usb disk insists on being readonly

lalawawa · External Since: Jul 04, 2007 Posts: 12

Hi, I just bought a 400Mbyte usb disk.

My OS is Ubuntu version 5, I've recently done the updates to it.

My computer is a Sony VAIO PCV-RX270DS that I bought in 2001, with
about 400Mbytes of disk and the usb port is USB 1 (that manual doesn't
say which USB version because I think USB 2.0 wasn't out yet). The
disk is connected through a hub.

The drive is a 400GB Simpletech drive. The specifications make it
clear it's USB 1.1 compatible. All the online technical support
assumes you're on Windows.

When I turn on the disk, it appears in the /media directory by the
filename ' simpletech ' (not spaces before and after the name). The
fstab entry that appears is

/dev/sda /media/usb0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

If I cd to /media and do 'ls -ld \ simpletech\ ', I get
dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 simpletech
if I go into that directory and do 'ls -la' I get
total 8
dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 .
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2007-07-04 14:20 ..
dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 0 2007-02-20 10:25 System Volume
Information
if I try 'touch a' it says
touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
if I try 'sudo touch a' it still says
touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
I cd back to /media
$ chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
$ sudo chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system

Why is it saying the filesystem is readonly when /etc/fstab clearly
says it's rw? What do I have to do to get the disk mounted rw? A
400GB readonly disk with nothing on it isn't very useful.

Any help would be appreciated.

Bill

Roby · External Since: Jul 14, 2004 Posts: 113

lalawawa wrote:

> Hi, I just bought a 400Mbyte usb disk.
>
> My OS is Ubuntu version 5, I've recently done the updates to it.
>
> My computer is a Sony VAIO PCV-RX270DS that I bought in 2001, with
> about 400Mbytes of disk and the usb port is USB 1 (that manual doesn't
> say which USB version because I think USB 2.0 wasn't out yet). The
> disk is connected through a hub.
>
> The drive is a 400GB Simpletech drive. The specifications make it
> clear it's USB 1.1 compatible. All the online technical support
> assumes you're on Windows.
>
> When I turn on the disk, it appears in the /media directory by the
> filename ' simpletech ' (not spaces before and after the name). The
> fstab entry that appears is
>
> /dev/sda /media/usb0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
>
> If I cd to /media and do 'ls -ld \ simpletech\ ', I get
> dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 simpletech
> if I go into that directory and do 'ls -la' I get
> total 8
> dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 .
> drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2007-07-04 14:20 ..
> dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 0 2007-02-20 10:25 System Volume
> Information
> if I try 'touch a' it says
> touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
> if I try 'sudo touch a' it still says
> touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
> I cd back to /media
> $ chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
> chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
> $ sudo chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
> chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
>
> Why is it saying the filesystem is readonly when /etc/fstab clearly
> says it's rw? What do I have to do to get the disk mounted rw? A
> 400GB readonly disk with nothing on it isn't very useful.
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Bill
My guess: the drive is formatted ntfs and the "auto" in the fstab entry
is causing linux to load the ntfs driver (rather than ntfs-3g). The
drive will be painfully slow at usb 1.1. usb2 pci cards are cheap and
do a great job.

Matt Giwer · External Since: May 23, 2006 Posts: 295

lalawawa wrote:
> Hi, I just bought a 400Mbyte usb disk.
>
> My OS is Ubuntu version 5, I've recently done the updates to it.
>
> My computer is a Sony VAIO PCV-RX270DS that I bought in 2001, with
> about 400Mbytes of disk and the usb port is USB 1 (that manual doesn't
> say which USB version because I think USB 2.0 wasn't out yet). The
> disk is connected through a hub.
>
> The drive is a 400GB Simpletech drive. The specifications make it
> clear it's USB 1.1 compatible. All the online technical support
> assumes you're on Windows.
>
> When I turn on the disk, it appears in the /media directory by the
> filename ' simpletech ' (not spaces before and after the name). The
> fstab entry that appears is
>
> /dev/sda /media/usb0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
>
> If I cd to /media and do 'ls -ld \ simpletech\ ', I get
> dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 simpletech
> if I go into that directory and do 'ls -la' I get
> total 8
> dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 .
> drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2007-07-04 14:20 ..
> dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 0 2007-02-20 10:25 System Volume
> Information
> if I try 'touch a' it says
> touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
> if I try 'sudo touch a' it still says
> touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
> I cd back to /media
> $ chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
> chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
> $ sudo chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
> chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
>
> Why is it saying the filesystem is readonly when /etc/fstab clearly
> says it's rw? What do I have to do to get the disk mounted rw? A
> 400GB readonly disk with nothing on it isn't very useful.
>
> Any help would be appreciated.

