[SOLVED] Access secondary drive without root password

MintyNZ · 06-20-2022, 12:26 AM

I have a laptop with two SSD's. One runs Arch. Both are partitioned for Linux and auto mount on start up. When accessing the second drive from dolphin however it always asks for the root password. Is there a way to turn this off?

Thanks.

pan64 · 06-20-2022, 12:27 AM

usually you can configure it in /etc/fstab (to allow mount for users).

ondoho · 06-20-2022, 01:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MintyNZ

I have a laptop with two SSD's. One runs Arch. Both are partitioned for Linux and auto mount on start up. When accessing the second drive from dolphin however it always asks for the root password. Is there a way to turn this off?

Maybe the mounted tree is owned by root?
Or the directory you mount on?
I have no special settings in fstab, but the 2 things above are user-owned. No problems whatsoever.

OTOH this could also have to do with permissions required to do the mounting itself.

Tell us a bit more about it; what exactly is the error message? Once mounted, can you access everything normally?

MintyNZ · 06-20-2022, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

Maybe the mounted tree is owned by root?
Or the directory you mount on?
I have no special settings in fstab, but the 2 things above are user-owned. No problems whatsoever.

OTOH this could also have to do with permissions required to do the mounting itself.

Tell us a bit more about it; what exactly is the error message? Once mounted, can you access everything normally?

There is no error message it simply asks for my root password when I first access the secondary drive from my file manager. I was hoping to remove the need to enter the root password.

frankbell · 06-20-2022, 08:22 PM

I second ondoho's suggestion. You can put it in fstab with the "rw" flag.

A web search for "configure fstab" will turn up a number of articles and tutorials. This is one of my favorites.

MintyNZ · 06-20-2022, 11:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankbell

I second ondoho's suggestion. You can put it in fstab with the "rw" flag.

A web search for "configure fstab" will turn up a number of articles and tutorials. This is one of my favorites.

Thanks everyone, I'll do a little research and see where it takes me.

ondoho · 06-20-2022, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MintyNZ

There is no error message it simply asks for my root password when I first access the secondary drive from my file manager. I was hoping to remove the need to enter the root password.

OK. I suspect it's a polkit issue then.
Which DE and filemanager are you using, how are you starting your graphical environment?

MintyNZ · 06-22-2022, 04:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

OK. I suspect it's a polkit issue then.
Which DE and filemanager are you using, how are you starting your graphical environment?

I'm using KDE plasma 5.25.1 and Dolphin on Arch.

ondoho · 06-22-2022, 10:50 PM

On 2nd thought, you want it mounted at boot, editing fstab is probably the right choice.
Show us your /etc/fstab.

This web search: https://www.startpage.com/do/search?...ering+password
had following relevant-looking results:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=154301
https://www.reddit.com/r/openSUSE/co...when_mounting/
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1274...econdary-drive

MintyNZ · 06-23-2022, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

On 2nd thought, you want it mounted at boot, editing fstab is probably the right choice.
Show us your /etc/fstab.

This web search: https://www.startpage.com/do/search?...ering+password
had following relevant-looking results:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=154301
https://www.reddit.com/r/openSUSE/co...when_mounting/
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1274...econdary-drive

Many thanks. I did run a search but sometimes the challenge is having a precise idea of what you are looking for. This should provide enough material for me to work through the issue and sort it out.