Hello.

Running mandrake 9.1 on this particular box.

I created a fat32 partition which mounts at /mnt/win_d
I want to be able to drop files into this directory from my user accounts. I executed chmod 777 /mnt/win_d as root. ls-l reveals that /mnt/win still has permissions of: drwxr--r--

What gives? Am I not allowed to chmod mount points? How do I open up this shared partition to my user accounts so I can place files on this partition to share with windows?

Thanks.

In fstab add option
user
and mount from user.

The permissions of the directory get overridden in favour of the filesystem permissions when one gets mounted at that mount point. If you want write permissions you'll have to specify them in /etc/fstab. I'm not sure whether "user" will solve your problems (but try it), you may need to specify gid=<user group number> and/or uid=<your user name/number>.

Thank you both for your replies.

I ended up configuring the partition with mandrake, as I found an advanced setting burried in the menus which allows that partition to be accessed by all users.

On an unrelated note, would either of you know where the linux equivalent of M$'s "startup folder" is?

if you're using kde it is
~/.kde/Autostart
you can place things there to be started automatically. It's best done with a script placed there (make sure you make it executable).Placing links (something like shortcuts) could work too. I'm not sure. just try.

Another place is
~/.bashrc
But this might not be the right place for your purposes.

Thanks quatsch!

Back to the old issue. Here's my /etc/fstab:

/dev/hda5 / ext2 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/scd0,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c ntfs iocharset=iso8859-1,ro 0 0
/dev/hda7 /mnt/win_d vfat user,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0

User is already in there, but I can't create new directories in /mnt/win_d. Where do I, <insert gid=#> or <uid=#>?

You insert it in the options, along with stuff such as iocharset=iso8859-1.

For each run level in Mandrake there is a corresponding directory which contains S symlinks which point to the actuall services in /etc/rc.d/init.d - these symlink directories are /etc/rc.d/rcx.d were x is simply the respective run level - you can start or stop certain services on boot up by taking out or putting in these symlinks to the actual services - I wouldnt advise jumping straight into this but read up on it first so youve got a better grasp, both of what youre doing and what services your modifying.


The options field is the 4th field in /etc/fstab - you might want to try

umask=000

as an option aswell as your uid and gid

It seems that your fstab file is not formatted very well. You could format it using the tab key and field headings. The headings are:
#<file system> <mountpoint> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>

Note the "#" at the start of the line. It's not a heading but will have to be there to comment out the line otherwise it linux will try to parse it.

My /etc/fstab now looks like this:

#/dev/hda5 / ext2 defaults 1 1
#none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
#none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/scd0,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850 0 0
#none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850 0 0
#/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c ntfs iocharset=iso8859-1,ro 0 0
#/dev/hda7 /mnt/win_d vfat user,iocharset=iso8859-1,umask=000,gid=501,uid=501,codepage=850 0 0
#none /proc proc defaults 0 0
#/dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0

Still don't have write permissions to that directory. Am I doing something idiotic?

Did you just put hashes in front of all your lines?

Yeah, that's how I interpretted adz's message... I added "umask=000,gid=501,uid=501" too.

I'm that far off, eh?

I feel pretty stupid now. I figured out what I was doing, and what adz was getting it.

For the record, here is the /etc/fstab configuration that works:

#/dev/hda5 / ext2 defaults 1 1
#none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
#none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/scd0,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850 0 0
#none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850 0 0
#/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c ntfs iocharset=iso8859-1,ro 0 0
#/dev/hda7 /mnt/win_d vfat iocharset=iso8859-1,umask=000,gid=501,uid=501,codepage=850 0 0
#none /proc proc defaults 0 0
#/dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0

Hmmm... You still have hashes in all you lines. I only meant for you to put them in the title line (the one with <file system> <mount point> etc). This then gives you a clear bunch of fields to work with. Mine looks like this:

# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump><pass>
/dev/hda2 / ext3 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hdb1 none swap sw 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hdb2 /freebsd ufs ro,ufstype=44bsd 0 0
/dev/hdc /floppy vfat user,noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0

Putting a hash in the line comments out the line. Sorry I wasn't clear enough on that. I can't believe that file worked. You've commented out everything.

Edit: Grrr.... I can't get this properly formatted on this site. You'll have to use your imagination. I looks great on the edit page but crappy on the post. All I was saying was that if you format it nicely, you'll find it easier to read.

Okay, I interpretted your comment originally to mean that I should put the hashes on each line of /etc/fstab. After I got it working without them, I thought you meant to put them in the example of the file that I post, to compensate for the forum software's wordwrap. I don't have any hashes in my real file, I just put them in the version that I posted.