NixMount 0.2.0

NixMount now opens encrypted Linux volumes. Most installers offer full-disk encryption with LUKS, and until now those disks were listed as unsupported, as they were by Ext4Fsd and WinBtrfs.

Encrypted volumes

Select a volume with a lock, type the passphrase you use when Linux starts, and select Unlock. It then mounts, browses and exports like any other volume, read-only or read-write. Lock forgets the key again.

• LUKS1 and LUKS2, with AES-XTS (the default since 2013) or the older AES-CBC
• Argon2id, Argon2i and PBKDF2 key derivation, using several cores like Linux does
• The passphrase is never saved, and never reaches the background service
• From the command line, commands ask for the passphrase or read it from piped input

Volumes that unlock only with a TPM or security key need a passphrase added in Linux first. See what is and isn't supported.

How it was checked

• cryptsetup's own test images decrypt to exactly the checksums its test suite expects
• Volumes made by cryptsetup in five configurations are read and changed by NixMount, then decrypted by Linux and checked with e2fsck and btrfs check
• On Windows, an encrypted volume is unlocked, written through the real driver, and confirmed to contain no plaintext

Install or upgrade

Download NixMount-Setup.exe and run it. Running it over an earlier version upgrades in place and keeps your settings. The driver is included, so there is nothing else to download.

Windows may warn about an unrecognized app, because the file isn't code-signed. Select More info, then Run anyway. You can check the download against NixMount-Setup.exe.sha256.

Requires 64-bit Windows 10 or 11.

Before you write to a volume

This is early filesystem software, so keep backups of anything you write to, and try it on an image or a spare disk first. Never write to a volume from a hibernated Linux. See the user guide.

WinFsp - Windows File System Proxy, Copyright (C) Bill Zissimopoulos, https://github.com/winfsp/winfsp

v0.1.2

Everyone on an earlier version should update. Run the new installer over the old one: your settings stay, and any that an earlier upgrade damaged come back.

Fixed

• Upgrading lost your settings. Running setup over an existing install made the settings file unreadable, so remembered volumes and images stopped working with no error.
• Security: a junction planted before setup could misdirect it. Any user can create NixMount's settings folder before an administrator installs. Setup would then change owners and permissions on whatever a junction in that folder pointed at, and would trust settings left there. A first install now deletes what it finds without following links.
• A remembered volume sometimes didn't mount when plugged in. NixMount now keeps looking until the volume appears.
• A disk pulled out and put straight back kept its drive letter, but every write failed with an I/O error. It now gets a fresh, working mount.
• Plugging in any disk brought back remembered volumes you had unmounted. They now stay unmounted until you unplug them or restart Windows.
• sha256sum -c rejected the checksum file because of its line ending.

Install

1. Download NixMount-Setup.exe and run it.
2. Select Install. The driver is included, so there is nothing else to download.
3. Pick a volume and select Mount.

Windows may warn about an unrecognized app, because the file isn't code-signed. Select More info, then Run anyway. You can check the download against NixMount-Setup.exe.sha256.

Requires 64-bit Windows 10 or 11. Remove it any time from Installed apps in Settings.

Before you write to a volume

This is early filesystem software, so keep backups of anything you write to, and try it on an image or a spare disk first. Never write to a volume from a hibernated Linux. See the user guide and what is and isn't supported.

WinFsp - Windows File System Proxy, Copyright (C) Bill Zissimopoulos, https://github.com/winfsp/winfsp

v0.1.1

Superseded by 0.1.2. Don't use this installer to upgrade: it makes your settings unreadable. 0.1.2 fixes that and recovers them.

NixMount 0.1.0

The first release of NixMount: ext2, ext3, ext4 and Btrfs volumes on Windows, with drive letters.

Install

1. Download NixMount-Setup.exe and run it.
2. Select Install. The driver is included, so there is nothing else to download.
3. Pick a volume and select Mount.

Windows may warn about an unrecognized app, because the file isn't code-signed. Select More info, then Run anyway. You can check the download against NixMount-Setup.exe.sha256.

Requires 64-bit Windows 10 or 11. Remove it any time from Installed apps in Settings.

What's in it

• Read and write ext2, ext3 and ext4, with every metadata change journaled through the real jbd2 log
• Read and write Btrfs, including RAID0, RAID1, RAID10, RAID1C3 and RAID1C4, snapshots and subvolumes
• Read Btrfs RAID5 and RAID6, even with a device missing, and all three compression codecs
• Read-only by default, with recovery done in memory so looking at a volume never changes it
• Browse and export files without mounting anything
• Automatic mounting when a remembered volume is plugged in

Before you write to a volume

This is a first release of filesystem software, so keep backups of anything you write to, and try it on an image or a spare disk first. Never write to a volume from a hibernated Linux. See the user guide and what is and isn't supported.

WinFsp - Windows File System Proxy, Copyright (C) Bill Zissimopoulos, https://github.com/winfsp/winfsp