[xubuntu-users] changing ownership on thumb drive

[blind Pete]

JMZ wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm having some weird issues with thumb drive ownership.  Steps:

Is your thumb drive formatted with a file system that supports 
file ownership?  They are typically sold pre-formatted with a 
FS that does not.  

> 1) 'sudo blkid' to call up the thumb drive assignment
> 
> 2) 'sudo mount /dev/sd* /thumb' [where /dev/sd* is the drive assignment,
> and /thumb a directory off of the root]
> 
> ---> 2a) [NB: /thumb is owned by the local account (here, 'blah')
> __before__ the mount command.  Afterwards, the mounted thumb drive is
> owned by 'root' and can't be changed]
> 
> 3) 'sudo touch /thumb' [for some reason, I get the default DEC 31 1969
> when I mount the thumb drive]
> 
> 
> but, when I type
> 
> 'sudo chown -R blah:blah /thumb', [where 'blah' is the local account], I
> get
> 
> 'chown: changing ownership of '/thumb': Operation not permitted'
> 
> ***

Well, you can not change the ownership of anything on a FAT filing 
system because the filing system does not support that sort of 
thing.  

> The chown switches -R or --recursive do not work. [there are
> subdirectories on the thumb drive, and I would like all subdirectories
> to be changed to 'blah' ownership]
> 
> I suspect that the system's assignment of a wrong date/time to the drive
> might block the ownership change even after 'touch'.  Is 'touch'
> counterproductive?
> 
> I have disabled automounting of thumb drives or indeed anything not in
> fstab [ie. hard drive].  I have removed the /media directory.
> 
> 
> Any ideas?  Thanks,
> Jordan

What you probably want to do is mount the drive as an ordinary user.  
In the example given that would be "blah".  What actually happens 
will not be any different, it will just look different to you.  
Try "man man mount fstab", without the quotes, in a terminal.  

Other options include; 
reformatting the drive with a different filing system, 
adding an Access Control Layer (pointless on a removable drive), 
putting up with it, 
probably more that I can't think of.  

-- 
blind Pete
Sig goes here...