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Daryl Spitzer
Asked: 2011-06-21 09:20:40 +0800 CST

Why do I get "Operation not permitted" when trying to mount a volume using sshfs and MacFUSE?

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I installed MacFUSE (from http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/downloads/list), restarted, and then downloaded sshfs-static-leopard.gz, and moved sshfs-static-leopard to /usr/sbin/sshfs (and did a chmod 755 on it).

I've configured an Ubuntu machine at work (with the hostname "daryls") so I can ssh into it without a password. But when I try sshfs daryls:/ /Volumes/daryls -oauto_cache,reconnect,volname=daryls, I get:

warning: ssh nodelay workaround disabled
mount_fusefs: failed to mount /Volumes/daryls@/dev/fuse0: Operation not permitted

What operation is not permitted?

I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.7? Could it be that sshfs-static-leopard.gz doesn't work with Snow Leopard? Or perhaps it only works in 32-bit mode? How do I find out if I'm booting Mac OS X in 64-bit mode?

Update: On Friday I tried this with an Ubuntu 11.04 VM (running in VMware Fusion 3.1.3). I'm pretty sure I just did a regular mkdir /Volumes/ubuntu (without sudo), followed by sshfs ubuntu:/ /Volumes/ubuntu -oauto_cache,reconnect,volname=ubuntu and it worked.

But today I'm getting the same mount_fusefs: failed to mount /Volumes/ubuntu@/dev/fuse0: Operation not permitted error.

I tried creating the /Volumes/ubuntu directory with sudo, which made no difference. Then I tried running sudo sshfs ubuntu:/ /Volumes/ubuntu -oauto_cache,reconnect,volname=ubuntu and got:

warning: ssh nodelay workaround disabled
remote host has disconnected

But ssh ubuntu works.

I have no idea why it was working and now isn't. I'll try restarting my MacBook Air, just in case.

Update #2: After restarting, I ran:

$ cd /Volumes/
$ mkdir ubuntu
$ sshfs ubuntu:/ /Volumes/ubuntu -oauto_cache,reconnect,volname=ubuntu
warning: ssh nodelay workaround disabled

It worked.

So I still don't have an answer to my question. But I may have a workaround.

BTW: It says "No" across from "64-but Kernel and Extensions" under "System Software Overview" in the System Profiler (which I opened following Handyman5's directions).

Update #3: After getting the "Operation not permitted" error, I restarted and got it again. (In other words, restarting is not a reliable workaround.)

Update #4: This was working, and then I made the mistake of restarting my Ubuntu VM without unmounting the sshfs volume. Now I'm getting the "Operation not permitted" error again. (Perhaps the /Volumes directory is left in some kind of locked state.)

I read Handyman5's comment below, and then read http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20031017061722471 and the man page for chflags. I then did:

$ ls -lOd /Volumes/
drwxrwxrwt@ 5 root  admin  hidden 170 Jul 15 13:22 /Volumes/
$ ls -lOd /Volumes/ubuntu/
drwxr-xr-x+ 2 root  admin  - 68 Jul 15 13:08 /Volumes/ubuntu/

(According to the chflags man page, the ls option to see flags is -O, not -o. This is confirmed in the ls man page.)

As you can see, it's not showing any flags. (Though I wonder what the '@' and '+' signify. I read http://lists.apple.com/archives/Macos-x-server/2008/Jan/msg00138.html and played with xattr, but didn't learn anything.)

Out of desperation, I tried sudo chflags nouchg /Volumes and sudo chflags nouchg /Volumes/ubuntu but still go the "Operation not permitted" error.

Update #5: It's been a while since I originally posted this, but IIRC this all came from my problems trying to work around MacFusion not working with MacFUSE and SSHFS (when trying to use SSHFS to mount a volume running in an Ubuntu VM). I recently learned bout FUSE for OS X. I installed it, re-installed SSHFS, and now MacFusion is working flawlessly.

mac-osx sshfs

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    It's possible that your user account is not able to mount volumes into the /Volumes directory directly. Have you tried mounting sshfs into a directory within your own home directory?

    Failing that, you might need to have administrative (sudo) permissions to run sshfs. Try prefacing that command with sudo like so:

    sudo sshfs daryls:/ /Volumes/daryls -oauto_cache,reconnect,volname=daryls

    As an aside: to determine whether your Mac is running in 64-bit mode:

    1. Choose About This Mac from the Apple menu.
    2. Click More Info.
    3. Select Software in the Contents pane.
    4. Look for "64-bit Kernel and Extensions: Yes (or No)" under the System Software Overview heading.
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  2. One day, I was able to sshfs mount my volumes. The next, I wasn't. On the command line (terminal), I tried sudo -i and was met with "User is not in the sudoers file". I rebooted and tried sudo -i and was sucessful so I tried the sshfs mount again and it worked. Basically, a reboot fixed me but I have no other details other than that. OS: Mac 10.11.6 (El Capitan)

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