I am not sure if this will help you - it did myself with a similar problem. <a href="http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/11637.html">http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/11637.html</a> thanks Glenn <div>On 11/01/2008, Anthony Papillion <<a href="mailto:papillion@gmail.com">papillion@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> OK this is still not working. When I issued either of these commands I got a message saying "/dev/sda5 is not a valid block device." That's confusing as I thought ALL hard disks (external or not) were block devices. I am totally lost. I am fuiriously scanning through documentation but I simply cannot find a way to make this external USB drive writable. Any more help is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks, Anthony <div><div>On 1/11/08, Rolf Kutz <<a href="mailto:rk@vzsze.de" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"> rk@vzsze.de</a>> wrote:</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div> On 10/01/08 15:02 -0500, Christopher Houdeshell wrote: >Sorry – I read your email wrong. I thought you meant user couldn't not write, not system….Anyhow, > > `sudo umount /mnt/sda5` > > `mount –t auto –o user,rw,exec,umask=000 /dev/sda5 /mnt/sda5` or $ sudo mount -o remount,user,rw,exec,umask=000 /mnt/sda5 -- ...about the greatest democrazy in the world. </div>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFHhs+N+ZqCAlXyvMsRAuuwAJ9obUkyl17/F7AfhPOn0M4UKWOc0gCdHz1H ZeytmFEVV+AWHsl0mfQ+YtA= =MToK -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- ubuntu-users mailing list <a href="mailto:ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"> ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com</a> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users </a> </blockquote></div> -- ubuntu-users mailing list <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com</a> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users" target="_blank"> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users</a> </blockquote></div>