I'm running Mandriva 2007 with a USB WD 120GB external HD. Unmouned the HD properties show I have ownership and total permissions. However, once mounted, the device properties revert to Root for both ownership and permissions making it inaccessable. I have gone root and done chown and chmod on /mnt/usbdrive. The command line says it is changing the ownership and permissions but it doesn't happen. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've check similar threads but nothing close to this problem shows up.
Thanks and cheers..........

Changing permissions on the mount point /mnt/usbdrive won't work except when the usb device is not installed. Then you can use the mount point as just another folder to store information in the directory tree.

When the usb device is installed, the mount point is then used to access the device. You need to change the permissions on the device.

Look at your /etc/fstab. The usb device is probably not listed. Look at /etc/mtab after the device is plugged in, and you will see it listed, just like an fstab entry.

That's controlled by usb/udev config somewhere. You need to do some google reseach on how to change the permissions in that/those configs.

I am spending some time, actually a lot of time, in
man udev trying to figure out how this all works. I do
believe the solution lays within. Takes some time to
fathom it all. Thanks for the inputs. Wish me luck.
........favar