Hi I'm a complete newbie on linux. This is my problem. I have a fat32 drive that I would like to be able to access from my linux system.
I can mount this drive just fine but I would like to access the drive as a normal user, that is delete,move,rename files, etc.

I have modified my fstab to be the following

/dev/hdd5 /mnt/share vfat auto,rw,user,uid=500,umask=000 0 0


So my question is this, how can I read/write to this drive as a normal user? Is there something I'm missing?

Any help is greatly appreciated

Check the permissions on the files on the mounted partition - as root user (su to root) type

ls -l /mnt/share

check to see the bit pattern on most of the files - they should be

-rwxrwxrwx

Also - Make sure youve got the correct uid number - to check - su to root then type

id username (substitute in your username)


This line is taken from my /etc/fstab in Red Hat 9:

/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat auto,uid=500,umask=000 0 0

This works fine for me to have complete read/write/execute access on the mounted partition.

Personally - I wouldnt use these options below in addititon to the ones outlined above:

user
rw

they're not neccesary.

well when i type ls -l /mnt/share I get this output;

drwxrwxrwx 12 gbj root 4096 Aug 5 19:23 Linux
dr-xr-xr-x 11 gbj root 4096 Aug 5 17:56 Shared Folder
drwxrwxrwx 2 gbj root 4096 Jul 20 02:02 Unfinished

Any ideas?

Modify your /etc/fstab to use just the 3 options I use namely

auto
uid=
umask=000

ie get rid of rw,user and see what happens

then re-check your permissions

This is my line and it works perfect

/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat auto,uid=500,umask=000 0 0

Well I have done what you suggested and my fstab reads as ;
/dev/hdd5 /mnt/windows vfat auto,uid=500,umask=000 0 0
I still cannot get execute acess, that is I get permission denied when I try to delete, rename files.. So I'm beginning to think this has something to do with file permissions?

The output of ls -l /mnt/windows is;

drwxrwxrwx 12 gbj root 4096 Aug 5 19:23 Linux
dr-xr-xr-x 11 gbj root 4096 Aug 5 17:56 Shared Folder
drwxrwxrwx 2 gbj root 4096 Jul 20 02:02 Unfinished

Any ideas? Is there any way to change file permissions for the whole partition?

Your original mount point was /mnt/share

You could try as Root user (su to root)

chmod 777 /mnt/share


Strangely - on the 3 directories in /mnt/share - 2 of them youve got full rwx access - 1 youve got rx access - according to those permissions you should be able to get full access to 2 of those directories.

Yes I changed the mount point to /mnt/windows instead of /mnt/shared...

I tried chmod and the output of ls -l /mnt/windows is;
drwxrwxrwx 12 gbj root 4096 Aug 5 19:23 Linux
drwxrwxrwx 11 gbj root 4096 Aug 7 21:41 Shared Folder
drwxrwxrwx 2 gbj root 4096 Jul 20 02:02 Unfinished

When I check the permission for the windows folder in konqueror I see that the ownership is gbj but the group is root? When I try to change the group to gbj I get an error message saying that I have insufficient access to change the file permission...

Any toughts or ideas and by the way thanks for all the help..

Nice!

Just put an entry in /etc/fstab for your GID

As root - if you do

id username (subs.your username)

the second piece of info will be your GID number

just insert this into the appropriate line in etc/fstab in the options field

You should then have something like this

/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat auto,uid=500,gid=500,umask=000 0 0

Well(sigh) adding the GID to fstab did not change anything. I'm thinking that this has something to do with the ownership now. Ive tried chmod 777 to no effect and then i tried chgrp gbj/mnt/windows to change the ownership from root to gbj, but I get "operation not permitted" when I try this even as su...

gid=xxx

is definately the right option to put in to force all files and directories in the mounted partition to assume the group xxx

Ive just tried my /etc/fstab with both, it in - and with it not in - when its in I get

mikki mikki (my username)

from ls -l /mnt/windows

when its not in I get

mikki root

as expected - so its definately the right option to put in.

In your situation I'm not sure what's stopping it having the intended effect.

Well I finally found the problem and now I have full access to my fat partition The reason why my modifications to fstab were not having the intended effects was a simple one. I had disabled kudzu(the hardware probe) so that fstab was not updated at boot time. Anyway I'm a happy user now, so thanks Skyline for all your help..I really appreciate it..