[ozjam1]

hi,

I have a 3 partitions -
10 gig - Windows - NTFS
10 gig - Linux Mandrake 9
20 gig - Files etc - was NTFS, now FAT32

I converted the "Files" partition from NTFS to FAT32 with Partition Magic, so that I would be able to write to it in Mandrake. The conversion worked fine, but when i start up Mandrake, it says stuff about a wrong file system/bad sectors. In the /mnt directory, before I had converted the partition, there was a folder called NT2 which was the "Files" partition. It is still there, and I can get into it, and the Properties box allows me to select both read and write options, but when I write files to it, they don't show up in Windows XP.

I hope that makes sense and someone can help me. Whn I get a chance later today I will copy what the Linux boot dialogue box says. (The screen that comes up when you select Linux from the LILO screen - I don't know what it is called)

thanks
Jamie

[codejockey]

I am only guessing here, but perhaps it will be helpful:

You should have a file /etc/fstab on your Linux system. Open this file using an editor such as vi, emacs, kedit, etc. and look for a line that references /mntNT2. This line tells linux how to mount (make visible) the filesystem on a specific disk partition. The line may look similar to this:

/dev/hdb1 /mnt/NT2 ntfs auto,ro 1 0

Note that your first field (the disk partition) will likely be different, but that's OK. If you find a line similar to this one, note the value in the first field, and exit from the editor. Don't make any changes yet.

If you are not already the root user, become the root user. Then issue the command:

mount -t vfat /dev/hdb1 /mnt/NT2; echo $?

Note that /dev/hdb1 is just an example; you should use the value you recorded from /etc/fstab (the first field in the line that contains /mnt/NT2).

If you are successful, you should see a line with a single zero at the left edge of the screen. If you are not successful, you may see something such as:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdb1,
or too many mounted file systems
32

If you are successful, then cd to /mnt/NT2, look around, try writing to it, etc. to verify that everything works as it should. If so, open /etc/fstab in your favorite editor and change the line that references /mnt/NT2 to something like the following:

/dev/hdb1 /mnt/NT2 vfat defaults 1 0

Save your changes, reboot, and see if your filesystem is mounted automatically for you.

If you have problems, post the info and we'll go from there.

Hope this helps.

[ozjam1]

thanks for that

I tried what you said and it worked, but I can only write to the drive when I root, and when I try to change the permissions, I click in a box, the tick appears, but then it disappears immediately.

thanks
jamie

[codejockey]

OK -- the reason for this is that by default, only root can mount a filesystem. If you wish to allow other users to mount a filesystem, you should modify the /etc/fstab entry for that filesystem to appear similar to this one:

/dev/hdb1 /mnt/NT2 vfat defaults,noauto,user 1 0

Unfortunately, that isn't the end of the story. Although this will allow normal users to mount, read and write to the filesystem, the permissions will be set according to the user's umask value when the mount is performed. The result is that some users may be excluded from reading or writing to the filesystem, depending upon how permissions are set up in your system. Also, the "noauto" option prevents the filesystem from being mounted at boot time.

Hope this helps.

[ozjam1]

My fstab file shows the following:

/dev/hda4 /mnt/nt2 vfat defaults 1 0 user,owner,exec,dev,suid,rw,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15 0 0

should I change it to:

/dev/hda4 /mnt/nt2 vfat defaults,noauto,user 1 0 user,owner,exec,dev,suid,rw,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15 0 0

I just wasn sure if the second user is meant to still be there.
One other thing - what is an unmask value?

