USB flash drives become read-only

[juanmafont]

Hello!



So everything needed to fix the issue is to execute:

Code: Select all

sudo chmod 777 /media/USERNAME

Hope it helps!

Edit: I'm using Mint 17.1 Cinnamon

Yes, "sudo chmod 777 /media/USERNAME" fix the problem. Thanks a loft of

You must reboot after ¡¡¡ IMPORTANT ¡¡¡

[fuzzyeric]

Replicated on Linux Mint 17.2 (Rafaela) Xfce 64-bit with Thunar.

Owner and permissions on /mnt/user/diskname are user:user 600. So, to be clear, user can write to this directory as far as permissions are concerned.

Mount options: rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,default_permissions,blksize=4096

hdparm -r on diskdevice (/dev/sdb and /dev/sdb1 in this case): readonly = 0 (off)

There is no physical ro/rw switch.

So it's not a read-only device/medium, it's mounted rw, and the relevant user has read/write permissions. Tell me Thunar, why do you believe this device is write-only?

[mslaguy007]

Same problem with XFCE 17.1

[Total_Blue]

Yes, "sudo chmod 777 /media/USERNAME" fix the problem. Thanks a loft of

You must reboot after ¡¡¡ IMPORTANT ¡¡¡

Thank you, this fixed it for me.

Regards

[felemur]

Yes, doing:

sudo chmod 777 /media/USERNAME

then reboot

worked for me as well, allowing me to write to a USB in Nemo.

However, I'm very happy this bug was/is in Nemo, as I discovered a file manager called X File Explorer (Xfe) http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/. It worked without the above command. I have used lots of file mangers, but this one is heads and shoulders above the others IMO. It is so light and fast compared to anything else, plus is configurable in any way I could think of. Xfe is developed by Roland Baudin, a french Linux enthusiast. I like it so much, I just had to plug it here.

[gbgustafson]

Lenovo laptop: Linux Mint 17.3 Mate, USB flash drives are write-protected or require root privileges.

Today, I solved the issues with usb flash drives. Everything suggested in the Mint Forum posts was tried, up to March 2016 (no success).

Some background. The issue has persisted for 5 months. The usb drive is plugged into one of the usb 2.0 ports on the laptop, contents appearing in the file manager, but I cannot copy a file from the usb drive, nor can I add a file to the usb drive. Curiously, I can delete a file from the usb drive. Certain usb devices are excluded from the problem, in particular, an SD card device. Command line file operations from a terminal succeed. Using the file manager Caja in admin mode succeeds. The usb device mounts with rw flags, as documented in a terminal with the "mount" command. On a desktop with the same OS 17.3, the issue did not occur.

The issue had to do with options for a file manager, done some time ago. In a compromise, I selected a file manager (see how below). It worked. The GUI launched the file manager and everything seemed normal.

But not for some usb flash disks. Surprisingly, usb devices for SD cards worked.

In Linux Mint's File Manager setup, Mate GUI, buried many levels deep,

System ==> Control Center ==> Preferred Applications ==> System ==> File Manager,

there were 3 options, like an extra door at the gates of Hell. Two of them were labeled "CAJA," Linux Mint's file manager, a poorly re-constructed Nemo (==Nautilus). The third label was "FILES."

Today, I chose one labeled "CAJA" and tried it. It solved the usb problem. Was it Caja with admin privileges?

The correct door out of the gates of Hell.

[mattlach]

So, just tested in Mint 18 Cinnamon edition. This bug is still there. How on earth has this not been fixed THREE YEARS later!?

It's not a big deal for me. I almost never use USB sticks other than to install new operating systems, but for more casual users, this could be a huge issue.

Yes, doing:

sudo chmod 777 /media/USERNAME

then reboot

This is certainly a workaround, but a fix it is not. Doing this means that all users on the local machine can read/write/execute any file on any media you mount automatically in the GUI, which is generally not a good idea. (That being said, I feel like this is what Windows does as well...)

So, why on earth has this not been fixed yet?

It's not a big deal for a user like myself, but I feel like my recommendations to friends and family to use Cinnamon may now become problematic...

Something like this SHOULD just work.

[Portreve]

Ok, I just bought a back of two PNY flash drives, and this issue is affecting them, but oddly no other flash drives I own.

They are mounted read-only. I've tried the steps in this older thread, and I've even tried manually unmounting and re-mounting, but nothing works. When it mounts, it mounts read-only, and no efforts on my part get it to mount or re-mount read-write.

Is this actually a Cinnamon-related issue, or is this something deeper?

[Portreve]

I think I have figured out my specific problem.

Two days ago I bought a 2-pack of PNY Retractor 16GB flash drives. They are the only ones with the read-only problem. When I researched how to resolve the problem, I eventually stumbled upon comments by other owners who said they were all having that specific problem with that specific model of PNY flash drive.

So, it is its own separate thing. I'll just return the drives and go with something else.

