Changing permissions

Mladek · 07-09-2003, 06:45 AM

I have two disks on my Linux machine. One disk for the system and the other for data (that I use to carry data back and forth from home to the office).

When I try to access the data disk I get this message:

You do not have enough permissions to read devices:/devhdg1windowsC

If I try to change permisions, I get this mesage:

Could not change permissions for /windows/C

One of the two machines is a Windows 2000 machine and the disk is formated NTFS (if its formated FAT the Linus machine will not read it at all).

Does anyone have any suggestions.

whansard · 07-09-2003, 07:19 AM

did you try accessing the disk as root?

i bet your fstab is set up to mount the second disk as
ntfs, and when you formatted as fat, the disk no longer
got mounted. you would have to edit /etc/fstab.
you really can't write to NTFS without messing it up.

Mladek · 07-09-2003, 07:22 AM

I'm not sure how I am accessing the disk.

Since I an new to Linux, these things are new to me.

Could you explain in a little more detail?

whansard · 07-09-2003, 07:28 AM

you have to be logged in as root to mount or write
to those other drives, unless you add "user" to the
/etc/fstab line for that drive.

Mladek · 07-09-2003, 07:34 AM

I know its a stupid question, but how do I log on as root. When logging in, I only get a users menu. The only time I'm asked for the root pasword is when I try to access Yast or some specific funtion.

Should I try to sep up another account?

In the Windows I have I have a separate user and Administrator account and I am offered the choice at logon, but the Suse logon does not give me this option.

tjm · 07-09-2003, 08:04 AM

When you mount the drive you can optionnally allow a given user ID access to the drive.

So, if you mount with command (example) mount -t ntfs -r /dev/hda2 /mnt/windows/C, then only root gets access.

If your 'normal' user is uid=500, then add '-o uid=500' to the mount command and then the normal user can access it.

So your command becomes 'mount -t ntfs -r -o uid=500 /dev/hda2 /mnt/windows/C

There is a way of doing this in the file /etc/mttab... but I am not sure how

Mladek · 07-09-2003, 08:15 AM

Thanks. I ll try that.

BTW, do you know of any place where I can download a list of Linux commands along with an explanation of what each does?

tjm · 07-09-2003, 08:57 AM

If you are an unscrupulous person... like me.... then using any popular p2p program you can find Linux reference books in pdf format.

I think there is one called Linux Bible.

If you know the name of the command, but just want to learn more about its options... Linux comes with a built in manual.

To access the manual page for that command type 'man mount' and you will learn more than you ever wanted to know.