How does one configure Opensuse 12.2 to mount USB drives so that permissions on them can be changed?

I have a OpenSuse 12.2 box that I am using as a NAS server. I have a Vantec 4 bay multiple drive enclosure that is connected via USB3. OpenSuse sees the drives, and I was successful at configuring them to mount at boot without having to click on them in Dolphin. However, I would like to change the permissions on them so that I can copy to them without being Root. I have tried changing the ownership and permissions from both the command line as Root as well as trying with Dolphin as Root. I get no error messages. it acts like it is doing what I ask, but then when I go back in and veiw the permissions, they haven’t changed. Do I need to go about mounting these external drives differently? Can this be configured through Yast? If not, could someone please help me with the syntax needed to do this? In case it matters, these drives are NTFS. I can copy to them logged on as Root. If someone can help me with this I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanking you in advance.

Regards,
Tony

On 2014-09-05 23:36, TonyLudwick wrote:
>
> I have a OpenSuse 12.2 box that I am using as a NAS server. I have a
> Vantec 4 bay multiple drive enclosure that is connected via USB3.
> OpenSuse sees the drives, and I was successful at configuring them to
> mount at boot without having to click on them in Dolphin. However, I
> would like to change the permissions on them so that I can copy to them
> without being Root. I have tried changing the ownership and permissions
> from both the command line as Root as well as trying with Dolphin as
> Root. I get no error messages. it acts like it is doing what I ask,
> but then when I go back in and veiw the permissions, they haven’t
> changed.

Let me guess: they are FAT or NTFS “disks” :slight_smile:

You simply can not change permissions in them. Instead, you choose
permissions and ownership as mount options.

> Do I need to go about mounting these external drives
> differently? Can this be configured through Yast? If not, could
> someone please help me with the syntax needed to do this? In case it
> matters, these drives are NTFS.

Ah, you see? I thought so. No, I have read this paragraph of yours after
writing the one of mine above. So, yes, it matters a lot :slight_smile:

Are you mounting them via entry in fstab?


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

Originally, OpenSuse would just detect the drives. They were not mounted until I clicked on them in Dolphin. I had read in another post on this forum where someone that was having similar issues configured the drives to mount at boot through Yast. So I tried that with one of the drives. It does mount at boot, but it still does not let me control the permissions on it. I would love to format these as ext4, but the powers that be, want to be able to plug these drives into a windows machine if needed.

On Sat, 06 Sep 2014 01:06:02 +0000, TonyLudwick wrote:

> It does mount at boot, but it still does not let me control
> the permissions on it.

You can’t control the permissions within the NTFS filesystem, because
*nix permissions aren’t the same as NTFS permissions.

What you need to do is mount them with the uid= and gid= options.

Have you got the partition mounted as root? If so, what do you see in /
etc/mtab?

Jim


Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

On 2014-09-06 03:06, TonyLudwick wrote:
>
> Originally, OpenSuse would just detect the drives. They were not
> mounted until I clicked on them in Dolphin. I had read in another post
> on this forum where someone that was having similar issues configured
> the drives to mount at boot through Yast. So I tried that with one of
> the drives. It does mount at boot, but it still does not let me control
> the permissions on it.

Well, as I said, and Jim says, you control those permissions with mount options. You can not change the permissions of the files, they are faked.

This has been explained thousands of times :wink:

For example, I use this, on an optional windows test disk:


LABEL=Windows_Boot   /other/windows/boot     ntfs-3g   nofail,ro,noauto,users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0
LABEL=Windows_Main   /other/windows/system   ntfs-3g   nofail,noauto,users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_US.UTF-8    0 0

Notice that boot is intentionally mounted read-only (even for root), and the other one is writeable, but I choose with what permissions.
you can also choose what user and group can access.

Other people just use “defaults” instead and it appears to work. I want more control.

> I would love to format these as ext4, but the
> powers that be, want to be able to plug these drives into a windows
> machine if needed.

No problem. I have no complain with that :slight_smile:


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

Hello,

in multi-boot-environments i use NTFS-formatted disks to share data with windows and mount them using ntfs-3g and “default” as root option.

But this gives rw-access to all users.

A few years ago ntfs-3g introduced this : ***http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-advanced/ownership-and-permissions/


In the early stages i found it hard to use, so i dropped it.

But may be it is of any assistance to you.

Best regards

tochiazuma

On 2014-09-12 21:06, tochiazuma wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> in multi-boot-environments i use NTFS-formatted disks to share data with
> windows and mount them using ntfs-3g and “default” as root option.
>
> BUT THIS GIVES RW-ACCESS TO ALL USERS*.

My method does not :slight_smile:

You can specify which user gets write permissions, but it does to the
entire partition… It is OK for single user machine.

> A few years ago ntfs-3g introduced this : -**http://tinyurl.com/ye22d9g
> *-
> In the early stages i found it hard to use, so i dropped it.

Yes… I heard about that, I think. Complex, and touchy, I heard. I
don’t know if it is usable.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)
**

Hello robin_listas,

as you say, why bothering on a single user machine at all. And indeed it needs verification, whever the method is still supported by ntfs-3g (i stopped using it a few years ago). But if TonyLudwick realy needs file access control on a per user and file basis on NTFS, then this might be his only choice (at least i know of no other).

I used it on a portable drive to share data between home and office. The setup was not too complicated and there were tools to generate parts of the user mapping.

!!! But before using this method !!! one should have a sound understanding of

  • how the Windows/NTFS file access scheme works

  • how the Linux file access scheme works

  • where the two differ

  • what the restrictions of the ntfs-3g method are

I had some “strange” results when using the drive under Windows in the office. So i stopped using it.

Best regards

tochiazuma