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I do not have write permissions on an HDD that is mounted. I tried following another thread but I can't figure out how to get the terminal commands to work.

external hard disk READ ONLY

This is the thread I tried following. Please let me know what information you need from me in order to alter the commands.

Community
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ArthurB
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  • Do you know what type of file system is on the disk? If so, you should tell us. Are you mounting it with the mount command, or in fstab, or just the default within Nautilus? I'm assuming you just need to change the owner, which would give you permission, but does anyone else need to access the drive besides you? – Marty Fried Nov 22 '14 at 22:57

2 Answers2

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Open your terminal and type:

 gksudo nautilus

Enter your password, Nautilus (File Browser) will open in root mode, don't close the Terminal, just minimize it.

Next find your HDD left under Devices, right click it to Properties, go to Permissions tab then change it to your username and your group to fit your wanted permissions.

Voila,close Nautilus and Terminal and your problem is solved.

If not working come back here ;)

EDIT: Check the "Change Permisisons for Enclosed Files" under Permissions

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Zbunjeni
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  • I changed the permissions to my name, but as soon as I did that it just locks and closes the properties menu. Now I'm unable to alter it back... it says the owner cannot be changed.

    how can i confirm the correct username? it had a bunch of options. also will this change be permanent? i'd like to access this drive as my primary storage.

     – ArthurB Nov 22 '14 at 23:04
  • Reboot the machine, and try it again, that is my best guess atm.

    EDIT: I tried it myself, it closes first time, next time I managed to change the permissions. It has to be a bug on that issue. EDITx2: When changing permissions, Owner is your username, Group is the group you created, Others can only Access files

     – Zbunjeni Nov 22 '14 at 23:06
  • I rebooted it and the permissions are still stuck. I'm unable to make any changes.

    ERROR:nautilus-properties-window.c:1839:schedule_owner_change_timeout: assertion failed: (NAUTILUS_IS_FILE (file))

    I have it set as my username, not sure why it's still locked.

     – ArthurB Nov 22 '14 at 23:15
  • I changed it to my username originally. when i try to right click and go to permissions it crashes but displays an error message for 1/10 of a second, i managed to screen cap it. -- sorry, could not change the owner of "xxxxx" Specified owner 'Username' dooesn't exist.

    Edit: i went to system settings -> user accounts, and that name is there.

     – ArthurB Nov 22 '14 at 23:18
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    Wow, we need an expert here :D

    Did you manage to change the group maybe?

     – Zbunjeni Nov 22 '14 at 23:21
  • Ah, I can actually change the permissions by just going to regular nautilus then right click/properties. What should the group be? Presently it's "root", and the owner is "me". Both say I can create/delete files, but I don't seem to have that access. – ArthurB Nov 22 '14 at 23:25
  • Interestingly, I am the owner of the HDD itself, but cannot change the permissions of the root folder within the HDD. Any ideas? – ArthurB Nov 22 '14 at 23:26
  • Is this internal or external HDD? Are we talking about /root folder in the system? Dont touch that! ^^ – Zbunjeni Nov 22 '14 at 23:28
  • I was able to manually change the permissions for each folder that I needed. Thank you for your help! – ArthurB Nov 22 '14 at 23:39
  • I'm happy to hear it, remember that "gksudo nautilus" command, it is often very helpful! best ŕegards – Zbunjeni Nov 23 '14 at 00:00
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The changes don't seem to be sticking. This is an internal HDD, it just contains video/music/documents, etc. I'm not able to change them in sudo nautilus anymore, only regular nautilus. once i change it to read and write it reverts back to read only

ArthurB
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