hi all,

I am using Linux Mint 17.1 and have installed PostgreSQL 9.3 using:

sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib

I have a separate hardrive mounted at /media/myusername/Storage
In the storage folder I have created a folder called postgres_data and have changed the ownership of the folder to postgres using:

sudo chown postgres:postgres /media/myusername/Storage/postgres_data

I am trying to set it up such that postgres will use this folder for the databases but am not having much luck. I have logged in as postgres and tried to run initdb but I get the following error:

su postgres
/usr/lib/postgresql/9.3/bin/initdb -D /media/myusername/Storage/postgres_data/

Im not sure what to do because postgres is the owner of the folder and has full rights to it. Please could someone assist.

Just a quick follow up on my question. Could this issue have anything to do with the fact that postgres is the owner of:
/media/myusername/Storage/postgres_data

However it is not the owner of that whole path/hierarchy. It is only the owner of the actual folder.

Im just wondering out loud.

So I managed to get it working by giving read/write/execute permissions to everyone on that entire mounted harddrive, ie:

sudo chmod -R a+rwx /media/

This got the job done, but obviously I don't want to leave the permissions like this. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can reduce the permissions so that I can just give ownership to postgres for the folder /media/myusername/Storage/postgres_data/

It seems like for some reason the postgres user needed full permissions to the entire hierarchy to do the initdb, not just the folder. But I can't just leave it like that.