I am trying to mount a fat32 partition and here is the line I put in fstab "/dev/hda4 /fat32 vfat auto,umask=777". The problem is when I log in as just a normal user and try to access /fat32 I get the following error "bash: cd: /fat32: Permisssion denied". Also I have noticed that the other entries have two numbers on the end and I was wonder what they were for. One more question that is slightly off topic. With vim I know you push i to inserted characters before the highlighted character but how do you inserted afterward.

you need to chmod the /fat32 dir so that others can open it. If you're using a gui you can probably change the permissions with a file manager.

For your second question post the lines you're talking about and we'll explain them to you.

I know in vi you just press i and then you can move the cursor to insert characters after the highlighted character. I'm pretty sure it's going to be the same in vim also unless I'm misunderstanding your question.

well seeing as umask=777 means that noone is allowed to access the files at all... try 022, or 002 instead

Acid's right.

chmod and umask values work in an "opposite" way

chmod 777

Will give you rwx permissions for owner, group and other

umask 000 is "equivalent" - you use umask in an /etc/fstab entry -
So umask=000 would be sufficient.

The last two fields in a typical /etc/fstab entry mean :

The 5th field indicates whether the filesystem should be included in a back-up.

The 6th Field indicates how the filesystem should be checked on boot up.

Use 0 0 for a Windows entry.

Ya that work just right. I wonder why it would be opposite like that?

One more thing if I wanted read only for my xp partition I could use the option ro or umask=333 right?

Correct - umask=333 gives read only for owner,group,other

This is what I put into fstab for my xp partition:
/dev/hda1 /xp ntfs auto,umask=333 0 0
When I try to access it as a normal user I get the same error as before:
bash: cd: /xp: Permission denied
I want /xp to be read only because last I heard ntfs was still experimental with writing.

Just an idea - but why not create a mount point in /mnt using mkdir

ie say

mkdir /mnt/winxp

then use this - substituting the various fields in

ie your Partition, Mount point and User ID Number ( uid ) in place of my example ones

/dev/hda1 /mnt/winxp ntfs auto,ro,umask=222,uid=501 0 0

You can get your User ID Number by getting to the command line and typing:

id username – (substitute username with Aaron or Sofie or whatever your username is)

look for the

uid=xxx - thats your user id number