problem with chmod

[Thorny]

[...]
> A simple question to have been asked of me, at the time, could have been
> something like "Have you done mkdir /mnt... , and, do you realise that
> you have to do that to make the changes in fstab take effect?". But, at
> the time, giving help was being carefully avoided by one or two people,
> and it took a while to extract the required information.
> 
 
No one was avoiding helping you, what would be the purpose of that. For
example, my questions were a learning tool, similar to the Socratic
Method. Someone who was following along, not just expecting to have the
"answer" given to them, could have had the positive experience of having
figured out what was wrong on their own, with some guidance. That positive
experience often helps people to help themselves in the future. If someone
appears to not be following what is being discussed, and only wants "the
answer" then it becomes harder to help them (sometimes there is no "the
answer", sometimes "it depends".

By the way, the answers were there for quite a long time before you made
the choice to "see" them. Your choices are not in any way the fault of
other posters.

> Thank you for the constructive information that has been made available.
> 

You are welcome, that's why we are here, to help. There has been
constructive and instructive information for us all.