[ SOLVED ] Cannot create folders to USB flash drives

[gold_finger]

Just experimented a bit.  Made mount point on system (/mnt/sdc), then mounted FAT32 USB stick to it (sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdc).  Sure enough, I could not write to it just like you experienced.


Mount point was owned by root.  I first unmounted the USB, then ran command to change ownership of the mount point to myself.  Remounted USB with same command above and it showed owned by root again and would not let me write to it.


Conclusion:
Because mount command must be run as root (with "sudo"), ownership when mounted ends up being root.  I knew beforehand that likelihood of changing ownership of mount point without anything mounted to it would probably not make any difference, but did it anyway to make sure.  Because FAT32 file systems won't take Linux permissions you can't run chown command on it after mounting.  So, mounting at that location in file system will result in you not being able to write to USB.


System is setup so that if you mount under /media/username or /home/username you will be the owner and be able to write to USB.  Best to just let system mount it to /media/username when you click on its entry under "Devices" in file manager.  That way you'll avoid permissions problems.


P.s.
If your USB had an ext4 formatted partition, you would be able to mount it under /mnt directory and change ownership to yourself.

[gold_finger]

Glad you got it sorted out.  Go ahead and mark thread solved I guess.


I may try playing around with a FAT32 USB this weekend using mount points like you did to see if I can duplicate problem and give a more definitive answer vs. just a guess.  Will post back here after testing to let you know results.

[torreydale]

@gold_finger,

Deleting them is a good suggestion.  I was afraid to delete sdb, so I created sdb1.  Prior to getting this response, I used a Live System I created via Systemback on May 9th.  That seemed to do the trick.  It was a Hail Mary I tried to avoid.  I feel I installed something important in those 3.5 weeks.  But it's better than starting from complete scratch.  I'll keep your suggestion in mind if this weirdness happens again.  Thanks for not letting me go through this alone.

[gold_finger]

Alright, so last output was from USB with music MP3s on it and you say it's a FAT32 formatted USB.  Confusing thing to me is that FAT32 doesn't recognize Linux permissions, so one would assume nothing on it should be owned by root.  I've never done what you are doing -- manually mounting the USB on a mount point you made under /mnt -- so I'm just going to guess that because that mount point is owned by root the whole USB (including existing files) shows that way when mounted there.  Continuing my guess, because FAT32 won't be able to interpret/set Linux permissions properly the chown command doesn't work.  That's my theory at least.


What I'd suggest is to just delete those mount points and let the system mount USBs the way it normally does.  (Make sure nothing is mounted to any of them before deleting.)  Just plug in USB, open file manager and look for it in left column under "Devices", then just click on it to mount and access it.  Mount point should end up being something like /media/username/usb-stick and you shouldn't have the problems you're experiencing now anymore.

[torreydale]

@gold_finger

Code: [Select]

drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     16384 Sep  5  2016 Yellowjackets - Greenhouse
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     16384 Sep  3  2016 Yellowjackets - Live Wires
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     16384 Sep  3  2016 Yellowjackets - Run For Your Life
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   6622299 Sep  6  2016 Yo-Yo Ma - Ave Maria.mp3
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  10624340 Sep  6  2016 Yo-Yo Ma - Concerto No. 2 in D Major for Cello and Orchestra, Hob.Vllb_2_ III. Allegro.mp3
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   4911813 Sep  6  2016 Yo-Yo Ma - Dona Nobis Pacem (Give Us Peace).mp3
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   4493913 Sep  6  2016 Yo-Yo Ma - II. Largo from _Winter_, Op. 8, No. 4, RV 297 from the Four Seasons.mp3
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  14014930 Sep  6  2016 Yo-Yo Ma - M?ditation from Tha?s.mp3
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  22826678 Sep  6  2016 Yo-Yo Ma - Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2, Op. 99 in F_ I. Allegro vivace (2004 Remastered).mp3
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   6160532 Sep  6  2016 Yo-Yo Ma - Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007_ I. Pr?lude.mp3
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   8059109 Sep  6  2016 Yo-Yo Ma - Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009_ Bourr?e I.mp3
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root  10436508 Sep  6  2016 ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man.mp3
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   8529084 Sep  6  2016 ZZ Ward - Last Love Song.mp3
torrey@twdell:~$ ls -la /mnt/sdb
total 8
drwxrwxrwx 2 torrey torrey 4096 May 30 18:52 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root   root   4096 May 25 19:39 ..
torrey@twdell:~$

The beginning of my post includes the last portion of the output of your command "ls -la /mnt/sdb1".  The last of the post includes the output for "ls -la /mnt/sdb".  When I run your second command (with and without the colon), the output shows "changing ownership of" (the name of each of my songs) and ": Operation not permitted" at the end of each of my MP3s.

[torreydale]

@gold_finger,

I did manually set /dev/sdb1 as the mount point.  I don't have a particular reason I'm doing it that way.  I was just having the issue I reported, and I made that change in a hasty situation.  Flash drives that mount to sdc or sdd seem ok.  Something is improper with sdb, so I created sdb1.

The USB flash drive I had at the time was a Live USB, but I also put in a flash drive that only had music MP3 files, and I still had the Create Folder, Create Document, and Paste options grayed out.

