<SOLVED>I messed up external WD 250 GB permissions pls HELP!

[Littlejoe]

I thought I knew what I was doing and found out I didn't!  

Formatted external drive and set permissions wrong and now I don't have access to it I think I can access with root but need access as user.  PCC>Local Disks>sdb1 (My External drive)  I can reformat  But don't know what options to check.  Any help would be appreciated.

[Rudge]

You formatted an external drive and set permissions on it? I am quite confused. Why don't you describe the problem instead of what you think you did. What are your symptoms?

[Old-Polack]

I thought I knew what I was doing and found out I didn't! 

Formatted external drive and set permissions wrong and now I don't have access to it I think I can access with root but need access as user.  PCC>Local Disks>sdb1 (My External drive)  I can reformat  But don't know what options to check.  Any help would be appreciated.

What rudge said. You've used words but said nothing meaningful. Tell us exactly what you did, and what the permissions now are, and we may be able to get somewhere.

[Joble]

I formatted a removable drive.  I plugged it in, and it mounts automatically.  Here are my current permissions on that drive and it's mount point:
[joe@localhost media]$ ls -l
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Nov 26 08:07 disk/  (Mount Point)
[joe@localhost media]$ cd disk
[joe@localhost disk]$ ls -l
drwx------ 2 root root 16384 Nov 26 08:07 lost+found/  (The only file on that drive)
[joe@localhost disk]$

Need some kind of similar information from you, if O-P is going to help you.  I think I'll just watch and learn.

[Littlejoe]

Okay sorry for the poor post was on my way out the door.  

I formatted my external WD 250 gb drive.  I can mount the drive but the permissions are set like this

[kodiak@localhost media]$ ls -l
total 8
dr-x------ 1 kodiak root 4096 Dec 30 21:03 B_Passport/
[kodiak@localhost media]$ cd B_Passport/
[kodiak@localhost B_Passport]$ ls -l
total 0
[kodiak@localhost B_Passport]$

the owner can only view and all others are forbidden when checked through Konqueror>properties

trying to change permissions as root in Konqueror gives me this error
"Could not change permissions for /media/B_Passport."

If you need to know more please tell me what you need
Thanks

PS  Sorry about bad post I know better   

 

[Rudge]

A cry for help is a cry for help. There are no "Bad" ones. As long as you can answer the questions back, you are fine. 

[Littlejoe]

Its a cry for help alright!

I can't use the drive.  Any ideas Rudge?

[muungwana]

 
Its an external hard drive, it shouldnt have an entry in fstab and i i think PCC tries to create an entry in fstab when it creates a  partition

can you copy and paste the content of the following command "cat /etc/fstab"

[Old-Polack]

Okay sorry for the poor post was on my way out the door. 

I formatted my external WD 250 gb drive.  I can mount the drive but the permissions are set like this

[kodiak@localhost media]$ ls -l
total 8
dr-x------ 1 kodiak root 4096 Dec 30 21:03 B_Passport/
[kodiak@localhost media]$ cd B_Passport/
[kodiak@localhost B_Passport]$ ls -l
total 0
[kodiak@localhost B_Passport]$

the owner can only view and all others are forbidden when checked through Konqueror>properties

trying to change permissions as root in Konqueror gives me this error
"Could not change permissions for /media/B_Passport."

If you need to know more please tell me what you need
Thanks

"I formatted my drive," both says little and is inaccurate. You format a partition on the hard drive, and what you mount is the filesystem on the partition. What partition did you format? How many partitions are on the drive? I'm guessing only one, but I can't see your drive so have to rely on the information you give me. That information has not yet been relaid.

Your current problem is that you've given the ownership of the partition to user kodiak but not given him write permissions to the drive, so he can't change the permissions. You set the group as root, but did not give even read permissions to root, so he can't change the permissions either. At this stage I'm not totally sure you can even reformat without first zeroing the drive. You can try. If you wish our help with that, you'll need to tell us what filesystem you wish to use, and on which partition you wish to use it.

What results do you get with the following command?

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l              <Enter>   <-- That's a lower case L not a number 1.

Post your results.

This will at least tell us how the machine currently sees the partitions that are present.

[Joble]

Its an external hard drive, it shouldnt have an entry in fstab and i i think PCC tries to create an entry in fstab when it creates a  partition

can you copy and paste the content of the following command "cat /etc/fstab"

Mine is mounted by HAL when it is plugged in, no entry in fstab.  Not saying the idea isn't helpful, it may very well be, just saying, my external drive has no fstab entry.

What results do you get with the following command?

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l              <Enter>   <-- That's a lower case L not a number 1.

Post your results.

This will at least tell us how the machine currently sees the partitions that are present.

O-P:  Oh Man!  I should have remembered that one.  (Kicking Myself!)  And following along.

