External hard disk

Question

Hi there,   How do I change the ownership of the external hard disk from 'root' to 'user' in the xterminal in Suse Linux 9.3? Can anyone help?   Thank you!     Message Edited by blur blur on 04-23-2007 03:03 PM

Constable · Answer

add the following line to /etc/fstab : /dev/device /mnt/mount auto noauto,user,exec 0 0 where "device" is the device name, and "mount" is the mountpoint you want to mount it at. Then as a user you can do mount /mnt/mount and you will be able to access the drive.

Message Edited by Constable on 04-23-2007 09:15 AM

blur blur · Answer

Hi, when I type /etc/fstab,   it shown 'permission denied'   i tried this command 'chown -R username:users ./externalharddiskname'   it's not working. Any suggestion?

Constable · Answer

To edit the /etc/fstab file you need to be root. Assuming you have nano installed... sudo nano /etc/fstab at the command line will let you edit it.

blur blur · Answer

still denied even I sign in as root.   i have Suse Linux 9.3 installed

Constable · Answer

there should be a space: 'mount /mnt/harddrive' If that still errors, try '/sbin/mount /mnt/harddrive'

blur blur · Answer

Hi, the last few lines didn't show the name of the device, but this   usb-storage: device scan complete subfs 0.9   the external hard drive is named 'New_Volume'   In xterminal User su password dmesg mkdir /mnt/harddrive echo '/dev/New_Volume /mnt/harddrive auto noauto,user 0 0' >> /etc/fstab exit User: mount /mnt/harddrive [mntent]:line 9 in /etc/fstab is bad mount: can't find /mnt/harddrive in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

Constable · Answer

ahhh... New_Volume is what you've labeled the device, but that is not its device name!

The linux kernel will give it a name like 'sd*', where * is a letter (usually sda or sdb).

Do you see something like that?

If so, then become root (using 'su') and edit the fstab file.

nano /etc/fstab

Where you have /dev/New_Volume
change to /dev/sd*1

(don't forget that '1', it means "the first partition on the device")

hope this helps!

blur blur · Answer

my mistake.. should be sdb   but as user, mount/mnt/harddrive: command not found

Constable · Answer

hmmm... nothing should deny root! I'll give you an overview of what I'd do (I've never used SuSe... but it can't be that different)

1. Login as a regular user, and open xterminal
2. Type 'su' at the prompt, and enter your root password
3. connect your external drive, then type 'dmesg' at the prompt. You should see the name of the new device near the bottom
4. type 'mkdir /mnt/harddrive' to make the mountpoint
5. type 'echo "/dev/thedevice /mnt/harddrive auto noauto,user 0 0" >> /etc/fstab'
6. type 'exit' to get back to your user account
7. type 'mount /mnt/harddrive'. This should allow you to access the drive... type 'ls /mnt/harddrive' to make sure everything is there

If this still doesn't work then your kernel probably doesn't have support for the filesystem you're trying to mount. If the filesystem is NTFS (ie windows 2000 or later), you may need to upgrade your kernel. If the filesystem is HSF+ (mac OS), you probably just need to recompile your kernel, as HSF+ support is rarely needed and not usually enabled by default.

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