Can't use my USB device as normal user [solved]

[EnlightedGnome]

I have mounted my extern harddisk on /home/me/backup but when I try to open it as normal user it says: "bash: cd: backup/: Permission denied". Then as root if I try to chmod 1777 backup it tells me: "chmod: changing permissions of 'backup/': Operation not permittet".
What can I do so I can open my extern hdd as a normal user?

[azuriel]

Can you mount the usb drive from your normal user account? Treat it's /etc/fstab entry like a cdrom drive, and check if you're in all the right groups (my gentoo box is off right now, can't check sorry).

[EnlightedGnome]

what would be the right groups? when i try to mount as normal user it tells me that "only root can do that"

[azuriel]

Try adding "user" to the fstab entry, so the options are like:

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/dev/sda   /mnt/usbdrive   auto   defaults,user,noauto   0 0

I can post something a bit better when I get back home, if this doesn't work.[

[mikegpitt]

It sounds like you are using udev. Make sure to add your user to the usb group. Group data is stored in /etc/group.

[EnlightedGnome]

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/dev/sda   /mnt/usbdrive   auto   defaults,user,noauto   0 0

it should be /dev/sda1 right? it doesn't mount in eighter case...

@mikegpitt yes I am in the usb group...

[azuriel]

Um. how are you mounting it right now? error messages would be good too. FYI, the fstab is just a way of remembering mount options and automating the process a little. Make an fstab entry for your usbdrive, and try and mount it as a normal user (thats the point of the user option). Same way you mount a cdrom drive.

[EnlightedGnome]

Code: Select all

$ mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /home/me/usb
mount: only root can do that

...

[alsuren]

whenever I do things like this, I always test as root first, then put an entry in /etc/fstab so that users can follow my lead (see later for my theory on why)

so I would:

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$ su
# fdisk -l 

^^^this is THE most useful hack I've ever seen.
It lists all the formattable (and therefore mountable) 
disks in your entire system, along with their partition type.
If you don't see your usbdrive there, you probably won't
be able to mount it

# mkdir /mnt/usb
^^^I would always try and keep your temporary mounts 
somewhere within /mnt because then things don't get lost.
If you need permissions, see below

# chmod 775 /mount/usb
# chown alsuren:users /mnt/usb
# mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb
# ls /mnt/usb

If it works with root, you can do backups etc. that way from the command line. If you can't even list the contents of the drive as root, there's something else wrong so you should post your error messages


If you want user access to a vfat formatted partition(does vfat even store owner/permissions info?), one way to do it (as everyone has said) is to mount it as a user. The only way to do this (that I know of, short of sudo, which is cheating, and will mount it as root anyway) is to add a /etc/fstab entry. This is *probably* because if you let your users mount arbitrary disks at random, you might have security problems at a later date.

Another advantage of having an entry in /etc/fstab is that you can mount it by just typing "mount /mnt/usb" (as user or root) and you don't need to specify the type or device, because it's already in fstab

yet another advantage is in konqueror(though by your name, I have a hunch you might not like this suggestion) you browse to media:/ and it will show up there, so you can mount and browse it without ever going into the command line

Good luck

[djscribble]

the other thing you should check is that the user has permissions to modify the folder in question

[azuriel]

This is the entry I have for an ipod (borrowed it from a friend for a week):

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/dev/ipod       /mnt/ipod       vfat            user,noauto,defaults 0 0

I don't remember if I had problems with it as normal user, but maybe it'll help.

[EnlightedGnome]

Thank you verry much everyone, it works now
How can I make it mount as user at startup?