How can I change the settings of read only pendrive?

Question

pm@pm-desktop:~$ sudo lsblk -f
NAME           FSTYPE  LABEL UUID                                   MOUNTPOINT
sdb                                                                 
└─sdb1         ntfs          80060C87060C8100                       /media/pm/80
sr0                                                                 
sda                                                                 
├─sda2                                                              
├─sda5         crypto_       e47293da-ef9b-4299-a0b5-e46339213365   
│ └─sda5_crypt LVM2_me       hoVHG1-FRUq-b6x1-dLl1-B1i8-8joH-MAKNkG 

    pm@pm-desktop:~$ sudo lsblk -m
NAME                      SIZE OWNER GROUP MODE
sdb                      14.9G root  disk  brw-rw----
└─sdb1                   14.9G root  disk  brw-rw----
sr0                      1024M root  cdrom brw-rw----
sda                     465.8G root  disk  brw-rw----
├─sda2                      1K root  disk  brw-rw----
├─sda5                  465.3G root  disk  brw-rw----
│ └─sda5_crypt          465.3G root  disk  brw-rw----
│   ├─ubuntu--vg-root   463.3G root  disk  brw-rw----
│   └─ubuntu--vg-swap_1     2G root  disk  brw-rw----
└─sda1                    487M root  disk  brw-rw----

│   ├─ubuntu--vg-root
│   │          ext4          39a158a9-1eec-40d7-9edd-6c659f296210   /
│   └─ubuntu--vg-swap_1
│              swap          0f5d2da1-3bbe-439e-8b20-9097be917a36   [SWAP]
└─sda1         ext2          b76e49df-ef33-41cd-9201-dbc718f40ecc   /boot

pm@pm-desktop:~$ sudo parted -ls
Model: ATA ST3500418AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End    Size   Type      File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  512MB  511MB  primary   ext2         boot
 2      513MB   500GB  500GB  extended
 5      513MB   500GB  500GB  logical


Warning: Unable to open /dev/sdb read-write (Read-only file system).  /dev/sdb has been opened read-only.
Model: SanDisk Cruzer Switch (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  16.0GB  16.0GB  primary  ntfs


Model: Linux device-mapper (linear) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root: 497GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start  End    Size   File system  Flags
 1      0.00B  497GB  497GB  ext4


Model: Linux device-mapper (linear) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-swap_1: 2110MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start  End     Size    File system     Flags
 1      0.00B  2110MB  2110MB  linux-swap(v1)


Error: /dev/mapper/sda5_crypt: unrecognised disk label
Model: Linux device-mapper (crypt) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/sda5_crypt: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: unknown
Disk Flags: 
pm@pm-desktop:~$ df -h  
Filesystem                   Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev                         961M     0  961M   0% /dev
tmpfs                        198M  6.2M  192M   4% /run
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root  456G   16G  418G   4% /
tmpfs                        987M   19M  969M   2% /dev/shm
tmpfs                        5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs                        987M     0  987M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1                    472M  136M  312M  31% /boot
tmpfs                        198M   72K  198M   1% /run/user/1000
/dev/sdb1                     15G  8.7G  6.3G  59% /media/pm/80060C87060C8100

I had tried many methods mentioned in other answers but none worked. Please suggest something that works — pr0pm, Oct 12 '18 at 16:55
This drive has no hardware switch to make it read only but is damaged a bit near the USB port — pr0pm, Oct 12 '18 at 16:56
~$ cat /proc/mounts | grep sdb /dev/sdb1 /media/pm/80060C87060C8100 fuseblk ro,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,default_permissions,allow_other,blksize=4096 0 0 — pr0pm, Oct 12 '18 at 16:57
Please add relevant information via edit to your question instead of posting comments. — mook765, Oct 12 '18 at 16:59
Please tell us what kind of pendrive it is. 1. brand name and model; 2. kind of partitions/{file systems}; 3. data drive, live drive, install drive; 4. If you modified the partitions/file systems: how you modified it (tool, method). — sudodus, Oct 12 '18 at 19:26
In order to help us help you, please edit your original question to add the output of the following commands, sudo lsblk -f and sudo lsblk -m and sudo parted -ls and df -h Please indent each line of the output 4 spaces in order to render it as 'code'. — sudodus, Oct 12 '18 at 19:30
I have included the commands and their outputs via edit as asked by @sudodus — pr0pm, Oct 13 '18 at 12:58

sudodus · Answer 1 · 2018-10-13T16:10:36.490

The USB pendrive is seen like this:

$ sudo parted -ls

Warning: Unable to open /dev/sdb read-write (Read-only file system).  /dev/sdb has been opened read-only.
Model: SanDisk Cruzer Switch (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

and

$ sudo lsblk -f
NAME           FSTYPE  LABEL UUID                                   MOUNTPOINT
sdb                                                                 
└─sdb1         ntfs          80060C87060C8100                       /media/pm/80...
sr0                                                                 

sudo lsblk -m
NAME                      SIZE OWNER GROUP MODE
sdb                      14.9G root  disk  brw-rw----
└─sdb1                   14.9G root  disk  brw-rw----

and is mounted as

$ df -h  
Filesystem                   Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb1                     15G  8.7G  6.3G  59% /media/pm/80060C87060C8100

with read-only permissions. There can be different reasons for the read-only status.

If there are important files on the USB pendrive, please back them up (copy them to another drive) before you start any repair actions.

Maybe the NTFS file system is damaged and needs to be repaired with Windows tools, either the graphical tool in Windows or with

chkdsk /f X:

where X: is its volume ID as seen by Windows. See this link for more details,

Repair the partition table and file system of a pendrive

After trying to repair the file system, you can try again in Ubuntu. If it still does not want to mount it read-write, you can try according to the following AskUbuntu answer,

Mount NTFS partition in a USB drive with custom permissions and owner

How can I change the settings of read only pendrive?

1 Answers1