Non-root can't write to memory stick

[pwabrahams]

I can't write to my memory stick as non-root. I've tried changing permissions but they don't stick:

root@lepiota:/media/usb0# ls -ld .
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 1969-12-31 19:00 .
root@lepiota:/media/usb0# chmod a+w .
root@lepiota:/media/usb0# ls -ld .
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 1969-12-31 19:00 .
root@lepiota:/media/usb0# chmod a=rwx .
root@lepiota:/media/usb0# ls -ld .
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 1969-12-31 19:00 .
root@lepiota:/media/usb0# ls -ld /media
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 4096 2008-09-21 10:14 /media
root@lepiota:/media/usb0# mount | grep usb
/dev/sdb1 on /media/usb0 type vfat (rw,noexec,nodev,sync,noatime)

[Detonate]

Re: Non-root can't write to memory stick

System Settings>Advanced>Disk & Filesystems> Administrator Mode

Highlight the partition on the USB Disk you are wanting to use. Select "Modify".

From the pull down menu, select the entry that allows a user to mount and dismount the disk.

[Detonate]

Re: Non-root can't write to memory stick

Also, open a terminal and run

kdesu kcontrol

Select System Administration>User Management

With your user name selected, open "Modify"

Open the Privileges and Groups tab, and make sure there is a chck mark in the block by "Access External Storage Devices Automatically entry.

[Detonate]

Re: Non-root can't write to memory stick

Oh! and one more thing! You'll have to remove and reinsert the stick for these changes to take effect.

[pwabrahams]

Re: Non-root can't write to memory stick

It turns out I had usbmount active, so I uninstalled it. But that didn't solve the problem. I went into kcontrol and changed the entries for the memory stick, but they didn't seem to persist when I removed the stick and reinserted it. I've also tried reformatting the entire stick as a single vfat filesystem, and that only made matters worse. It seems that automounting of usb sticks doesn't work unless usbmount is installed, and even then it doesn't work correctly because of the permission problem.

The user privileges did allow "Access external storage devices" all along, so that wasn't the problem

Is there some module needed for automounting that I might be missing?

[pwabrahams]

umask=0 needed

I found the proximate cause of the permissions problem: for vfat, the mount needs to be done using the umask=0 option. I tried that with an explicit mount and it worked like a charm.

Of course, that still leaves the question of how umask=0 gets applied to an automount.

[nitewing98]

Re: Non-root can't write to memory stick

I finally gave up and reformatted mine to ext3. Now I can write files without problem. It's not win-compatible now, but I don't need it to be.

[pwabrahams]

Re: Non-root can't write to memory stick

I finally gave up and reformatted mine to ext3. Now I can write files without problem. It's not win-compatible now, but I don't need it to be.

Does it automount?

[nitewing98]

Re: Non-root can't write to memory stick

Yes, it automounts just like normal.