moving files / permissions?

[Trevor Smith]

On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 21:23:56 -0800, Gordon Messmer wrote:

>Trevor Smith wrote:
>> 
>> I have a VFAT partition that I use with Win2k that I have made
>> available under linux by adding:
>> 
>> /dev/hda5	/mnt/win2k	VFAT	default	0 0
>
>'ls -l' should show you that only the root user can write to that disk 
>given those mount options.  Others have suggested alternatives that may 
>help you.  If you're not really using "default" (and maybe you're not 
>since you say you can read and write to the drive...), then you might 
>have another issue.

Damn. :-(

I just went and played with it again and sure enough, user "trevor" can
not mv a file from his home directory to /mnt/win2k. 

I logged out, logged in as root, changed the fstab line to say:

/dev/hda5               /mnt/win2k              vfat    defaults,users 
0 0

I logged out and back in as 'trevor' and this what I got when I tried
to move a file from the command line:

[trevor at localhost trevor]$ ls -la EnumerExample.java
-rw-rw-r--    1 trevor   trevor        647 Dec  2 08:43
EnumerExample.java
[trevor at localhost trevor]$ mv EnumerExample.java /mnt/win2k/
mv: cannot create regular file `/mnt/win2k/EnumerExample.java':
Permission denied
[trevor at localhost trevor]$

So, linux won't give me permission to write to /mnt/win2k.

What do I set in fstab so that it *will*?

Bizarrely, dragging and dropping the file while logged in as root
causes a pop-up error message to be displayed (it says I don't have
permission) but the file IS moved (but only when logged in as root).

>One problem you may run in to, which I did, is that Windows may somehow 
>mark the local user "home directories" as unwritable.  I don't 
>understand how, but I had a VFAT fs with Win2k where I could write to 
>any part of the disk except "/Documents and Settings".  No file or 
>folder under there could be modified by any user under Linux, including 
>root.
>
>You might just need to save your files to some other folder.

No, I'm trying to copy/mv/write to the root directory on the vfat
partition.

Of course, it's a FAT32 partition. Is that the same as "VFAT"? Or might
I be running into some problem because VFAT != FAT32 ?


-- 
 Trevor Smith    |    trevor at haligonian.com