[solved] mount usb only works as root

c707176 · Apprentice Joined: 01 Mar 2005 Posts: 215

Hi,

I followed the USB howto guide and got my USB storage device working. However, I can only mount it as root which is not so nice although I included the user flag to fstab:

/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,ro,user 0 0
/dev/sdb1/ /mnt/usb auto noauto,user,rw,sync 0 0

I have the same problem with mounting the cdrom:

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
mount: only root can do that

Is there anything missing?

suicidal_orange_II · Apprentice Joined: 04 Sep 2004 Posts: 299

In a word - Yes

By giving mount 2 arguements (/dev/cdrom and /mnt/cdrom) it bypasses fstab. Using either on its own mount will look in fstab and match the other one, and read the fact user is in the flags so allow non root to mount

Suicidal_Orange

c707176 · Apprentice Joined: 01 Mar 2005 Posts: 215

Hello,

thanks for your remark. However, mounting the usb as a user fails:

mount /mnt/usb
mount: special device /dev/sdb/ does not exist
(a path prefix is not a directory)

Any ideas?

jmbargar · n00b Joined: 24 Mar 2007 Posts: 17 Location: Spain

First of all, you have to delete the last slash that you have at the end of /dev/sdb1/ in the fstab file, so you would have to put /dev/sdb1 instead of /dev/sdb1/

After that, you would have to have created the folder that you have defined in /etc/fstab, in your case you would have done from a root terminal the follow:

Ehnvis · Guru Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 305 Location: /dev/random

Do your user belong to the cdrom and usb groups? If not you have to add the user to those groups.

And there is no need to change permissions to the directory like jmbargar says, i've never needed to change that anyway.
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jmbargar · n00b Joined: 24 Mar 2007 Posts: 17 Location: Spain

The Ehnvis option is valid as well, you have to do all I have said you, but if you don't want to change permissions you can add your user to usb group opening a root terminal and writting something like the follow:

lonrot_m · Apprentice Joined: 18 Jun 2005 Posts: 274 Location: Mexico

I think the best way to do this is modifying your udev rules to your usb.
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c707176 · Apprentice Joined: 01 Mar 2005 Posts: 215

Thanks for your hints! It works now!