Hello,
I have a partition /dev/sdb2 which is formated to vfat, but cannot write to it except as root. Does not matter how it is mounted. When it is mounted the file permissions get changed to drwxr-xr-x have tryed all different mount options. Is it something to do with udev?

nigelc

Post your /etc/fstab file. You have to edit the fstab entry for vfat partitions to change read/write permissions. It's easier to explain if we can see your current fstab.

I have fixed it now.
it needed the umask
here is the fstab
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
/dev/sdb2 /mnt/win_d vfat umask=00 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap swap defaults 0 0

Your fstab entry seems to indicate that it allow "other" write permissions. Try unmounting it and remounting it manually as a test. First try "umask=000".

sudo umount /dev/sdb2
sudo mount /mnt/win_d

ls -ld /mnt/win_d

For a globally writable vfat partition, I would use "dmask=000,fmask=111,noexec,noatime" instead of "umask=000".

You can also use the "uid=<username>,gid=<groupname>" options to make yourself the owner of the partition. For removable usb drives, I use this with the UUID number for the device and the user option as well.