What kind of filesystem did you put on it when you formatted it?

--
Al Qaeda is growing so quickly that today everyone in Iraq who is fighting
the US is a member of Al Qaeda.
-- The Iron Webmaster, 3810
nizkor http://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml
http://www.giwersworld.org

lalawawa · External Since: Jul 04, 2007 Posts: 12

oops - I meant my computer has about 400MB of ram, not disk.

lalawawa · External Since: Jul 04, 2007 Posts: 12

On Jul 4, 6:05 pm, Roby <r....TakeThisOut@no-address.net> wrote:
> lalawawa wrote:
> > Hi, I just bought a 400Mbyte usb disk.
>
> > My OS is Ubuntu version 5, I've recently done the updates to it.
>
> > My computer is a Sony VAIO PCV-RX270DS that I bought in 2001, with
> > about 400Mbytes of disk and the usb port is USB 1 (that manual doesn't
> > say which USB version because I think USB 2.0 wasn't out yet). The
> > disk is connected through a hub.
>
> > The drive is a 400GB Simpletech drive. The specifications make it
> > clear it's USB 1.1 compatible. All the online technical support
> > assumes you're on Windows.
>
> > When I turn on the disk, it appears in the /media directory by the
> > filename ' simpletech ' (not spaces before and after the name). The
> > fstab entry that appears is
>
> > /dev/sda /media/usb0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
>
> > If I cd to /media and do 'ls -ld \ simpletech\ ', I get
> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 simpletech
> > if I go into that directory and do 'ls -la' I get
> > total 8
> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 .
> > drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2007-07-04 14:20 ..
> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 0 2007-02-20 10:25 System Volume
> > Information
> > if I try 'touch a' it says
> > touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
> > if I try 'sudo touch a' it still says
> > touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
> > I cd back to /media
> > $ chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
> > chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
> > $ sudo chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
> > chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
>
> > Why is it saying the filesystem is readonly when /etc/fstab clearly
> > says it's rw? What do I have to do to get the disk mounted rw? A
> > 400GB readonly disk with nothing on it isn't very useful.
>
> > Any help would be appreciated.
>
> > Bill
>
> My guess: the drive is formatted ntfs and the "auto" in the fstab entry
> is causing linux to load the ntfs driver (rather than ntfs-3g). The
> drive will be painfully slow at usb 1.1. usb2 pci cards are cheap and
> do a great job.

OK, how do I fix the fstab entry to make it RW?

lalawawa · External Since: Jul 04, 2007 Posts: 12

On Jul 4, 5:53 pm, Matt Giwer <jul....DeleteThis@tampabay.REMover.rr.com> wrote:
> lalawawa wrote:
> > Hi, I just bought a 400Mbyte usb disk.
>
> > My OS is Ubuntu version 5, I've recently done the updates to it.
>
> > My computer is a Sony VAIO PCV-RX270DS that I bought in 2001, with
> > about 400Mbytes of disk and the usb port is USB 1 (that manual doesn't
> > say which USB version because I think USB 2.0 wasn't out yet). The
> > disk is connected through a hub.
>
> > The drive is a 400GB Simpletech drive. The specifications make it
> > clear it's USB 1.1 compatible. All the online technical support
> > assumes you're on Windows.
>
> > When I turn on the disk, it appears in the /media directory by the
> > filename ' simpletech ' (not spaces before and after the name). The
> > fstab entry that appears is
>
> > /dev/sda /media/usb0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
>
> > If I cd to /media and do 'ls -ld \ simpletech\ ', I get
> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 simpletech
> > if I go into that directory and do 'ls -la' I get
> > total 8
> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 .
> > drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2007-07-04 14:20 ..
> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 0 2007-02-20 10:25 System Volume
> > Information
> > if I try 'touch a' it says
> > touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
> > if I try 'sudo touch a' it still says
> > touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
> > I cd back to /media
> > $ chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
> > chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
> > $ sudo chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
> > chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
>
> > Why is it saying the filesystem is readonly when /etc/fstab clearly
> > says it's rw? What do I have to do to get the disk mounted rw? A
> > 400GB readonly disk with nothing on it isn't very useful.
>
> > Any help would be appreciated.
>
> What kind of filesystem did you put on it when you formatted it?
>
> --
> Al Qaeda is growing so quickly that today everyone in Iraq who is fighting
> the US is a member of Al Qaeda.
> -- The Iron Webmaster, 3810
> nizkorhttp://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml
> http://www.giwersworld.org

I did not format the drive. I just bought it, brought it home,
plugged it into the USB hub and turned it on.
How would I go about formatting the drive? I would want the drive to
be also readable if I hook it up to a windows machine.

