vfat partition is NOT writeable

[Anacroneta]

Hello,

My fstab since I installed ubuntu 8.04 was:

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda7 :
UUID=f6eeffb8-f7d1-4f2a-ae63-73177fe3a7cd / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# Entry for /dev/sda8 :
UUID=90f73a82-73ab-4098-b7f0-1fbfdbd24e07 /home ext3 relatime 0 2
# Entry for /dev/sda2 :
UUID=8294F76394F757DD /windows ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 1
# Entry for /dev/sda5 :
UUID=cdd9a6de-9507-446e-a56c-313783b4d5ec none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/sdb6 /media/disk vfat relatime 0 2
/dev/sda1 /media/WinRE ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0

But always when I turned on the pc my vfat partition wouldn't be mounted, I first had to go to "places" n open the "82.0 GB Media" to get back my wallpaper n my music list.

I decided that it was because /dev/sdb6 wasn't right, so I changed it for /dev/sda6, n I got my partition mounted at reboot, but now it wouldn't let my write anything on it.

I tried to change the /dev/sda6 for the UUID, but still the same problem, I tried the rw, option, as well as the umask=000, the user, and changed the relatime for default, all of it several times in in different ways, but my vfat is still unwriteable. if I put back my old fstab, my partition is not mounted at the beginning but after I open it once it is there n it's writeable.

I changed the mounting point for Felipe, n now my fstab looks like:

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda7 :
UUID=f6eeffb8-f7d1-4f2a-ae63-73177fe3a7cd / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# Entry for /dev/sda8 :
UUID=90f73a82-73ab-4098-b7f0-1fbfdbd24e07 /home ext3 relatime 0 2
# Entry for /dev/sda2 :
UUID=8294F76394F757DD /windows ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 1
# Entry for /dev/sda5 :
UUID=cdd9a6de-9507-446e-a56c-313783b4d5ec none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda6 :
UUID=3AB8-87D0 /media/Felipe vfat defaults,user,rw 0 2

any sugestions?

Thanks.

[Anacroneta]

People!!! come on!, I've searched the net long long, and couldn't find any solution to my problem. please, if it is so simple noone is interested just give me the tip n I will do it!.

[devils casper]

Edit /etc/fstab file and add umask=0 for vfat partition.

# Entry for /dev/sda6 :
/dev/sda6  /media/Felipe vfat defaults,umask=0  0  0

Execute sudo mount -a command after editing fstab file.
In case it doesn't work, post the output of sudo fdisk -l command here.

sudo fdisk -l

*Its small L in fdisk -l.

[saivin]

I'm not sure but I think defaults includes read-only. So we should not put defaults and rw together. Try the following entry.

/dev/sda6  /media/Felipe   vfat   auto,user,rw,sync  0 0

[Anacroneta]

I tried, the auto,user,rw,sync 0 0 but didn't work, also tried the defaults,umask=0 0 0 but didn't work neither, this is my fdisk output

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x99845a1a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 192 1536000 27 Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 192 5878 45677568 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 5879 19457 109073317+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 18901 19457 4474071 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 8931 18900 80083993+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda7 5879 7215 10739389+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 7216 8930 13775706 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

[devils casper]

It should work fine.
Create a new mount_point ( folder ) and try to mount partition again.

cd /media
sudo mkdir sda6
sudo umount /dev/sda6
sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda6  /media/sda6  -o defaults,umask=0
cd /media/sda6
mkdir test_folder

Execute above commands. Does it create test_folder in /media/sda6?
Post the output of df -h command too.

[Anacroneta]

I did it n yeap it created the test_folder,

and the output is:

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda7 11G 3.1G 6.6G 32% /
varrun 1.5G 124K 1.5G 1% /var/run
varlock 1.5G 0 1.5G 0% /var/lock
udev 1.5G 60K 1.5G 1% /dev
devshm 1.5G 24K 1.5G 1% /dev/shm
lrm 1.5G 40M 1.5G 3% /lib/modules/2.6.24-24-generic/volatile
/dev/sda8 14G 12G 391M 97% /home
/dev/sda2 44G 42G 1.8G 97% /windows
gvfs-fuse-daemon 11G 3.1G 6.6G 32% /home/anacroneta/.gvfs
/dev/scd0 4.1G 4.1G 0 100% /media/cdrom0
/dev/sda6 77G 72G 5.1G 94% /media/sda6

[devils casper]

I did it n yeap it created the test_folder,

It means problem is in /etc/fstab file only. Remove /dev/sda6 line and type correct code again. Use /media/sda6 folder as mount point.

/dev/sda6    /media/sda6   vfat  defaults,umask=0 0 0

There shouldn't be any typo. Copy exact code. In case it doesn't sort out problem, post the contents of /etc/fstab file again.

[Anacroneta]

It worked perfectly!!! now my fat is writable.

But why did it work? as U can see in my old fstab, my mount point was disk, and I changed it for Felipe, and have the umask 0 too anyway it wouldn't work, why did it work now?.

N one more thing: how unsecure is to have the partition in umask 0? I just remember that when I was looking for a solution many people said umas 0 was unsecure.

Thanks,