mkfs.ntfs is not found, through the ntfs-3g package is installed

I'm trying to format a USB stick to NTFS file system with the mkfs.ntfs command and I get this in Terminal:

horbuli@BOSS:~$ sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
ntfs-3g is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
horbuli@BOSS:~$ mkfs.ntfs /dev/sdb1
The program 'mkfs.ntfs' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g
horbuli@BOSS:~$ 

What is the problem?

1 Answer

Broken symlink: The symlink to the mkfs.ntfs is wrong.

:~$ locate mkfs.ntfs /sbin/mkfs.ntfs
:~$ ls -l /sbin/mkfs.ntfs
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 Feb 25 15:52 /sbin/mkfs.ntfs -> /usr/sbin/mkntfs
:~$ ls -l /usr/sbin/mkntfs ls:
cannot access /usr/sbin/mkntfs: No such file or directory

Replace the old link with the /sbin/mkfs.ntfs -> /sbin/mkntfs then mkfs.ntfs will work.

Remove the current symlink:

sudo rm -f /sbin/mkfs.ntfs

Then create the correct link:

sudo ln -s /sbin/mkntfs /sbin/mkfs.ntfs

A bug has already been filed.