Matt Giwer · External Since: May 23, 2006 Posts: 295

lalawawa wrote:
> On Jul 4, 5:53 pm, Matt Giwer <jul....RemoveThis@tampabay.REMover.rr.com> wrote:
>> lalawawa wrote:
>>> Hi, I just bought a 400Mbyte usb disk.
>>> My OS is Ubuntu version 5, I've recently done the updates to it.
>>> My computer is a Sony VAIO PCV-RX270DS that I bought in 2001, with
>>> about 400Mbytes of disk and the usb port is USB 1 (that manual doesn't
>>> say which USB version because I think USB 2.0 wasn't out yet). The
>>> disk is connected through a hub.
>>> The drive is a 400GB Simpletech drive. The specifications make it
>>> clear it's USB 1.1 compatible. All the online technical support
>>> assumes you're on Windows.
>>> When I turn on the disk, it appears in the /media directory by the
>>> filename ' simpletech ' (not spaces before and after the name). The
>>> fstab entry that appears is
>>> /dev/sda /media/usb0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
>>> If I cd to /media and do 'ls -ld \ simpletech\ ', I get
>>> dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 simpletech
>>> if I go into that directory and do 'ls -la' I get
>>> total 8
>>> dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 .
>>> drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2007-07-04 14:20 ..
>>> dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 0 2007-02-20 10:25 System Volume
>>> Information
>>> if I try 'touch a' it says
>>> touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
>>> if I try 'sudo touch a' it still says
>>> touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
>>> I cd back to /media
>>> $ chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
>>> chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
>>> $ sudo chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
>>> chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
>>> Why is it saying the filesystem is readonly when /etc/fstab clearly
>>> says it's rw? What do I have to do to get the disk mounted rw? A
>>> 400GB readonly disk with nothing on it isn't very useful.
>>> Any help would be appreciated.
>> What kind of filesystem did you put on it when you formatted it?

> I did not format the drive. I just bought it, brought it home,
> plugged it into the USB hub and turned it on.
> How would I go about formatting the drive? I would want the drive to
> be also readable if I hook it up to a windows machine.

If you did not format it the best you might have is a Windows file system so it
can advertise plug-n-play. If it has no filesystem then you obviously cannot
write to it.

What I believe to be a complete description is here.
http://www.giwersworld.org/computers/linux/usb-drives.phtml

The general format command is this. It may be a place other than sbin on Ubuntu.

/sbin/mke2fs -c -j -L 320 /dev/sdX1

Read the article to figure out what X should be. It's easy.

I want to make the article complete so let me know how it goes.

If you want it readable by Windows you will have to create a windows file
system on it with windows and set your fstab entry to mount it as vfat or
whatever. I have not done that in so long I do not remember how to do it. If you
just want primitive access google for a program something like lnxread.exe or
lxread.exe which will copy a file from an ext2 or 3 partition to vfat.

If it was advertised as plug-n-play it should have come with a Windows file
system.

--
The only way to get to the bottom of the Valerie Plame outing is to torture
Libby until he tells all. The identity of our spies is a matter of national
security.
-- The Iron Webmaster, 3813
nizkor http://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml
Blame Israel http://www.ussliberty.org a10

lalawawa · External Since: Jul 04, 2007 Posts: 12

On Jul 4, 6:05 pm, Roby <r... DeleteThis @no-address.net> wrote:
> lalawawa wrote:
> > Hi, I just bought a 400Mbyte usb disk.
>
> > My OS is Ubuntu version 5, I've recently done the updates to it.
>
> > My computer is a Sony VAIO PCV-RX270DS that I bought in 2001, with
> > about 400Mbytes of disk and the usb port is USB 1 (that manual doesn't
> > say which USB version because I think USB 2.0 wasn't out yet). The
> > disk is connected through a hub.
>
> > The drive is a 400GB Simpletech drive. The specifications make it
> > clear it's USB 1.1 compatible. All the online technical support
> > assumes you're on Windows.
>
> > When I turn on the disk, it appears in the /media directory by the
> > filename ' simpletech ' (not spaces before and after the name). The
> > fstab entry that appears is
>
> > /dev/sda /media/usb0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
>
> > If I cd to /media and do 'ls -ld \ simpletech\ ', I get
> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 simpletech
> > if I go into that directory and do 'ls -la' I get
> > total 8
> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 .
> > drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2007-07-04 14:20 ..
> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 0 2007-02-20 10:25 System Volume
> > Information
> > if I try 'touch a' it says
> > touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
> > if I try 'sudo touch a' it still says
> > touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
> > I cd back to /media
> > $ chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
> > chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
> > $ sudo chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
> > chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
>
> > Why is it saying the filesystem is readonly when /etc/fstab clearly
> > says it's rw? What do I have to do to get the disk mounted rw? A
> > 400GB readonly disk with nothing on it isn't very useful.
>
> > Any help would be appreciated.
>
> > Bill
>
> My guess: the drive is formatted ntfs and the "auto" in the fstab entry
> is causing linux to load the ntfs driver (rather than ntfs-3g). The
> drive will be painfully slow at usb 1.1. usb2 pci cards are cheap and
> do a great job.

