Arch Linux

Grant

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2012-12-15

Posts: 246

Home(s) always owned by root

Hello,

I'm trying to install Arch on an USB, to make a portable OS. It's a 16GB drive, and I've set it up so:

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048          526335   256.0 MiB   EF00  
   2          526336         6817791   3.0 GiB     8300  
   3         6817792        31277055   11.7 GiB    0700  

where:
SDB1 = 256MiB ESP
SDB2 = 3 GiB ext4 for /
SDB3 = the rest of the space for /home
I used the filesystem fat32 for sdb3  because I want to access the data even if the system isn't on. I'd try to make the system as portable as I can; indeed I went for the vesa generic driver.
The system boots correctly, except that whenever I add a new user, it cannot write into its own home even. It can't because the owner is root, but it shouldn't be so.
I did install the system with a live cd, but trying from my current system, it doesn't work either.

alphaniner

Member

From: Ancapistan

Registered: 2010-07-12

Posts: 2,810

Re: Home(s) always owned by root

Did you do any research about putting /home on fat? It doesn't support POSIX attributes s/a ownership and permissions. I'm pretty sure that makes it a no go.

IMO you should use a small [linux] partition for /home and another partition for data.

Also, in my experience Windows won't acknowledge multiple partitions on a USB drive (it will only 'mount' the first one). But that's with MBR partitioned drives; maybe it's different with GPT.

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clfarron4

Member

From: London, UK

Registered: 2013-06-28

Posts: 2,165

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Re: Home(s) always owned by root

Did you do any research about putting /home on fat? It doesn't support POSIX attributes s/a ownership and permissions. I'm pretty sure that makes it a no go.

Pretty much this. Same with NTFS. If you want to have the files accessible in Windows in your home partition, it's time to completely re-partition the drive again, and learn either how to symlink or something else to deal with the accessibility in Windows issue.

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Grant

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2012-12-15

Posts: 246

Re: Home(s) always owned by root

I guessed that the problem could be the fs itself. Basically, I would make an usb which can be both a portable OS and a "classic" usb where you connect it and access the data. I'm gonna try to include the /home inside / and make fstab mount sdb3 into it. (therefor sdb3 won't be the /home anymore but it'll be instead mounted into it )

Last edited by Grant (2013-11-30 13:08:57)

WorMzy

Administrator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 12,602

Website

Re: Home(s) always owned by root

I'd just drop the FAT partition as home, and mount it to e.g. /data. Then I'd use bind mounts or symlinks to link e.g. ~/Documents to /data/documents. It'd save the effort of repartitioning.

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