Thanks,
Jamie

[codejockey]

A umask value is a series of 3 octal digits that specify default permissions when a file is created (roughly speaking). By default, files (and directories) are created mode 777 -- i.e., read, write and execute permission for owner, group and world (everyone else). The umask value is subtracted from the default of 777 (octal) to create the actual (user-specific) default file permissions. A common umask value is 022 (octal) which says:

(1) subtract nothing from the default file owner permissions (7)
(2) subtract 2 from the default group permissions (7)
(3) subtract 2 from the default other ("world") permissions (7)

So, if you set your umask to 022, every file or directory you create will have permissions 755 (-rwx-r-xr-x) instead of 777 (-rwxrwxrwx). The man page for chmod includes an explanation of the permission bits associated with a file (which includes normal files, directories, device special files, etc. -- in Unix, everything is a file).

Now, about your fstab entry ... I'm a bit confused by all of the stuff after 1 0. I would not expect anything to appear here (the 1 0 should normally be the last fields on the line), so it is possible that your /etc/fstab file was messed up somehow. My guess is that my instructions weren't as clear as they should have been, and that the extra information after the 1 0 was there orginally. So, try this line in /etc/fstab instead of what you have:

/dev/hda4 /mnt/nt2 vfat user,owner,exec,dev,suid,rw,umask=0, iocharset=iso8859-15 0 0

The man pages for fstab and mount have a lot of good info on what each option means.

Hope this helps.

[ozjam1]

Thanks for all your help! I've got it all working now.

Thanks
Jamie

[4thhorseman]

Hi. I have a question about the mount not working. I've been having the same problems as ozjam1.

My second hard drive had 3 partitions on it, 2ntfs partitions and an ext3 linux partition. I recent redid the drive and made it one great big 30GB fat32 drive. Unfortunately whenever I try to mount the drive in Linux (Redhat 8.1) all I get is the following error:

# mount -t vfat /dev/hdb1 /mnt/wind; echo $?

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdb1,
or too many mounted file systems
(aren't you trying to mount an extended partition,
instead of some logical partition inside?)
32

I used the command as stated previously in this thread, but no go. My fstab has the drives listed as:

/dev/hda1 /mnt/winc vfat noauto,user,exec 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /mnt/wind vfat noauto,user,exec 0 0

now hda1 (My C folder in windows) loads fine. It always has. My old 6 gig drive that "was" my D drive in windows loaded fine. The new one doesn't load at all. But I'm not sure why.

Any help?

[codejockey]

Try the command: fdisk -l /dev/hdb to display the partition table on your second drive. It appears that you created a single extended (not primary) partition on the drive, and so you will need to mount /dev/hdbX, where X is 5 or greater (primary partitions are 1-4). Just a guess -- but the output from fdisk -l /dev/hdb should show you how Linux thinks the drive is configured, and then you can determine which partition should be mounted.

Hope this helps.

[4thhorseman]

Dude! I knew it was something insanely simple. I had to mount the drive as hdb5 because of the extended partition. I dunno how I managed to make it like that, but whatever. As long as it works.

I hate when it's insanely simple.

Thanks

[codejockey]

You're welcome -- and I think Unix/Linux is full of "insanely simple" problems, just so we have something to do in our spare time ...

Glad to hear things are sorted out.

[4thhorseman]

You know, it is full of insanely simple stuff. I've been trying to configure my other machien with redhat for a webserver/router and it was driving me INSANE. But the reason it wouldn't work was so simple, I can't even repeat it here because it's embarrasing. lol.

[codejockey]

You know, I used to share a cube with a buddy of mine, and when either of us bumped up against a problem that left us scratching our heads, we used to play a game called "let me show you why this has to work". The guy with the problem (and the perfect, error-free code ) had to explain to the other guy (who knew nothing of what was going on) why their solution had to work, and that there really was some supernatural explanation for why it didn't, like cosmic rays or an ancient curse or whatever. Usually what happened was that the guy who "knew" he was right (and the compiler and the machine and the O/S and everyone else were wrong) saw the light during the process of explaining. From this, I learned something that has served me well to this day, and continues to serve me well: the answer appears most quickly when the question becomes publicly embarrassing.

I wish I could say I've gotten smarter; the truth is, I've become more comfortable with being embarrassed ().