Problem with Cruzer Mini

NetRAVEN5000 · 08-08-2005, 12:44 PM

I've got a 256MB Cruzer Mini. I just reformatted it to ext2. I can mount it, and I changed the permissions to /mnt/cruzer so that I can read and write to it as a normal user. However, when I mount it, the permissions change so that only root can write to it. How do I stop this from happening?

Matir · 08-08-2005, 01:44 PM

If it's formatted as ext2, the permissions shouldn't change on mounting. You did change the permissions while it was mounted, didn't you? Otherwise, you changed permissions on a mount point, which does nothing.

NetRAVEN5000 · 08-08-2005, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Matir
If it's formatted as ext2, the permissions shouldn't change on mounting. You did change the permissions while it was mounted, didn't you? Otherwise, you changed permissions on a mount point, which does nothing.

Aah. . . I knew I had to change the permissions to /mnt/cruzer, didn't realize I had to mount first. Thanks - that fixed it!

Matir · 08-08-2005, 02:57 PM

No problem. FYI, I usually keep my usb drives formatted fat32 for the rare use on a windows machine. Also, make sure you mount with 'noatime'. Check out sync vs async mounting behavior as well.

NetRAVEN5000 · 08-08-2005, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Matir
Also, make sure you mount with 'noatime'.

What's "noatime"?

Matir · 08-08-2005, 08:36 PM

noatime means the kernel does not try to keep a record of the last access time for a file. This generates a lot of extra writes (when atime is enabled) and usb overhead. If you weren't aware, flash media DOES have a limited number of writes (on the order of tens of thousands, though). Still, one write per file you open, plus per directory you cd to or do an ls on. And if you use a GUI that generates thumbnails, one write per file that exists in each directory you browse to, etc.

It can add up.

NetRAVEN5000 · 08-09-2005, 04:47 PM

Well, that's interesting. I'll give it a try. You add that into your /etc/fstab file right?

Not 100% sure it's worth it, though - I got mine a while back for Christmas (guessing it was like $70 back then) but I haven't used it much since - I used it to share some files for school with friends, but that's pretty much it. Plus, unless you wanna go beyond 1GB, you can get those things for pretty cheap.