No user pernissions on external flash drive

[danielgww]

I am kind of helpless. I am trying to format my external flash drive as ext2.

Google shows lots of ways to mount, change the fsatb and so on, but somehow I can not manage it. Sorry.

Does anyone have a SIMPLE way for me to format the flash as ext2 so that users have access to it? I don't want to change it in the fstab because I need to use it on more that one PC. Please help!

[Windy]

Re: No user pernissions on external flash drive

Simplest way I know is to install a partition editor (gparted or qtparted), just make sure you select the right device when you format it.

[danielgww]

Re: No user pernissions on external flash drive

I am using qtparted to format it in ext2. But the probem is, that just root has access to that partition once it's done. Any way to change it?

[danielgww]

Re: No user pernissions on external flash drive

The Flash Drive is formatted ext2 now.

Still 3 questions:

How do I use it as use and not root?

Why is there a Folder "lost+found"?

Why are there 766mb already used on a fresh formatted drive?

[flarson]

Re: No user pernissions on external flash drive

The Flash Drive is formatted ext2 now.

Still 3 questions:

How do I use it as use and not root?

Change the ownership of the mount point.

Why is there a Folder "lost+found"?

Because by default when you create an ext2 filesystem it creates a lost+found for storing disconnected inodes if it finds them. If you don't want it rerun mke2fs with the appropriate options.

Why are there 766mb already used on a fresh formatted drive?

probably dedicated to lost+found, based on the parameters you gave it, or let it default to.

[Windy]

Re: No user pernissions on external flash drive

chown from the command line (using sudo) or through your file manager (dolphin) as root.

Lost+found is a safe bucket for fsck (file system check) to save any damaged files it finds.

A percentage of disk space will be reserver for exclusive use by root, (by default this is 5%), it allows root to recover in event of a drive becomming full.
In Linux/Unix systems a full filing system can be a big deal and can leave a system unuseable, the reserved space is a "get out of jail free card".

[sithlord48]

Re: No user pernissions on external flash drive

to manually set the amount of reserved disk space for root (this is a per drive setting)

you simply do the following

sudo tune2fs -m <% of space to reserve> <disk>

also you can add -u before the disk to add the user switch (i have not tryed this one)

[dibl]

Re: No user pernissions on external flash drive

Why are there 766mb already used on a fresh formatted drive?

As previously answered, the ext2 and ext3 filesystems reserve space for the root user to rescue a "full" filesystem.

You can format it FAT32 and there will be no Lost & Found and no reserved space.