On 2014-03-13 15:46, opensuseinmanila wrote:
> Allow me to go back to post #1 and the quote from paragraph 10.1.4 of
> the documentation for openSUSE 12.3: “For devices with a file system
> other than FAT, change the ownership explicitly for users other than
> root to enable these users to read or write files on the device.” This
> is where it all started. Although English is not my native language I
> would say that the natural interpretation of this clause is that
> ownership is a property of the -device: -“For devices…change the
> ownership…” Ownership of what? Of the device. Although technically
> this is not the correct answer as I know now.
No.
Also, I guess that the people that wrote that did not have English as
their first language 
It means that on FAT devices you indeed set the permissions for the
entire device partition. Or to be precise, you fake them.
(and it also applies to NTFS).
On non FAT devices, that is, on proper Linux devices, instead you change
the permissions of directories and permissions in the standard, ages
old, Unix way (change explicitly). You do it file by file, directory by
directory, one by one, or massively on a lot of them. But any new file
can have any other combination of ownership and permissions.
What you did with dolphin is that you change the permission of the
“parent” directory (some say the root directory, but that is confusing).
Once you have permission to write on the parent directory as a normal
user, you can, as that same user, add new files and directories, which
will belong to the user that creates them (which may or not be the one
that owns the parent directory).
Please, find a book on Unix or Linux and learn how permissions work
here. You need reading a text that explains it properly, not make
guesses at how to do things, or even ask us questions. We can not
explain it all in a post - in that case we’d write the book instead! 
> I am sorry that I caused a lot of confusion here. But part of the
> confusion is caused by my interpretation of the documentation.
Documentation written by programmers is often difficult to understand by
non-programmers.
> Apart from that, using FAT for an encrypted partition on an external
> device seems to be the easier thing to do. Would you agree?
CERTAINLY NOT!
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)