usb flash and HD Permission trouble

[harjim]

I have loaded SUSE 10.1 and am having trouble with my usb flash drive and usb external hard drive.

When I connect each of the drives, Suse sees them, and then opens up Nautilus. However, I can not write or change any files on either of the drives. I see the files and can open them, but not save changes.

I have visited different forums (through google search) and have tried different suggestions. All to no avail.

I want to be able to plug in either device and have Suse automatically recognize and mount. Then, I want to be able to open, edit, and re-save file back to the drive.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Javasnob]

Look into your /etc/fstab file. Editing it appropriately will probably solve your problem.

[harjim]

I have tried different ways to edit the fstab file to solve the problem. From the various post I have seen it is some variation on the following:

/dev/sda1 /media/usbflash auto [various forms of user,rw,exec,noauto,sync] 0 0

It usually causes an icon to appear on the desktop that gives me various errors on mounting or lets me access the drive, but still have read-only permission

[fanfan1313]

exact same problem...in fact my question is a few posts down...

Help in this is GREATLY appreciated

-Brian

[bigtomrodney]

Occasionally the devices are mounted as root instead of as the user. I'm trying to figure out the pattern as to when it happens like this so I can avoid it. Root should be able to write to the device. Something that has worked for me is to eject the device and connect it to a different port.

[akshay_iitd]

happens to me too..
just safely remove them and plug them in again to see if it works...
cheers

[apoorv_khurasia]

Two solutions are there with me:
1. usermod <username> -g usb
2. in /etc/fstab with your line for usb add this uid=<your uid>

post me if they work/don't work.

[fanfan1313]

apoorv_khurasia your advice worked perfectly. Thanks a lot.

-Brian

[harjim]

apoorv_khurasia, I followed your directions and I get "Operation Failed" with the following message: "fstab configuration does not allow unprivileged operation"

Here is a look at my fstab:

/dev/hda2 / reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/hda3 /home reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/hda1 swap swap defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
/dev/sda1 /media/usbflash auto noauto,uid=jim,rw 0 0

Any help would be appreciated

[apoorv_khurasia]

apoorv_khurasia, I followed your directions and I get "Operation Failed" with the following message: "fstab configuration does not allow unprivileged operation"

Here is a look at my fstab:

/dev/hda2 / reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/hda3 /home reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/hda1 swap swap defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
/dev/sda1 /media/usbflash auto noauto,uid=jim,rw 0 0

Any help would be appreciated

Why are auto and noauto together? Just modify the last line to this

/dev/sda1        /media/usbflash        auto       auto,uid=jim,rw      0 0

In case the problems do not vanish please let us know. And as always, if they work just add a post saying so.