unable to write to usb mp3 player - how to change permissions for a device

[Fun Kid]

Tez wrote:
> Fun Kid wrote:
>> Hello Tez,
>> 
>> The command 'ls -ld /media/rio' gives me the result: 
>> drwx------ 3 user user 6144 1969-12-31 19:00 /media/rio
>> 
>> I don't quiet understand the permissions for the file but I
>> tried to change the permission by typing the command: 
>> user at ss-xubuntu:~$ chmod og=rw /media/rio/
>> 
>> But it did not work.  The result I got was: chmod: changing
>> permissions of `/media/rio/': Read-only file system
>> 
>> Nevertheless, I tried to open Krusader and copy a music file
>> from my music folder to /media/rio and it did not work.  I
>> got the message I had gotten before: 'Could not write to
>> /media/rio/Heaven.mp3'
>> 
>> Not sure what is going on.  Thanks for helping me figure
>> this out. Fun Kid
>> 
>> 
> 
> "chmod: changing permissions of `/media/rio/': Read-only file
> system" This tells me something, it seems that the file system
> is mounted as read-only for some reason, no wonder you can't
> write to it. Unmount the device with "pumount [device]" and
> try remounting it with the "-w" flag to pmount: "pmount -w
> /dev/sda1 rio" and then check that it's mounted read/write
> with "mount|grep rio" you should see something like "/dev/sda1
> on /media/rio type vfat (rw)" as long as you see "rw"
> somewhere then you should be able to write to it.
> 
> As a last resort you can try mounting it like: "sudo mount -t
> vfat /dev/sda1 /media/rio -o uid=user,gid=user" change 
> uid=user and gid=user to match your username, you should then
> be able to write to it.
> 
> Tez
> 
> 
> 

Hi Tez,

Thanks once again for your help.  Nothing seemed to work for me
until I found a website which gave step-by-step instructions for
partitioning and formatting usb flash drives.

http://linuxactivist.blogspot.com/2006/08/linux-tip-resurrecting-broken-usb.html

Partitioning and formatting worked for me.  My only concern is
that I had to format my usb drive in FAT16.  I couldn't format it
in FAT 32 and I don't know if I can use this usb drive with my
windows machine anymore.  If not, it is not a big deal for me
because all my music is in the linux machine anyways.

Thanks again.
Fun Kid