I would like to put in a USB 2.0 board, but I absolutely, positively
don't want to make any hardware changes to my box until I'm able to
back up.

In the past, I would back up on CD-ROM using K3B. Then suddenly,
probably as a result of an upgrade, neither K3B nor the CD-ROM Creator
software are able to find my CD burner. Here's my fstab:

$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root / ext3
defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda1 /boot ext3 defaults 0 2
/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-swap_1 none swap sw
0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hdd /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/sda /media/usb0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
$
$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root
37079744 12680436 22515764 37% /
tmpfs 193436 0 193436 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 193436 12588 180848 7% /lib/modules/
2.6.12-10-386/volatile
/dev/hda1 233335 19153 201734 9% /boot
/dev/sda1 390708800 77912 390630888 1% /media/
simpletech
$

but I don't think upgrading to a 2.0 port is going to change the
permissions of the disk. I think all that would be accomplished by
upgrading to USB 2.0 would be to change my slow 400GB readonly disk
with nothing on it to a fast 400GB disk with nothing on it.

Roby · External Since: Jul 14, 2004 Posts: 113

lalawawa wrote:

> On Jul 4, 6:05 pm, Roby <r... RemoveThis @no-address.net> wrote:
>> lalawawa wrote:
>> > Hi, I just bought a 400Mbyte usb disk.
>>
>> > My OS is Ubuntu version 5, I've recently done the updates to it.
>>
>> > My computer is a Sony VAIO PCV-RX270DS that I bought in 2001, with
>> > about 400Mbytes of disk and the usb port is USB 1 (that manual doesn't
>> > say which USB version because I think USB 2.0 wasn't out yet). The
>> > disk is connected through a hub.
>>
>> > The drive is a 400GB Simpletech drive. The specifications make it
>> > clear it's USB 1.1 compatible. All the online technical support
>> > assumes you're on Windows.
>>
>> > When I turn on the disk, it appears in the /media directory by the
>> > filename ' simpletech ' (not spaces before and after the name). The
>> > fstab entry that appears is
>>
>> > /dev/sda /media/usb0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
>>
>> > If I cd to /media and do 'ls -ld \ simpletech\ ', I get
>> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 simpletech
>> > if I go into that directory and do 'ls -la' I get
>> > total 8
>> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 .
>> > drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2007-07-04 14:20 ..
>> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 0 2007-02-20 10:25 System Volume
>> > Information
>> > if I try 'touch a' it says
>> > touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
>> > if I try 'sudo touch a' it still says
>> > touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
>> > I cd back to /media
>> > $ chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
>> > chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
>> > $ sudo chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
>> > chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
>>
>> > Why is it saying the filesystem is readonly when /etc/fstab clearly
>> > says it's rw? What do I have to do to get the disk mounted rw? A
>> > 400GB readonly disk with nothing on it isn't very useful.
>>
>> > Any help would be appreciated.
>>
>> > Bill
>>
>> My guess: the drive is formatted ntfs and the "auto" in the fstab entry
>> is causing linux to load the ntfs driver (rather than ntfs-3g). The
>> drive will be painfully slow at usb 1.1. usb2 pci cards are cheap and
>> do a great job.
>
> I would like to put in a USB 2.0 board, but I absolutely, positively
> don't want to make any hardware changes to my box until I'm able to
> back up.
>
> In the past, I would back up on CD-ROM using K3B. Then suddenly,
> probably as a result of an upgrade, neither K3B nor the CD-ROM Creator
> software are able to find my CD burner. Here's my fstab:
>
> $ cat /etc/fstab
> # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
> #
> # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
> proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
> /dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root / ext3
> defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
> /dev/hda1 /boot ext3 defaults 0 2
> /dev/mapper/Ubuntu-swap_1 none swap sw
> 0 0
> /dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
> /dev/hdd /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
> /dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
> /dev/sda /media/usb0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
> $
> $ df
> Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
> /dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root
> 37079744 12680436 22515764 37% /
> tmpfs 193436 0 193436 0% /dev/shm
> tmpfs 193436 12588 180848 7% /lib/modules/
> 2.6.12-10-386/volatile
> /dev/hda1 233335 19153 201734 9% /boot
> /dev/sda1 390708800 77912 390630888 1% /media/
> simpletech
> $
> but I don't think upgrading to a 2.0 port is going to change the
> permissions of the disk. I think all that would be accomplished by
> upgrading to USB 2.0 would be to change my slow 400GB readonly disk
> with nothing on it to a fast 400GB disk with nothing on it.
First let's confirm that your external drive is formatted ntfs:
$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

