Arch Linux

Newnux

Member

Registered: 2007-06-13

Posts: 59

External HDD Write Access

I can't get write access on my external HDD without being root.  According to what I've read, and the other hard drives, I'm pretty sure it should be working just fine.  I have write access to the parent directory, but not anything below that.

The relevant part of my /etc/fstab is as follows, including other hard drives I set up that do work:

#ntfs Windows
/dev/sda1    /mnt/win    ntfs-3g    user,noauto    0    0
#vfat 200gb
/dev/sdb1    /mnt/sto    vfat    rw,user,sync    0    0
#ext3 500gb External
/dev/sdc1    /mnt/big    ext3    rw,user        0    0

I've had access to this drive (sdc1) over other distros before.  They were obviously more user-friendly, but I can't think what I've missed this time.

ls -l reports this, where /big/ is looking quite strange.  It may be because I messed around with it, though.

drwxrwxrwx 18 newnux root   4096 2007-06-17 04:42 big # Problem drive
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 2007-06-08 10:56 cd
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 2007-06-09 12:00 cdrom
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 2007-06-09 12:00 cdrom1
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 2007-06-08 10:56 dvd
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 2007-06-09 12:00 dvd1
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 2007-06-09 12:00 fd0
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 2007-06-08 10:56 fl
drwxr-xr-x  9 newnux users 32768 2007-06-17 12:13 sto
drwxrwxrwx  1 root root   4096 2007-06-17 03:55 win

I *think* I could just right click the directory as root, and change the permissions with "Apply changes to all subfolders and their contents," but I wouldn't see why I'd have to, given how well the others work.  I also wouldn't want to mess things up further, and assume that would take a long time.

byte

Member

From: Düsseldorf (DE)

Registered: 2006-05-01

Posts: 2,046

Re: External HDD Write Access

For Linux filesystems: use 'user' in fstab, mount the drive as root and then 'chown youruser:users /mnt/point'.
For FAT/NTFS: use 'user' and 'uid/gid/?mask' in fstab.

---

1000

Newnux

Member

Registered: 2007-06-13

Posts: 59

Re: External HDD Write Access

Tried that just now, didn't seem to do anything .  The FAT32 and NTFS drives are working fine as is, and I'd really rather not mess them up .

byte

Member

From: Düsseldorf (DE)

Registered: 2006-05-01

Posts: 2,046

Re: External HDD Write Access

If there are files from the time before your Arch installation on the drive, they might have a different owner/group. Either add that uid/gid to your passwd, create a dedicated group for you external storage, run chown recursively... endless choices.

---

1000

Ramses de Norre

Member

From: Leuven - Belgium

Registered: 2007-03-27

Posts: 1,289

Re: External HDD Write Access

The problem drive is ext3? Chmod and chown it then...

# chown -R youruser:yourgroup /mountpoint
$ chmod -R 750 /mountpoint

And choose user and permissions level a wanted.

Last edited by Ramses de Norre (2007-06-18 13:35:28)

Newnux

Member

Registered: 2007-06-13

Posts: 59

Re: External HDD Write Access

If there are files from the time before your Arch installation on the drive, they might have a different owner/group. Either add that uid/gid to your passwd, create a dedicated group for you external storage, run chown recursively... endless choices.

I think I initially formatted the drive in Ubuntu and copied ~200gb of files over, as it's basically my storage drive.  I then used the ext2 driver on Windows to access it, which worked perfectly.  I must admit, though, I have quite a bit of reading to do on uid/gid and such, as I haven't much clue of what they do .

The problem drive is ext3? Chmod and chown it then...

# chown -R youruser:yourgroup /mountpoint
$ chmod -R 750 /mountpoint

And choose user and permissions level a wanted.

Worked perfectly!  Thanks!  Now I can look into this stuff a little more .

Newnux

Member

Registered: 2007-06-13

Posts: 59

Re: External HDD Write Access

All of a sudden (and I mean out of absolutely nowhere), /dev/sdb1 stopped allowing me write access.  I tried chown and chmod, but that didn't help this time.  I am really getting tired of drives working perfectly at times, and then just completely shutting me out for no apparent reason.  What exactly is going on?  Surely it's not normal for your computer to have a mind of its own, not with Linux at least.

Edit: Never mind, think I fixed it.  Sorry, just finding things rather complicated .  I'll learn one day, I hope!  And without spamming these boards with all my problems.

Last edited by Newnux (2007-06-18 21:18:33)