Can't change permissions of Windows partition

Dimension User · 05-22-2005, 08:08 AM

Hi. I performed the usual commands

mkdir /mnt/win
mount -t vfat /dev/hda2 /mnt/win

to mount my only Windows ME partition, and as user and root I can read all the files on that partition, but I can't write to it as a regular user. I tried logging in as root and changing the group and permissions of /mnt, /win, and then My Documents by right-clicking them and selection the permissions tab. Fedora did let me change the group and permissions of /mnt but not /win or My Documents. When I try it says something like "Sorry, you don't have permission to change the group" and when I try to simply change the permissions by checking the boxes, they are unchecked immediately after I check them.
As root, shouldn't I be able to change these settings?

I know I could make a shared partition, but I was hoping to keep it simple this way.

Vookimedlo · 05-22-2005, 08:50 AM

mount -o umask=0,quiet -t vfat /dev/hda2 /mnt/win

or just add this to /etc/fstab

Code:

/dev/hda2   /mnt/win  vfat  defaults,umask=0,quiet

BTW: You cannot change "My documents" permissions because FAT32 doesn't support any kind of permissions,

Dimension User · 05-22-2005, 02:41 PM

Thanks a lot for your post, Vookimedlo. I appreciate your help.

What does the -o umask=0,quiet argument do exactly? Will it let me write to my Windows folders and files as a non-root user?

Dimension User · 05-30-2005, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Will it let me write to my Windows folders and files as a non-root user?

Oops. Obviously it will let me.

I meant How will it let me write to my Windows folders and files as a non-root user?
I just meant what does the -o umask=0,quiet argument do to let me write to the Win folders as non-root.

fred22 · 05-31-2005, 01:03 AM

I was having the same problem......But
From what I can gather.

Code:

umask=0

Sets the permission mask of the mount to rwx for every user and group.

Code:

quiet

Attempts to chown or chmod files do not return errors, although they fail. Use with caution!

The owner remains root, but this will allow anybody to use the data and change it.
Its a bit lazy because you should pracise setting permissions for certain users only, blah, blah.

I hope it helps.

Dimension User · 06-05-2005, 02:17 PM

Thanks for your post, fred22. It's great to have your help.

Quote:

Attempts to chown or chmod files do not return errors, although they fail. Use with caution! Its a bit lazy because you should pracise setting permissions for certain users only, blah, blah.

What fails exactly? I know what you mean about rwx for all users; that is a little risky. The problem is that I tried to change the group settings for /mnt/win to allow only root and myself to access it, but I got an error message saying that (even though I was logged in as root) I didn't have permission to modify group settings. What did you do to allow yourself write access to you win partition as regular user?