Yes, it's ntfs. So try mounting it using the ntfs-3g driver:
$ ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/usb0

If successful, you finally have write privilege.

If not, you need to install that driver. I don't use Ubuntu
so don't know the details. Once installed, change fstab to:
/dev/sda1 /media/usb0 ntfs-3g rw,user,noauto 0 0
Note that it's sda1, not sda.

I agree that a recent backup promotes sanity. Doing it at
12megabits/sec will provide time to clean the garage, etc.
It will make you appreciate usb2.0 later. You'll see.

I reformatted my external drives to ext3. Better.

Roby

lalawawa · External Since: Jul 04, 2007 Posts: 12

On Jul 5, 7:58 am, Roby <r....DeleteThis@no-address.net> wrote:
> lalawawa wrote:
> > On Jul 4, 6:05 pm, Roby <r....DeleteThis@no-address.net> wrote:
> >> lalawawa wrote:
> >> > Hi, I just bought a 400Mbyte usb disk.
>
> >> > My OS is Ubuntu version 5, I've recently done the updates to it.
>
> >> > My computer is a Sony VAIO PCV-RX270DS that I bought in 2001, with
> >> > about 400Mbytes of disk and the usb port is USB 1 (that manual doesn't
> >> > say which USB version because I think USB 2.0 wasn't out yet). The
> >> > disk is connected through a hub.
>
> >> > The drive is a 400GB Simpletech drive. The specifications make it
> >> > clear it's USB 1.1 compatible. All the online technical support
> >> > assumes you're on Windows.
>
> >> > When I turn on the disk, it appears in the /media directory by the
> >> > filename ' simpletech ' (not spaces before and after the name). The
> >> > fstab entry that appears is
>
> >> > /dev/sda /media/usb0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
>
> >> > If I cd to /media and do 'ls -ld \ simpletech\ ', I get
> >> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 simpletech
> >> > if I go into that directory and do 'ls -la' I get
> >> > total 8
> >> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 .
> >> > drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2007-07-04 14:20 ..
> >> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 0 2007-02-20 10:25 System Volume
> >> > Information
> >> > if I try 'touch a' it says
> >> > touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
> >> > if I try 'sudo touch a' it still says
> >> > touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
> >> > I cd back to /media
> >> > $ chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
> >> > chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
> >> > $ sudo chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
> >> > chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file system
>
> >> > Why is it saying the filesystem is readonly when /etc/fstab clearly
> >> > says it's rw? What do I have to do to get the disk mounted rw? A
> >> > 400GB readonly disk with nothing on it isn't very useful.
>
> >> > Any help would be appreciated.
>
> >> > Bill
>
> >> My guess: the drive is formatted ntfs and the "auto" in the fstab entry
> >> is causing linux to load the ntfs driver (rather than ntfs-3g). The
> >> drive will be painfully slow at usb 1.1. usb2 pci cards are cheap and
> >> do a great job.
>
> > I would like to put in a USB 2.0 board, but I absolutely, positively
> > don't want to make any hardware changes to my box until I'm able to
> > back up.
>
> > In the past, I would back up on CD-ROM using K3B. Then suddenly,
> > probably as a result of an upgrade, neither K3B nor the CD-ROM Creator
> > software are able to find my CD burner. Here's my fstab:
>
> > $ cat /etc/fstab
> > # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
> > #
> > # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
> > proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
> > /dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root / ext3
> > defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
> > /dev/hda1 /boot ext3 defaults 0 2
> > /dev/mapper/Ubuntu-swap_1 none swap sw
> > 0 0
> > /dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
> > /dev/hdd /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
> > /dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
> > /dev/sda /media/usb0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
> > $
> > $ df
> > Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
> > /dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root
> > 37079744 12680436 22515764 37% /
> > tmpfs 193436 0 193436 0% /dev/shm
> > tmpfs 193436 12588 180848 7% /lib/modules/
> > 2.6.12-10-386/volatile
> > /dev/hda1 233335 19153 201734 9% /boot
> > /dev/sda1 390708800 77912 390630888 1% /media/
> > simpletech
> > $
> > but I don't think upgrading to a 2.0 port is going to change the
> > permissions of the disk. I think all that would be accomplished by
> > upgrading to USB 2.0 would be to change my slow 400GB readonly disk
> > with nothing on it to a fast 400GB disk with nothing on it.
>
> First let's confirm that your external drive is formatted ntfs:
> $ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda
>
> Yes, it's ntfs. So try mounting it using the ntfs-3g driver:
> $ ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/usb0
>
> If successful, you finally have write privilege.
>
> If not, you need to install that driver. I don't use Ubuntu
> so don't know the details. Once installed, change fstab to:
> /dev/sda1 /media/usb0 ntfs-3g rw,user,noauto 0 0
> Note that it's sda1, not sda.
>
> I agree that a recent backup promotes sanity. Doing it at
> 12megabits/sec will provide time to clean the garage, etc.
> It will make you appreciate usb2.0 later. You'll see.
>
> I reformatted my external drives to ext3. Better.
>
> Roby