[Littlejoe]

Sorry O -P I didn't know what kind of info was needed.  I figured It would be easier.

First:  Yes I did format a partition on my external usb drive. 
Second: You are correct it is the only partition on that drive.

Here is what you asked for O-P

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000080

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1           5       40131    6  FAT16
/dev/sda2               6        1280    10240000    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3   *        1280       17568   130829496    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4           17569       30402   103082385    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5           17569       29171    93201066   83  Linux
/dev/sda6           30076       30402     2619392   dd  Unknown
/dev/sda7           29172       30075     7261348+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x44fdfe06


   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       30401   244196001    7  HPFS/NTFS

Here is What you asked Muungwanna


[kodiak@localhost ~]$ cat /etc/fstab
# /dev/sda5, size=186402132, type=131: Journalised FS: ext3 (extended)
/dev/sda5 / ext3 noatime 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdc1 :
UUID=1D87-38AC /media/BlackPassport vfat user,exec,umask=002 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdb1 :
UUID=3754-34CE /media/passport vfat umask=002,user_xattr 0 0
# /dev/sda1, size=80262, type=6: DOS FAT16 (primary)
/dev/sda1 /mnt/win_c vfat user,exec,rw,noauto,iocharset=utf8,umask=002 0 0
# /dev/sda2, size=20480000, type=7: NTFS (primary)
/dev/sda2 /mnt/win_d ntfs user,exec,ro,noauto,nls=utf8,umask=002 0 0
# /dev/sda3, size=261658992, type=7: NTFS (primary)
/dev/sda3 /mnt/win_e ntfs user,exec,ro,noauto,nls=utf8,umask=002 0 0
# /dev/sda6, size=5238784, type=221: Hidden CTOS Memdump? (extended)
/dev/sda6 /mnt/win_f vfat user,exec,rw,noauto,iocharset=utf8,umask=002 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda7, size=14522697, type=130: Linux swap (extended)
/dev/sda7 swap swap defaults 0 0
[kodiak@localhost ~]$   


I would like help in giving kodiak and root permissions to read and write to /dev/sdb1

[Littlejoe]

O-P  I did it as root

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000080

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1           5       40131    6  FAT16
/dev/sda2               6        1280    10240000    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3   *        1280       17568   130829496    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4           17569       30402   103082385    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5           17569       29171    93201066   83  Linux
/dev/sda6           30076       30402     2619392   dd  Unknown
/dev/sda7           29172       30075     7261348+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x44fdfe06

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       30401   244196001    7  HPFS/NTFS
[root@localhost ~]#             

[muungwana]

# Entry for /dev/sdb1 :
UUID=3754-34CE /media/passport vfat umask=002,user_xattr 0 0

i think the above is the fstab entry of your external drive ..

try to open "/etc/fstab" and add "#" to the line above, unplug your drive and plug it in and see if it works as expected

you must open the text file with root privileges

[Littlejoe]

That didn't do the job Muungwana.....

I #'ed out all but my internal drive and it shows up the same way same permissions

[Old-Polack]

O-P  I did it as root

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000080

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1           5       40131    6  FAT16
/dev/sda2               6        1280    10240000    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3   *        1280       17568   130829496    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4           17569       30402   103082385    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5           17569       29171    93201066   83  Linux
/dev/sda6           30076       30402     2619392   dd  Unknown
/dev/sda7           29172       30075     7261348+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x44fdfe06

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       30401   244196001    7  HPFS/NTFS
[root@localhost ~]#            

First off, you can't set permissions and ownership on a NTFS partition. You can set parameters how you specifically want the partition mounted. If you want to be able to write to the NTFS partition from Linux you need to have ntfs-3g installed, and specified as the filesystem type. In the mount parameters you'll need to specify umask=0 or umask=000 to allow anyone to write to the drive.

Look at your /dev/sda3 line in /etc/fstab, as it's a pretty good example. The main thing you would need to change is the filesystem part, from ntfs to ntfs-3g, and the umask from umask=002 to umask=000.

If you want to mount the partition manually when needed, the rest of the line could stay as is. If you want the partition to auto mount, change the noauto to auto.

That said, obviously you need to start the line with the correct partition, and choose a proper mount point, which you will then need to create as root. For the example I'll use /mnt/USB250 as the mount point directory.

First a user mounted line;

/dev/sdb1     /mnt/USB250     ntfs-3g     rw,user,noauto,exec,nls=utf8,umask=000     0 0

Then an auto mounted line;

/dev/sdb1     /mnt/USB250     ntfs-3g     rw,auto,exec,nls=utf8,umask=000     0 0

As stated the directory /mnt/USB250 would need to be created by root for this to work. This can be done from a terminal also, with the mkdir command. (make directory)

[root@localhost ~]# mkdir /mnt/USB250               < Enter>

You could of course choose any name for the mount point directory, as long as it's correctly entered in /etc/fstab.