Some Linux queries

greg's picture

He has: 1,581 posts

Joined: Nov 2005

I have two hard drives. One (sda) is where linux is installed and boots from, also has a swap.

The second (sdb) is basically storage and was entirely NTFS.
Using gparted I made some free space at the end and formatted the new unallocated as ext2, and moved my files from the NTFS part to the new ext2.
Then formatted the NTFS part in ext2 then moved the files back from the second partition to the new ext2.
Then made the first partition (now ext2 and with my files) to the full size again.
(Sounds a long winded process but I don't have space on the other disk to store all my files (mainly music) and wanted rid of NTFS)

Created a mount point in /media as required.
Added the following line to fstab:
/dev/sdb1 /media/SecondDisk ext2 rw,suid,dev,exec,auto,user,async 0 1
I originally had 'default' for the options, but that of course has 'nouser', and wasn't sure if I could have 'default' and then override 'nouser' with 'user'.

So now it mounts auto, and I can read and write but...
I don't have full control (some options on right click are greyed out, such as create file/folder), also it states 'permissions could not be determined'.
So, what am I doing wrong?

Also, deleted things from the second disk don't go into the "deleted items folder" but go in the ".trash-0" on that drive.
Anyway to make the second drive use the main one?

pr0gr4mm3r's picture

He has: 1,502 posts

Joined: Sep 2006

What version/distro of Linux are you using? You may have to copy the files as root. Regular users don't have permission to write to directories outside their home folder.

This is a dangerous way to move your files. If anything happens during the partition resizing (I have had ones that failed), you're screwed.

greg's picture

He has: 1,581 posts

Joined: Nov 2005

Ubuntu 8.10 (Gnome 2.24.1)

I did copy everything over as root. As well as editing fstab and using gparted as root.
The issue now is I cannot grant my second disk to give full access to other than root. I have execute and delete permissions, but clearly not all permissions.

I just noticed that even my primary disk with Ubuntu installed on states "permissions could not be determined" within the Properties -> permissions tab.

pr0gr4mm3r wrote:
This is a dangerous way to move your files.
yeah I knew that before I started, but I had no other options (and all important docs/client stuff are on the other HD and backup CD anyway) it was only stuff not too disastrous if lost.

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