There is no ntfs-3g program available, and I went to the Synaptic
Package Manager (where you go on Ubuntu to download new packages) and
there was no such package available for download.

Roby · External Since: Jul 14, 2004 Posts: 113

lalawawa wrote:

> On Jul 5, 7:58 am, Roby <r... DeleteThis @no-address.net> wrote:
>> lalawawa wrote:
>> > On Jul 4, 6:05 pm, Roby <r... DeleteThis @no-address.net> wrote:
>> >> lalawawa wrote:
>> >> > Hi, I just bought a 400Mbyte usb disk.
>>
>> >> > My OS is Ubuntu version 5, I've recently done the updates to it.
>>
>> >> > My computer is a Sony VAIO PCV-RX270DS that I bought in 2001, with
>> >> > about 400Mbytes of disk and the usb port is USB 1 (that manual
>> >> > doesn't
>> >> > say which USB version because I think USB 2.0 wasn't out yet). The
>> >> > disk is connected through a hub.
>>
>> >> > The drive is a 400GB Simpletech drive. The specifications make it
>> >> > clear it's USB 1.1 compatible. All the online technical support
>> >> > assumes you're on Windows.
>>
>> >> > When I turn on the disk, it appears in the /media directory by the
>> >> > filename ' simpletech ' (not spaces before and after the name). The
>> >> > fstab entry that appears is
>>
>> >> > /dev/sda /media/usb0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
>>
>> >> > If I cd to /media and do 'ls -ld \ simpletech\ ', I get
>> >> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 simpletech
>> >> > if I go into that directory and do 'ls -la' I get
>> >> > total 8
>> >> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 4096 2007-02-20 10:25 .
>> >> > drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2007-07-04 14:20 ..
>> >> > dr-x------ 1 wulluw wulluw 0 2007-02-20 10:25 System Volume
>> >> > Information
>> >> > if I try 'touch a' it says
>> >> > touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
>> >> > if I try 'sudo touch a' it still says
>> >> > touch: cannot touch `a': Read-only file system
>> >> > I cd back to /media
>> >> > $ chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
>> >> > chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file
>> >> > system $ sudo chmod +w \ simpletech\ /
>> >> > chmod: changing permissions of ` simpletech /': Read-only file
>> >> > system
>>
>> >> > Why is it saying the filesystem is readonly when /etc/fstab clearly
>> >> > says it's rw? What do I have to do to get the disk mounted rw? A
>> >> > 400GB readonly disk with nothing on it isn't very useful.
>>
>> >> > Any help would be appreciated.
>>
>> >> > Bill
>>
>> >> My guess: the drive is formatted ntfs and the "auto" in the fstab
>> >> entry
>> >> is causing linux to load the ntfs driver (rather than ntfs-3g). The
>> >> drive will be painfully slow at usb 1.1. usb2 pci cards are cheap and
>> >> do a great job.
>>
>> > I would like to put in a USB 2.0 board, but I absolutely, positively
>> > don't want to make any hardware changes to my box until I'm able to
>> > back up.
>>
>> > In the past, I would back up on CD-ROM using K3B. Then suddenly,
>> > probably as a result of an upgrade, neither K3B nor the CD-ROM Creator
>> > software are able to find my CD burner. Here's my fstab:
>>
>> > $ cat /etc/fstab
>> > # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
>> > #
>> > # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
>> > proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
>> > /dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root / ext3
>> > defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
>> > /dev/hda1 /boot ext3 defaults 0 2
>> > /dev/mapper/Ubuntu-swap_1 none swap sw
>> > 0 0
>> > /dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
>> > /dev/hdd /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
>> > /dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
>> > /dev/sda /media/usb0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
>> > $
>> > $ df
>> > Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
>> > /dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root
>> > 37079744 12680436 22515764 37% /
>> > tmpfs 193436 0 193436 0% /dev/shm
>> > tmpfs 193436 12588 180848 7% /lib/modules/
>> > 2.6.12-10-386/volatile
>> > /dev/hda1 233335 19153 201734 9% /boot
>> > /dev/sda1 390708800 77912 390630888 1% /media/
>> > simpletech
>> > $
>> > but I don't think upgrading to a 2.0 port is going to change the
>> > permissions of the disk. I think all that would be accomplished by
>> > upgrading to USB 2.0 would be to change my slow 400GB readonly disk
>> > with nothing on it to a fast 400GB disk with nothing on it.
>>
>> First let's confirm that your external drive is formatted ntfs:
>> $ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda
>>
>> Yes, it's ntfs. So try mounting it using the ntfs-3g driver:
>> $ ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/usb0
>>
>> If successful, you finally have write privilege.
>>
>> If not, you need to install that driver. I don't use Ubuntu
>> so don't know the details. Once installed, change fstab to:
>> /dev/sda1 /media/usb0 ntfs-3g rw,user,noauto 0 0
>> Note that it's sda1, not sda.
>>
>> I agree that a recent backup promotes sanity. Doing it at
>> 12megabits/sec will provide time to clean the garage, etc.
>> It will make you appreciate usb2.0 later. You'll see.
>>
>> I reformatted my external drives to ext3. Better.
>>
>> Roby
>
> There is no ntfs-3g program available, and I went to the Synaptic
> Package Manager (where you go on Ubuntu to download new packages) and
> there was no such package available for download.
.... mebbe your /etc/apt/sources.list needs an additional repository.

