Hi everyone

This is my first time here. I have been using linux for just over three years now, but only as a user really. Recently I took the plunge and made my computer dual bootable, so I now have a machine with Windows XP and Linux (SuSe 9.0) on the same hard drive.

I then decided to add another hard disk and format it for use in Linux. Everything seemed to work fine, but I then found that the only way to write any data to my new hard disk was when as root.

The install was all dealt with via YasT. I have some instructions that I pulled from the web regarding adding a new linux hard disk which mentioned partitioning and formatting it via fdisk. I dont seem to have fdisk on this machine, or at least the command is not recognised. All the partitioning/formatting was done though YasT.

I keep logging in as root and changing the file permissions but to no avial. As a user it does say that it is writable to, but doesnt allow you to do it, only as root. The contents can be read though, no problem.

Any ideas? They would be much appreciated.

-------------------

cat /etc/fstab
/dev/hda6 / reiserfs defaults 1 1
/dev/hda2 /windows/C ntfs ro,users,gid=users,umask=00 02,nls=iso8859-1 0 0
/dev/hda5 swap swap pri=42 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrecorder /media/cdrecorder auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0
/dev/dvd /media/dvd auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /drive2 reiserfs user,user_xattr 1 2


--------------------

cat /etc/mtab
/dev/hda6 / reiserfs rw 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
/dev/hda2 /windows/C ntfs ro,noexec,nosuid,nodev,gid=100,umask=0002,nls=iso8859-1 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs rw 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /drive2 reiserfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,user_xattr 0 0

--------------------------

cat /proc/mounts
rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
/dev/root / reiserfs rw 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw 0 0
/dev/hda2 /windows/C ntfs ro,noatime,nodiratime,nosuid,nodev,noexec,uid=0,gid=100,umask=02,nls=iso8859-1,errors=continue,mft_zone_multiplier=1 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs rw 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /drive2 reiserfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec 0 0

----------------------------

Thanks in advance

Ffenics

Try adding this to your /etc/fstab:
/dev/hda1 /drive2 reiserfs uid=500,gid=500,umask=000,exec,dev,suid,rw 1 0

I am not expert but I think that this will get you read/write to the drive.

Hi Tangle

Thanks for your reply. I tried that, but when I then attempted to mount the hard drive I got the following error message:

wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdb1 or too many mounted file systems.

Don't know what this means at all. Any comments or advice much appreciated

Ffenics

Did you umount and remount the drive? You can do it by tpying:
umount /drive2
mount /drive2
This should do it.

Hi Again

Well, it wasnt actually mounted at all and it refused to do so when I tried to ... result being the message above.

I dont think anything is wrong with the hard drive itself ... because I could write to it before as root.

I could try the whole thing from stratch again but I dont know what I would do differently. What is really confusing is that I dont have fdisk ... why might that be?

Thanks again

Ffenics

Did you try cfdisk? Also are you su'ing when you try to use fdisk? If so you will need to specify the path if so.

Hello again

Well, eventually I got fdisk to work and followed the instructions as laid out on this webpage:

click here

Only to be faced with my original problem of being able to read, but not write to the disk as an ordinary user. I can both read and write to the disk as root however.

Can anyone hazard a guess at what I may be doing wrong?

Useful info below:

---------------------------------------

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4863 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 5 40131 de Dell Utility
/dev/hda2 * 6 4234 33969442+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3 4235 4862 5044410 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 4235 4297 506016 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda6 4298 4862 4538331 83 Linux

Disk /dev/hdb: 80.0 GB, 80000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 9725 78116031 83 Linux

---------------------------------------

cat /etc/fstab
/dev/hda6 / reiserfs defaults 1 1
/dev/hda2 /windows/C ntfs ro,users,gid=users,umask=0002,nls=iso8859-1 0 0
/dev/hda5 swap swap pri=42 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrecorder /media/cdrecorder auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0
/dev/dvd /media/dvd auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /drive2 ext2 defaults 1 1

------------------------------------------

cat /etc/mtab
/dev/hda6 / reiserfs rw 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
/dev/hda2 /windows/C ntfs ro,noexec,nosuid,nodev,gid=100,umask=0002,nls=iso8859-1 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /drive2 ext2 rw 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs rw 0 0

-----------------------------------------
cat /proc/mounts
rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
/dev/root / reiserfs rw 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw 0 0
/dev/hda2 /windows/C ntfs ro,noatime,nodiratime,nosuid,nodev,noexec,uid=0,gid=100,umask=02,nls=iso8859-1,errors=continue,mft_zone_multiplier=1 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /drive2 ext2 rw 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs rw 0 0

------------------------------------------

As always, any advice much appreciated

Ffenics

Okie Dokie

Now I understand. I was trying to mount the hard drive under /drive2, which meant I couldnt change the permissions, not even as root.

So, I deleted it all and started again, this time mounting it as /usr/drive2.

Thanks for all the suggestions

Ffenics