Please help: Can't write/delete FAT (even with SuperUser)

[nayk92]

I've been trying to write/delete to my FAT partition for about 2 weeks now and can't. Usually I use Konqueror, but I've also used SuperUser Dolphin, I've even opened a new Root account... but nothing allows me to write/delete to my FAT partition, nor can I even change permissions either (though I have read/write privileges as a user, though the OTHER group has only READ privileges).

What is frustrating is that I think I was able to write/delete in my FAT partition when I installed openSUSE 11. But now I can't. I'm sure I messed up somewhere... but I'm not linux proficient enough to figure it out.

I've been forum/google search like crazy but it seems that no one really has this problem or haven't reported it's solution that I know of.

I use openSUSE 11 with a dual boot of Windows XP Home. My FAT partition is about 4.5 GB. I use KDE3.5 (though I also have KDE4 installed). My fstab details are:

/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK8032G_56SN0413T-part6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK8032G_56SN0413T-part7 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK8032G_56SN0413T-part8 /home ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK8032G_56SN0413T-part1 /windows/C ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_US.U TF-8 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK8032G_56SN0413T-part2 /windows/D ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_US.U TF-8 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK8032G_56SN0413T-part5 /windows/E vfat user,users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0

I don't mind having only read privileges for my NTFS drive (though it would be nice to write). But I really need to be able to write to the FAT (vfat) partition.

Please, please, do help. Thanks... in anticipation.

[caf4926]

It looks correct in fstab

Have you tried super user, then go to folder where drive is mounted
right click - properties
in permissions tab - drop down boxes, set all to read write

[bcrisciotti]

Well i agree it is very strange that root cannot delete any file. So try to perform a scandisk in windows or in linux fsck'vfat on the partition.

[swerdna]

Try replacing this:

/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK8032G_56SN0413T-part5 /windows/E vfat user,users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true 0 0

by this:

/dev/sda5 /windows/E vfat users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true 0 0

So do that first then do this:
The directory "E" in /windows/E. I suggest you change it's owner to root:users. Here's the routine to do that without getting at odds with the mounted drive:

• Open a terminal and assume root privileges with command: su
• Unmount the partition with command: umount /dev/sda5
• Change ownership with command: chown -R root:users /windows/E
• Change permissions with command: chmod 775 /windows/E
• remount it with this command: mount -a

[nayk92]

To Swerdna: Hey thank you so much for taking the time to reply. Your great reputation precedes you!

I did what you said, (it does look neater), but it didn't work.

I think my E drive was anyway owned by root... But I still followed those steps... but it's just the same... doesn't work, whether I use super user file manager or just plain browser.

Any other suggestions??? (if you have the time)

[nayk92]

Originally Posted by bcrisciotti

Well i agree it is very strange that root cannot delete any file. So try to perform a scandisk in windows or in linux fsck'vfat on the partition.

Thanks for this suggestion... but when I went to the terminal and typed fsck'vfat all it did was change the command prompt to > and then I couldn't do anything else, even exit (I had to manually close). Am I missing a step?

[nayk92]

Originally Posted by caf4926

It looks correct in fstab

Have you tried super user, then go to folder where drive is mounted
right click - properties
in permissions tab - drop down boxes, set all to read write

Thanks for your comment caf4926. I have tried super user and go to the mounted (windows/E for me)... and then try the permission tab.

These are the settings of permissions:

Owner: can view & Modify contents
Group: can view & Modify contents
Others: can view contents

Owner is root
and Group is user. (my login is part of group user).

And when I try to change the settings to allow even "others" to view & modify contents it says:

Cannot change permissions for windows/E

Similarly it says cannot delete file... when I try to delete any file.

Hope that gives you the appropriate details. Thanks again.

[doctorjohn2]

Press Alt and F2

Type
kdesu kwrite
and press ENTER

Browse to your /etc/fstab

Click on file-> Save as and save it as fstab.old

Again click on file->Open and browse to /etc/fstab

Delete everything and Paste this

/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK8032G_56SN0413T-part6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK8032G_56SN0413T-part7 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK8032G_56SN0413T-part8 /home ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK8032G_56SN0413T-part1 /windows/C ntfs-3g user,users,gid=users,umask=0002,locale=en_US.U TF-8 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK8032G_56SN0413T-part2 /windows/D ntfs-3g user,users,gid=users,umask=0002,locale=en_US.U TF-8 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_TOSHIBA_MK8032G_56SN0413T-part5 /windows/E vfat user,users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0

Reboot

You should be now able to read and write to /windows C, D and E as a normal user.

[swerdna]

Originally Posted by caf4926

It looks correct in fstab

Have you tried super user, then go to folder where drive is mounted
right click - properties
in permissions tab - drop down boxes, set all to read write

Just a tip: If you want to change the ownership of a directory that is the mount point for a partition, it will generally be ineffective unless you umount the partition first, and even then the final result when you mount it again depends on the options you choose for it in fstab, and different filesystems react differently to this tactic. It's all a bit confusing

[swerdna]

Originally Posted by doctorjohn2

Press Alt and F2

Type
kdesu kwrite
and press ENTER

Browse to your /etc/fstab

Click on file-> Save as and save it as fstab.old

Again click on file->Open and browse to /etc/fstab

Delete everything and Paste this



Reboot

You should be now able to read and write to /windows C, D and E as a normal user.

Be careful here, maybe a typo. I think for this alphanumeric string:

user,users,gid=users,umask=0002,locale=en_US.U TF-8 0 0

you should close the gap between US.U and TF-8, so it's like this: US.UTF-8.
And that's for both the lines with NTFS. Then I think doctorjohn2's ntfs mounts would work for partitions 2 and 5.