Google search for Ubuntu ntfs-3g returneth many matches, including:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountingWindowsPartitions/ThirdPartyNTFS3G

I recall adding ntfs-3g to an XUbuntu install a while back, so it's
available somewhere in UbuntuLand.

lalawawa · External Since: Jul 04, 2007 Posts: 12

Note that according to fstab, the drive is /dev/sda. According to df
and /etc/mtab, the drive is /dev/sda1.
If I do umount /dev/sda1 it complains it's not in fstab. If I do
umount /dev/sda, it complains it's not in mtab. I'm not sure how to
deal with this if I am to format the disk.

Roby · External Since: Jul 14, 2004 Posts: 113

lalawawa wrote:

> Note that according to fstab, the drive is /dev/sda. According to df
> and /etc/mtab, the drive is /dev/sda1.
> If I do umount /dev/sda1 it complains it's not in fstab. If I do
> umount /dev/sda, it complains it's not in mtab. I'm not sure how to
> deal with this if I am to format the disk.

With the external disk not mounted, if you edit fstab to make the entry
/dev/sda1, can't you $ mount /media/usb0 and then $ umount /media/usb0??

/dev/sda refers to the whole disk thingy, including the partition table that
usually lives at the very front of the disk.

/dev/sda1 refers to the first (and probably only) partition on that disk,
located after the partition table.

Methinks the fstab entry should be /dev/sda1 ... unless SimpleTech chose
to treat the whole disk like a giant-giant floppy and so there's no
partition table. I think that's unlikely; may not even be possible.

Bill Marcum · External Since: Dec 18, 2006 Posts: 293

On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 11:38:09 -0000, lalawawa
<usenet.DeleteThis@ccjj.info> wrote:
>
>
> On Jul 5, 7:58 am, Roby <r....DeleteThis@no-address.net> wrote:
>> lalawawa wrote:
>> > On Jul 4, 6:05 pm, Roby <r....DeleteThis@no-address.net> wrote:
>> >> lalawawa wrote:
>> >> > Hi, I just bought a 400Mbyte usb disk.
>>
>> >> > My OS is Ubuntu version 5, I've recently done the updates to it.
>>
>
> There is no ntfs-3g program available, and I went to the Synaptic
> Package Manager (where you go on Ubuntu to download new packages) and
> there was no such package available for download.
>
You are using an old unsupported version of Ubuntu. ntfs-3g is in the
current version 7.04.

--
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, then
you clearly don't understand the situation.

