Problem changing file permisions

alaios · 01-24-2006, 01:02 PM

Check the following text from terminal
akroneiro:/home/alaios # ll -d ./Documents/
drwxr-xr-x 26 root root 16384 1970-01-01 02:00 ./Documents/
akroneiro:/home/alaios # chown alaios ./Documents/
chown: changing ownership of `./Documents/': Operation not permitted

Why root can change the permission?

m_yates · 01-24-2006, 02:16 PM

If the owner is root, then only root can change the ownership to somebody else.

alaios · 01-24-2006, 02:31 PM

Thx but as u can see in the second command root executes...

haertig · 01-24-2006, 02:52 PM

You're sure you're root? A "#" in the prompt usually indicates root, but doesn't prove it. Any user can change their PS1 string to include a "#". Normal users can't do a chown, at least not on my Debian Sid or Sarge installations. Normal users get the exact same error message you are reporting. chown by a normal user works fine on a Solaris box however. Different OS though.

If you really are root, what filesystem type are you using? Is the filesystem mounted as read-write or read-only?

gilead · 01-24-2006, 04:53 PM

It looks like the error you sometimes get when changing permission on a fat32 file system. Is Documents mounted on a USB key from your home directory or something like that?

alaios · 01-25-2006, 02:49 AM

Yea u are right .. i am so stupid thats a fat 32 partition.. but still i want not only mount my partition but also i want to create folders etc..Suggestions?

gilead · 01-25-2006, 04:36 AM

Have a look in /etc/fstab where the mount options for the partition are listed. You'll probably need the umask and/or uid options added. With a umask of 000, there should be no unlimited access, you could also use uid=500 (for example - use whatever your uid from /etc/passwd is).

alaios · 01-25-2006, 05:04 AM

Thats the line
/dev/hda5 /home/alaios/Documents vfat user,uid=1000 0 0

gilead · 01-25-2006, 12:28 PM

OK, if you run the following (and substitute your username), you'll get the correct uid to use:

Code:

grep username /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f3

That may return something like 1001. And if you use the following to get your group id:

Code:

grep '^username' /etc/group | cut -d: -f3

That may return something like 102. The least restrictive options to use will be:

Code:

/dev/hda5  /home/alaios/Documents  vfat rw,user,uid=1001,gid=102,umask=000  0 0

Read/write access is normally the default - but I've added it just be safe. Running the mount command should show something like:

Code:

/dev/hda5 on /home/alaios/Documents type vfat (rw,uid=1001,gid=102,umask=000)