LXDE USB Automount of NTFS drive permissions issues

[nthucker]

Hi,
I've just upgraded from Mint 10 gnome to Mint 12 LXDE (fresh install) and I'm having an issue with the USB automount of an NTFS drive not giving me the permissions on the drive that I want.

Basically I discovered after much confusion, that the automount is making the drive read and write for the owner (no one else) but not allowing execution. I tend to use the external drive for my browser downloads, so I often execute from the download directory on the external drive.

I've discovered that I can't change the permissions on the files even as root using chmod in terminal. I don't profess to be much of a Linux guru (probably still a noob after using linux for 8 years), but I have used some gnome variation of one distro or another for some time and this is the first time I've run into this issue. I moved to LXDE because I wanted to avoid the horror stories of Gnome 3.

I figure the issue must be in a config file somewhere for one of the mounting utilities, I just can't figure out where (or what mounting utility it is). My install is pretty much standard except for a few theme changes. So it's still running PCFMAN and Openbox, ntfs-3g (not ntfs-prog, it's not a read only state).

If I copy the files I want to execute across to the main file system I can change permissions on them and do whatever I want, just not on the NTFS file system.

By the way, does anyone know how to make the icons for mounted drives appear on the desktop when they automount? It was a handy feature (guess it was nautilus that did that).

[nthucker]

Well it looks like I've made it worse, or better depending on which user you are.

Found some info on how ntfs-3g and the mounting works, so I followed the instructions to install the ntfs-config tool and did some modifications

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=217009

I set both interanl and external NTFS files to have both read and write permissions.

All files now have all permissions, but they are also now all owned by root, and also I can't unmount with the GUI, because the system says you need to be admin to do that.

[seppalta]

For desktop or panel shortcuts with icons to storage devices, or anything as far as that goes, see http://douwil7.100webspace.net/linux/Tuning.html#11.

[nthucker]

Thanks for the advice seppalta, but unfortunately after 18 hours trying to get it to work, I had to give it away. I needed an operational system by today to perform my work on. Unfortunately if I can't access my files, then it doesn't matter what else the system can do.

Unable to get LXDE to work I tried the Gnome Mint 12 version - that was a waste of time. It ground the system to a halt and I couldn't do anything (2Gb ram and a dual core it should have been able to meet the specifications). So eventually I went with Xubuntu. Unfortunately I couldn't find a current Mint OS that would get me up and working with out issues by the time I had to start consulting (I suspect I may have been able to get LMDE going but I simply didn't have time for another adventure).

I was actually surprised that LXDE was so difficult to work with (there was a whole bunch of other issues that I was prepare to live with until I figured them out later) given all the good things I'd heard about it and the positive experience I'd had with Gnome Mint 10 previously.

[dba2020com]

Similar happenings in Linux Mint 12. I unmounted Automount USB drive and remounted. I was able to access (total control) all files afterwards.

Now I'm off to re-do the automount of the USB drive. Anyone know the process?

[seppalta]

I had to give it away.

Really sorry to hear this. Seems strange - I've been using LXDE in a variety of systems on a variety of computers for quite some time. Very stable and very adjustable once you learn the methods. I have many external hard drives, most fat32 or ext4, but some have been NTFS, read and write to them at will. Once, couldn't get an NTFS drive unmounted, but then installed ntfs-config, which did the job. By the way, my favorite system at the moment is an aftermarket LXDE install on a Mint 12 Gnome distribution. See http://douwil7.100webspace.net/linux/lubuntu.html. It is very fast and everything seems very stable.