The Natural Philosopher · External Since: Jul 09, 2004 Posts: 802

Roby wrote:
> lalawawa wrote:
>
>> Note that according to fstab, the drive is /dev/sda. According to df
>> and /etc/mtab, the drive is /dev/sda1.
>> If I do umount /dev/sda1 it complains it's not in fstab. If I do
>> umount /dev/sda, it complains it's not in mtab. I'm not sure how to
>> deal with this if I am to format the disk.
>
> With the external disk not mounted, if you edit fstab to make the entry
> /dev/sda1, can't you $ mount /media/usb0 and then $ umount /media/usb0??
>
> /dev/sda refers to the whole disk thingy, including the partition table that
> usually lives at the very front of the disk.
>
> /dev/sda1 refers to the first (and probably only) partition on that disk,
> located after the partition table.
>
> Methinks the fstab entry should be /dev/sda1 ... unless SimpleTech chose
> to treat the whole disk like a giant-giant floppy and so there's no
> partition table. I think that's unlikely; may not even be possible.
>
>
Correct. Mounting the WHOLE DISK is a buit of a recipe fior disaster.
You partition the raw device (sda) to give miuntable partitions
(sda1,sda2 etc.), then format the *partitions*with a file system. And
mount those.

The only operations ever carried out on the raw device would be a dd
total transfer of everything (including partition info) and repartitioning.

Raw disks are almost NEVER mounted.

Matt Giwer · External Since: May 23, 2006 Posts: 295

lalawawa wrote:
> Note that according to fstab, the drive is /dev/sda. According to df
> and /etc/mtab, the drive is /dev/sda1.
> If I do umount /dev/sda1 it complains it's not in fstab. If I do
> umount /dev/sda, it complains it's not in mtab. I'm not sure how to
> deal with this if I am to format the disk.

To format you do not want it mounted. If you try the format program will ask
you if you are stupid. So just issue the command and see what happens.

--
Drug use is a vice. Stealing to pay for drugs is a crime. The cost of drugs
is high because the vice is considered a crime. Is there any sense in this?
-- The Iron Webmaster, 3820
nizkor http://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml
commentary http://www.giwersworld.org/opinion/running.phtml a5
flying saucers http://www.giwersworld.org/flyingsa.html a2

lalawawa · External Since: Jul 04, 2007 Posts: 12

OK guys, here's my plan.

Formatting the device is not a very attractive option right now for
two reasons:
- I have two boxes, a windoze box as well as the Ubuntu box that I
have been talking about. I am afraid that if I reformat, it will no
longer be Windoze readable and I will no longer have the option of
putting the drive on my windoze box and reading my backups from there.
- as long as my usb port is 1.1, formatting a 400GB drive at 10MB /
sec will take all day If it takes a few tries to get it right that
will be a disaster.

I only have < 1GB of data that needs backing up. I have a 1GB usb ram
stick that works, I can do a backup to it in a couple minutes. So
this gives me the option of doing risky changes to my machine.

A few days ago, I ordered Ubuntu 7.0 from Amazon, it should show up
any day now. Last night I went to Circuit City and they didn't have
any USB 2.0 boards, so I just ordered one on the internet, it should
show up in a few days. By backing up to my ram stick, I can make both
those upgrades to my box. (I totally will not upgrade my OS without
backing up first. I did a routine backup of SuSE about a year ago and
it wound up screwing up my machine with complete loss of data. So I
no longer am willing to upgrade my OS without backing up first).
Then, since Bill Marcum told me I will have access to ntfs-3g,
hopefully everything will work. If that doesn't solve the problem, I
will then have the option of reformatting the drive at reasonably high
speed.

Bill

lalawawa · External Since: Jul 04, 2007 Posts: 12

Thank you all very much for your help. I wasn't expecting to get so
much useful advice.

Roby · External Since: Jul 14, 2004 Posts: 113

lalawawa wrote:
(snip)

> I did eventually manage to manually mount the thing in a newly
> created directory /media/st that I created, but it just won't
> cooperate with going there when I tell it to in the fstab. Also,
> every time I reboot, the usb drive comes up wth a different /dev
> directory name. Failing to find the pattern, I wrote scripts based on
> "fdisk -l | grep NTFS" and sed that get the name of the appropriate
> wandering /dev drive and mount/umount it. That will do. I anticipate
> accessing this disk at most once per month for backup.
>

Put a disk label on the usb drive and use it to identify the right device by
putting something like this in /etc/fstab:

/dev/disk/by-label/my_usb_disk /media/st ntfs-3g defaults 0 0

The label is case-sensitive.

Methinks this was all just a ploy to get yourself Vista. Shame on you!!

johannabartley · Joined: Jan 09, 2008 Posts: 5

You're a LINUX user. Stuff like that always happen with open source programs.
drug rehab program