Using ext3 partitions for data

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Fred

Re: Using ext3 partitions for data

Post by Fred »

curmint,

I don't know how you installed your system so I can't tell you if you have a seperate partition for /home or if it is in /. You could have installed it either way.

Go to the url below and you will see how to auto mount your data partitions. Use the example for ext 3, mounted in your /home directory. That should solve the problem.

Fred

EDIT: I must have been really tired, or loosing what little mind I had left. :-) Sorry

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=22093
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
DataMan

Re: Using ext3 partitions for data

Post by DataMan »

Fred,

url ?

:D

-DataMan
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shane
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Re: Using ext3 partitions for data

Post by shane »

:lol: nice one Fred :D
Fred

Re: Using ext3 partitions for data

Post by Fred »

Thanks for calling me on that one. Maybe it is right now. :-)

I just wish I had a nickel for every mistake I ever made. I would treat you all to the vacation of your choice and still have lots of nickels left over. :-)

Fred
emorrp1

Re: Using ext3 partitions for data

Post by emorrp1 »

Hi, I suspect it's just a permissions problem to be honest, and that you can write to it as root. See http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 65#p147083 to solve this. See also (in addition to Fred's link) my help on using a seperate data partition (rather than a seperate home partition) http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 80#p140646 By default, /home is on the same partition as root.
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Re: Using ext3 partitions for data

Post by Acid_1 »

emorrp1 wrote:Hi, I suspect it's just a permissions problem to be honest, and that you can write to it as root. See http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 65#p147083 to solve this. See also (in addition to Fred's link) my help on using a seperate data partition (rather than a seperate home partition) http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 80#p140646 By default, /home is on the same partition as root.
I agree. If you make an ext partition with gparted after an install, it will by default make it so only root can access that partition to write stuff to it.
Fred

Re: Using ext3 partitions for data

Post by Fred »

Wait a min., I am afraid we are going to give the thread starter the wrong idea. Partitions don't have permissions. When it is created, a partition has no permissions. The mount point for the partition and the files and folders in the file system on the partition have permissions. I know it sounds knit picky, but it is best to learn it right the first time. Conceptually it makes a big difference.

In this user's case, we don't know where he is trying to auto mount it, or even if he is trying to auto mount. More than likely it isn't even listed in fstab to auto mount and doesn't have a permanent mount point. He is probably just trying to manually mount it with the wrong mount command options.

He seems to want it easily available and auto mounted. My preference is to mount a users data partitions in the users home. Following the instructions in the referenced thread will do this and the permissions will be set automatically so he doesn't have to deal with that issue at all. If he already has files and folders on the partition that have mis-set permissions, then these will still have to be dealt with.

Fred
emorrp1

Re: Using ext3 partitions for data

Post by emorrp1 »

ok, fair enough, but partitions do effectively have permissions. For example, when a partition is not mounted you can mess around with the mount point's permissions however you like, and it will not actually change anything to do with the partition: As soon as you mount the partition again, the original permissions are restored, and are again removed when unmounting the partition. Because of this I think it's actually more misleading to say that a partition doesn't have permissions than to say it does. I think of it as having a root dir in each directory, with the mount point pointing, symlink-like to the root dir of the partition.
Fred

Re: Using ext3 partitions for data

Post by Fred »

emorrp1,

I don't want to hi-jack the user's thread, but I do think it is important to clarify permissions so as not to mis-lead new users.

A partition in its' simplest form is nothing more than two boundaries encompassing a given amount of space. When you format that partition for a specific file system you then gain the ability to mark files and folders placed in that file system with attributes determined by the capabilities of the file system in question.

If the mount point for the partition is created by root then it by default uses root's environment variables. If the mount point is created by a user the mount point uses the user's environment variables.

Mounting a blank formated partition to a user created mount point enables by default the user to own and read and write files and folders on the mounted partition. If the mount point is created by root then root owns and can read and write files and folders created through that mount point. You can mount the same partition to two different mount points, one created by root and another created by a user and both can access the partition through their respective mount points. The user can create, read, and write their folders/files but not the ones created through the root mount point unless root has specifically enabled it. As you can see, it can become complicated but quite flexible.

Once files or folders are created in the file system on our data partition the permissions remain as they were created unless root intentionally changes them. Mounting to another mount point with different permissions will only affect new files and folders created through that mount point.

emorrp1 wrote:
I think of it as having a root dir in each directory, with the mount point pointing, symlink-like to the root dir of the partition.
I think this way of thinking about it will mis-lead you in the long run. There is no separate root directory associated with a partition. All the files and folders are a part of the / based upon the mount point or points into the / file system. There is only one file system in Linux. It is / and may be spread over any number of partitions, local and remote. By-the-way, symlinks don't have permissions. They just point to files or folders that do.

Fred
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Re: Using ext3 partitions for data

Post by Acid_1 »

I am going to go with Fred on this one. When I said that partitions have wrong permissions, I mean mount points. It's the same as any other folder I suppose.
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