I see that there is a small partition formatted FAT with the the Operating System (and Kodi files?), and a big partition which is formatted as EXT4, and the media files are all in there.

    Windows is not able to read/write EXT4 partitions, so when I insert the microSDXC and open it on Windows 11 via a microSD port I can see the base operating fines and an overlay directory which are formatted (they are in a partition formatted as a FAT). The media files, which are the majority of data on the SD card are not visible to Windows. When I run the Windows Disk Management utility, I see the card's 512MB FAT allocation which is shown as "Heal-thy1", "Primary" and "Active". The Windows Disk Manager can see that there is also has a 237.9GB allocation which is "Heal-thy1", "Primary" but not "Active". The Windows disk manager only allows me to "Delete" the partition, it can't be made "Active" and can't be allocated a Drive letter, for example "G:". [BTW: this is scenario also applied to the same 256GB microSDXC when I had it formatted up for my Raspberry Pi 4 with Kodi with LIBREELEC 11.0.?]

    My Question:
    Is there a way when setting up LibreELEC for the Pi to have it allocate the large partition as NTFS or exFAT, instead of as EXT4, so that it can be read directly in Windows.

    [BTW: I realize I can get at the media files using FTP, Samba, SSH, etc. I'm just wondering it there is a way to make them directly available to Windows when inserted in a local SD slot.]
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  • Is there a way when setting up LibreELEC for the Pi to have it allocate the large partition as NTFS or exFAT, instead of as EXT4, so that it can be read directly in Windows.

    NTFS and exFAT do not support Unix filesystem permissions (everything on the drive has 777 permisionss) so lots of things break if the /storage partition is formatted using them (e.g. SSH will not start). There is nothing to stop you partitioning a storage drive so that /storage (EXT4) is relatively small (16GB is more than enough) with a third /media partition that uses NTFS where you dump files. LE will be able to mount the /media volume so you can create a Kodi 'source' for content there. That said, Windows always used to be completely stupid at working with removable storage that contained anything more than a standard 'Windows' partition layout so YMMV and I would be expect some kind of idiocy to be involved. NB: The LE installers do not support partition layout changes and it is not possible to shrink the /storage partition from within LE (as it's mounted/in-use once booted) so you will need to pull the card and do that from a separate Linux setup, e.g. Ubuntu desktop.