Write permissions to hard drive

gotvols · 02-10-2007, 07:49 AM

I have a sata hard drive. I don't know the specs other than it's 40Gb. The problem I'm having is when I try to install a linux distro that has text mode install and I go to partition the hard drive it tells me I don't have writing permissions. The thing is when I install linux distros with a gui like Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and OpenSuse they install to the hard drive just fine. I was wanting to try out slackware or debian, but I can't partition the hard drive. Any insight on this problem would be appreciated.

pixellany · 02-10-2007, 09:09 AM

This is weird---permissions have to do with filesystems and not partitions....

You apparently have at least on live CD distro--if you boot from that (not install), what happens if you try to run fdisk or cfdisk?

If all else fails, get GParted or a Knoppix CD with QTParted

pixellany · 02-10-2007, 09:17 AM

I just rebooted and checked to be sure that GParted sees my SATA disks (it does)
When using something like GParted, there are no permissions

gotvols · 02-10-2007, 09:18 AM

Thanks I'll try that. Hopefully that'll work.