Unable to change permission
 

I have recently installed Suse 7.3 and I am unable to change the permissions of files and directories on my Windows drives. I've tried to use the lsattr command to see whether the 'i' flag/indicator/bit is set but I get the followinf response:

For directories: Invalid argument While reading flag on /windows/H/Unzipped

For files: Inappropriate ioctl for device While reading flags on /windows/F/Photos/(filename here)

Any ideas?

Thanks
Joe

Oops, forgot to say: I've tried it both when logged in as root and when logged in as superuser.

Ta
Joe

you can't change the permissions of a file on a windows partition - the filesystems that windows uses don't have permissions. the "permissions" that linux assigns to the files are virtual - they're masked over the entire partition. if you want to change the permissions for the windows partition, then you need to tinker with your /etc/fstab file.

Much obliged, I'll give it a shot.

Joe

I've successfully "fiddled" with /etc/fstab so that my permissions now show that I have read, write and execute access to my windows partitions. However, when I try to update an exisiting .jpg or save a new one with GIMP, it simply says that it cannot save the file. I've only tried it when logged in as a user, not as root.

Any suggestions?

Joe

ummm... first try to change it as root. i'm pretty sure that will work. most distros will allow the windows partition to be readable from users, but not writable. that's mainly for security reasons, but it's not really that important on a desktop system. there's a way to mount the partition as writeable by default, but i can't remember offhand... i'll try to look it up tomorrow... it's getting late at the moment ;)

I logged in as root, fired up Gimp and had no problem to create and save a new image.

Try adding ' umask=000 ' to the windows partition line in your fstab file. Like this:

/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat noauto,user,umask=000 0 0

Thanks mate. I finally got around to trying your advice and it worked a treat. I am much obliged to you.

Cheers
Joe

You're welcome. :)