I will do what you suggested and report back.

[gold_finger]

Output shows live USB mounted on /dev/sdb1.  Did you manually set that as the mount point because normally when you plug in a USB stick it will be mounted under /media/username?


Anyway, you can't write to a live USB if that is the problem.  However, you said you could not write to any FAT32 formatted USBs.  Are you (for some reason) manually directing them to mount to /mnt/sdb1?  If so, then the mount point is probably owned by root.  Unmount and eject the live USB and put in a different problem USB.  If your system doesn't auto-mount it on insertion, find it in file manager and click on it to mount it.  Look in address bar of file manager to see where it's mounted -- should be /media/username/usb-stick.  Now try copying something to it.  It should work.  If for some reason it's getting auto-mounted to /mnt/sdb1, open a terminal and run this command to see ownership info for the mount point:

Code: [Select]

ls -la /mnt/sdb1


If it's root, change it with this command:

Code: [Select]

sudo chown -R username: /mnt/sdb1

[torreydale]

@gold_finger,

It is the installed system I'm having trouble with.  I was able to accomplish what I needed to in a Live environment.  Now I'm trying to get the installed system working properly. 

Here is the output of what you requested:

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torrey@twdell:~$ sudo blkid -c /dev/null
[sudo] password for torrey:
/dev/sda1: LABEL="SB@" UUID="388d1d32-d828-4212-a4ca-cb7264fce817" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="000d8645-01"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="SB@SWAP" UUID="4e47b394-cea6-4a9b-b50a-ab36ab827e25" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="000d8645-02"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="SB@home" UUID="6f3adb0e-ffbf-4361-b97d-6c0fd5b5dece" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="000d8645-03"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="2017-03-20-02-05-01-00" LABEL="Linux Lite 3.4" TYPE="iso9660" PTUUID="61a40df8" PTTYPE="dos" PARTUUID="61a40df8-01"
torrey@twdell:~$ clear
 [3;J
torrey@twdell:~$ lsblk -af
NAME   FSTYPE  LABEL          UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT
sda                                                               
├─sda1 ext4    SB@            388d1d32-d828-4212-a4ca-cb7264fce817 /
├─sda2 swap    SB@SWAP        4e47b394-cea6-4a9b-b50a-ab36ab827e25 [SWAP]
└─sda3 ext4    SB@home        6f3adb0e-ffbf-4361-b97d-6c0fd5b5dece /home
sdb    iso9660 Linux Lite 3.4 2017-03-20-02-05-01-00               /mnt/sdb1
└─sdb1 iso9660 Linux Lite 3.4 2017-03-20-02-05-01-00               
sr0                                                               
loop0                                                             
loop1                                                             
loop2                                                             
loop3                                                             
loop4                                                             
loop5                                                             
loop6                                                             
loop7                                                             
torrey@twdell:~$
torrey@twdell:~$
torrey@twdell:~$ sudo blkid -c /dev/null
/dev/sda1: LABEL="SB@" UUID="388d1d32-d828-4212-a4ca-cb7264fce817" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="000d8645-01"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="SB@SWAP" UUID="4e47b394-cea6-4a9b-b50a-ab36ab827e25" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="000d8645-02"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="SB@home" UUID="6f3adb0e-ffbf-4361-b97d-6c0fd5b5dece" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="000d8645-03"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="2017-03-20-02-05-01-00" LABEL="Linux Lite 3.4" TYPE="iso9660" PTUUID="61a40df8" PTTYPE="dos" PARTUUID="61a40df8-01"
torrey@twdell:~$

Sorry if what I wrote earlier was unclear.  I'm without internet right now, so I'm having to type from my mobile phone.

[gold_finger]

Sorry torreydale -- I'm confused and not sure exactly what you're saying.


Are you booting a live LL USB and not able to write to other FAT32 formatted USBs from it?  Or are you not able to write to the live LL USB from your installed system?  Or are you not able to write to any FAT32 formatted  USBs from your installed system?


P.s.  I don't know anything about Etcher and am not sure how that may or may not apply to the situation.


P.s.s.  Perhaps as part of your reply, boot into whatever system you're having problem from, attach whatever USB(s) you're having problems with and mount them; then open a terminal and post back with following output:

Code: [Select]

lsblk -af
sudo blkid -c /dev/null

[torreydale]

I know this is operating system related.  I was able to do what I needed using the Live USB version of Linux Lite 3.4 64 bit.  I cannot create a folder on flash drives that are FAT formatted.  Last week I mistakenly downloaded and ran the 32 bit version of Etcher.   I ran the 64 bit version (the version I needed) afterwards, and things seemed ok.  Now it doesn't, and I cannot get any FAT formatted flashbacks drives to allow me to write to them.  The permissions say root is the owner, but when I try to change it via the terminal, it doesn't make the change.  I've even tried using older restore points to no avail.  When right clicking in Thunar within the flash drive's storage space, the Create Folder, Create Document, and Paste options are grayed out.

I think I need some help cleaning up whatever mounts to sdb because I also created an sdb1 and I think that's just made things more messy.