Heck, even my Nexus 6 couldn't write to them or format them!

[aay]

Wow, this looks really idiotic. After trying to format a damn USB (SanDisk) it is no longer even mounts, giving me all sorts of errors.

I'm starting to laugh more and more at this Mint thing. Piece of crap. Drive formatting not fixed in 3 years? Who cares! This is exactly why Linux will never make it big.

P.S. Switched to Windows and voilà - the drive has formatted in an instant. Yeah, that was a very tough task, formatting the drive.

[eu2]

This is still an issue.

Changing file permissions shouldn't be required when other file managers/terminal can write.

I came across this with nemo (mint 18 (upgraded to 18.1), cinnamon 64bit), a few days ago.

I've been linux only for 10+ years, so hardly a newbie, whilst I quickly worked out that I could write on the usb drive from a terminal and then by using a different file manager (spacefm in my case), this is potentially a big issue for many users.

Even just changing the error message in nemo to something helpful would be better than the current:

[v_2ryann]

Hi All,

Had this problem, here is the fix. Its because fuse isn't setup right by default:
sudo su -
pico /etc/fusc.conf

### Now change the following line #####
#user_allow_other
to
user_allow_other

Save. Logout. Log back in. Love Mint!

PS- Thanks to:
https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/i ... -225365143

[SilverBear]

Hi All,
Had this problem, here is the fix. Its because fuse isn't setup right by default:
sudo su -
pico /etc/fusc.conf
### Now change the following line #####
#user_allow_other
to
user_allow_other

Save. Logout. Log back in. Love Mint!

PS- Thanks to:
https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/i ... -225365143

Thanks v_2ryann.
Reason would dictate that this should work. It hasn't for me
I'm running LM 18.1 KDE and yesterday, for the first time ever in my (also 10+ years using Linux) life can't get my thumbdrive to automatically mount except under root ownership. And it won't umount via the Device Notifier without getting my password to sudo it.

Unless mine is some "seemingly similar but really completely different" problem this isn't just a Cinnamon issue.
BTW, I'm using a Kingston stick that worked fine the last time I tried to use it. And I get the same weirdly-rooted behaviour using a Cenon Datastick Pro.
-------------------------------------------------
!! I don't want to hijack this thread. I'm continuing to do my own research, and if I get totally stuck, I'll come back to start my own thread. I just wanted people to know it's suddenly happening to me on 18.1 KDE, too, not just on Cinnamon.

[SilverBear]

I forgot to add: both my thumbdrives are factory-formatted fat filesystems

[hagey]

I am having the same problem with 17.1 and Xfce. The USB worked fine for a while and now I get the error message that it is read only.

I tried this and it worked to solve the problem in the short term>> sudo chmod 777 /media/USERNAME

However I don't know if this will be a permanent fix?

hagey.

[eu2]

I wonder if this is ever going to get fixed satisfactory?

It catches me out from time to time when I'm using Nemo.

I use a laptop at work which I have dual booting and I normally boot to mint (18.2 cinnamon).

It got me again last week when a colleague gave me a flash drive to copy some work related photos I had on my laptop.

I had to sheepishly install spacefm so I could to copy them onto his flash drive.

If any of the work arounds posted before are reliable couldn't they be part of the post install process?

[johnnya23]

basically what I am getting from this is usb drives are not compatible with mint - cinnamon?

[eu2]

Has this been fixed in mint 19 with nemo specificaly?

[eu2]

Mint 18/19 whatever... Nemo should be replaced/supplemented with a working file manager.

This is absolutely ridiculous...

How frustrating is this...

You are talking to someone who isn't like us via a mobile phone who can't get a lan cable to the pc that needs help.

They have a laptop but their net connection is American, so you can't even voip them during their download of mint 19 v2 (cinnamon)

The pc needs to be reinstalled, but you need to get the .mozilla and the pics/docs off the box before reinstalling.

Can't use a pen drive with mint on it and another usb pen drive to copy the files you need to copy before reinstalling.

Install image doesn't have a usable file manager on it (to copy onto a pen drive), not even mc and you can't get it online to download something sane like spacefm...Because no lan cable...

So you have to format the second pen drive via oral command line instructions and oral command line instructions to copy files over from the hard drive to the second pen drive...

So annoyed...

Love mint, and have been using it for quite a few years, but just spent 3.5 hours doing something that shouldn't be an issue because NEMO is still broken...

Yeah if I was in front of the box/had access to it this would have been trivial.

Currently I actually want to punch someone after hours of pain.

Just saying FIX NEMO or include a working file manager even mc on the install iso...

Rant over...

Euan.


Just been reading (again) the previous comments on this thread, sudo chown 777 /media/USERNAME reboot....etc... It's fat 32 why should this even be a thing...

Meh...

Kinda angry right now...

[sgcko7]

I really do agree. I have this problem now. 2018 it is so annoying... Please guys have a look!