LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] External drive mounts read-only

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External drive mounts read-only

I'm trying to mount an external western-digital elements drive, here is the fstab:

Code:

/dev/sda6        swap            swap        defaults        0  0

/dev/sda2        /                ext4        defaults        1  1

/dev/sda5        /boot            ext4        defaults        1  2

/dev/sda7        /usr/local      ext4        defaults        1  2

/dev/sda8        /home            ext4        defaults        1  2

#/dev/cdrom      /mnt/cdrom      auto        noauto,owner,ro  0  0

#/dev/fd0        /mnt/floppy      auto        noauto,owner    0  0

devpts          /dev/pts        devpts      gid=5,mode=620  0  0

proc            /proc            proc        defaults        0  0

tmpfs            /dev/shm        tmpfs      defaults        0  0

/dev/sdb1        /mnt/WDE        auto        auto,rw          0  0

Code:

bash-4.1# mount -a

mount: devpts already mounted or /dev/pts busy

mount: warning: /mnt/WDE seems to be mounted read-only.

Also, I found it strange that in KDE (using flux now) a user is allowed to mount a device using the device viewer widget (I think that's what it was called), but when I try to issue the mount command in bash it says root is only allowed to mount!

I'm not quite having that issue, but have many times (I'm sure most of us have). In the mean time, until you get a good answer, does it allow write access when you mount as root? My post here is simply to subscribe so that I can get an answer too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kasl_33 (Post 4416679)

It won't allow me to write as root. The strange part is, I had mounted it a few days ago and there were no problems.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ADX (Post 4416687)

It won't allow me to write as root. The strange part is, I had mounted it a few days ago and there were no problems.

Well, let's see what I can help with - or at least start some troubleshooting before somebody with a better idea comes by:

What is the output of this command (as root):

Code:

blkid

I'm guessing that blkid will show that your drive is using NTFS. Because it's a windows file system that supports permissions, it becomes a nightmare - I usually avoid it if I can and use fat32 (If I don't have files over 4 GB in size), or one of the ext* filesystems.

I just noticed you posted /etc/fstab... I didn't see that before :/

Have you tried to chown or chmod the disk? I'm guessing it won't let you, but strange things do happen...

If it is a NTFS formatted disk and you set the filesystem descriptor in your fstab to auto chances are very high that it will be mounted with NTFS drivers that are built into the kernel. These drivers currently don't support writing. Mount it with the ntfs-3g drivers and you should be fine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kasl_33 (Post 4416693)

Well, let's see what I can help with - or at least start some troubleshooting before somebody with a better idea comes by:

What is the output of this command (as root):

Code:

blkid

That's a nifty little command; here is the output:

Code:

/dev/sda2: UUID="e6fda732-56de-4441-bff6-25005bc459cd" TYPE="ext4" 

/dev/sda5: UUID="308c44f3-0ac0-4ebd-8222-0e17e54923a2" TYPE="ext4" 

/dev/sda6: UUID="d0c3c2ae-6491-49b1-86b9-8b588f0ad7e7" TYPE="swap" 

/dev/sda7: UUID="9c3c4b49-8782-4662-bb00-35410247b154" TYPE="ext4" 

/dev/sda8: UUID="91ea1358-0b55-4675-a3fb-1cd5dad4c8eb" TYPE="ext4" 

/dev/sdb1: LABEL="Elements" UUID="A8DAE653DAE61CF6" TYPE="ntfs"

Quote:

So NTFS doesn't play nice with ext4? Wish I would of known that ahead of time! As I said earlier, strangely, it was mounting fine a few days ago using KDE... :confused:

Quote:

Also, this may seem as a "duh" comment here, but have you tried to chown or chmod the disk? I'm guessing it won't let you, but strange things do happen...

Indeed, still didn't have any effect.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ADX (Post 4416706)

So NTFS doesn't play nice with ext4?

They are totally unrelated, there aren't any problems with NTFS and ext4.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD (Post 4416698)

That did it! W00t! :D

Thanks

blkid is nifty indeed.

NTFS and EXT4 are both different filesystems. They don't relate to eachother and you can read from both without a problem.

I suppose the ntfs-3g idea above may help. You may have to actually install the ntfs-3g package to make that work.