[solved] External drive automatically mounted as read-only

Hi folks,
I have a strange issue with an external drive automatically mounted as read-only whenever I plug it to my laptop :
[sclarckone@archLaptop ~]$ mount
/dev/sdb1 on /run/media/sclarckone/dd type ntfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uid=1000,gid=100,fmask=0177,dmask=077,nls=utf8,errors=continue,mft_zone_multiplier=1,uhelper=udisks2)
And I can't remount it as read-write :
[sclarckone@archLaptop ~]$ sudo mount -o remount,rw /dev/sdb1
mount: cannot remount /dev/sdb1 read-write, is write-protected
But of course, I'm able to mount it as read-write on other operating systems.
I have udisks and udisks2 installed on my system. I also belong to the storage group so I thought I could mount a filesystem as a normal user but I can't :
[sclarckone@archLaptop ~]$ mount /dev/sdb1 dd/
mount: only root can do that
I don't know whether it is relevant to this problem, but I have systemd and polkit installed as well... Does anybody has an idea of where the problem could come from ?
Thanks for your help !
Last edited by sclarckone (2012-12-13 21:45:04)

Check out following file :
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.udisks.policy
Look for mount a device and It should have configuration like :
<action id="org.freedesktop.udisks.filesystem-mount">
<description>Mount a device</description>
<description xml:lang="da">MontÃ©r en enhed</description>
<message>Authentication is required to mount the device</message>
<message xml:lang="da">Autorisering er pÃ¥krÃ¦vet for at montere et fil system</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>no</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>no</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>yes</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>

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[SOLVED]External HD: Auto-mount in read-only and only root can access

So I followed the advice in http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 88#p583088 regarding using udev to auto-mount my external 60gb harddrive, and it works. The only problem is, it is being mounted read-only and I can only view the contents via sudo or as the superuser.
Can anyone guide me in the right direction I need to go to get this changed? I have already once tried to recursively chown everything on the harddrive, but that didn't seem to work. The syntax I used from that above article specifies "rw" as one of the options for the mount command, so I am stumped as to why this happened.
Thanks
Last edited by trann (2009-11-13 16:24:36)

Wattanut wrote:
Have you installed ntfs-3g?
I think I've had that problem before.
WoW, perfect solution. This is why I love this distro.

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Hello:
I have recently moved from a powerbook to an imac. The external I used with the powerbook was working fine until I began to use it with the imac. Once I hooked it up to the imac, I only had read permissions. I have never set any of the permissions on the disk and have always left it open. Thinking it was just the imac, I plugged it back into the pb, to find it was also appears locked to read only. I have gone through the web looking for solutions and I cannot seem to find a solution.
When I open get info about the disk, under sharing and permissions, its says "you can only read"
under the list of name: wkim has read and write privlige, staff and everyone get read only. I am wkim, so what gives? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

ok. my problems were probably not related and were fixed by reinstalling 10.5.2 with the Combo Updater found on (www.apple.com/downloads)...this probably won't help you but won't hurt so may be worth a try...
your permission problems probably have something to do with user IDs changing from one machine to the next. Try first to "repair permissions" with Disk Utility on your main HD. you can also go to Terminal and navigate to the problem directory and enter "ls -ln" to see what user ID and group ID own the files. then type just "id" to see what your local ID is. if they don't match then you'll probably need to change them with chown or chgrp.
hopefully someone else will chime in here as 10.5 has created convoluted permission problems and I still haven't worked out my own...

[kinda solved, hd broken]Salvaged hard drive mounted as read-only

My old netbook died recently (if a guy in a shady computer store in Edinburgh tells you that "this adapter will surely work" -- what ever you do, don't believe him). Got a new netbook, and an external usb hd case for the old hard drive in the hope of salvaging it.
The old hd seems to have survived, as it mounts just fine and all my old partitions show up (home folder, root, swap...). However, I cannot change the permissions of the files using thunar as root, nor can I copy them to my internal hd --probably because the drive is mounted as read-only. The /home partition, which is the one I'm interested in copying things from, is formated in ext4.
I'm guessing I should change something in my fstab, though I'm not sure what exactly. What's weird though is that the drive does not show up when I run sudo fdisk -l, nor does it show in gparted (which is run as root, of course) -- meaning I don't know what rule I should put in my fstab file, as I dont know what mount point to apply it to. I use xfce on my current laptop, but seeing as the problem persists when I try on my partners ubuntu laptop I figure that the DE hasn't got much to do with it.
I guess I could open up the computer, put in the old hard drive and change some configs, install drivers etc. to make my new computer boot properly from it. Does seem like a drag though, so I figured I'd try asking here first. I suspect this is a fairly common problem, but my google-fu does not appear to be strong enough as I've failed to find a solution on my own.
Last edited by caligo (2010-07-19 20:09:01)

karol wrote:'mount: /dev/sdd2: cannot read superblock' is quite different from mounting read-only - I'd call it read ... NOT!
I hope you have some sort of backup.
Yes, "cannot read" is indeed a more disheartening message... When trying to copy the files through thunar, I can see them but not move or open them -- and trying to change the permissions results in an error message about the file system being "read-only".
itsbrad212 wrote:# fsck /dev/sdd2
results in
Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read
The thing might indeed be dead...
I have backups of all the important things -- just wanted to save some recent random files and a bunch of wallpapers, but I think I'll survive the loss. Thanks for the help guys. Might try to format the whole thing, see if its just the data that's corrupted or of the harware is busted as well.

[Solved]External HDD only mounts as read only

Okay, I have a general log, but I'm not completely sure what all information you need. Ask and you will receive.
So I run udiskie through i3, works great, but my file systems get mounted as read-only, which is..not great. It's pretty irritating. So I thought, hey, let's just chown that shit, right? No. It's a read only file system.
Anyway, so I did killall udiskie, tried mounting it manually and all as demonstrated in lsblk, and it's still read only, for some interesting reason. (Sorry the lsblk log isn't clean). If there's some other output you'd like, let me know...
I run the thunar file manager, which is alright, but it doesn't auto-mount (I tried setting it up, googled it a lot, it just didn't auto-mount, and udiskie looked like it worked fine until I realized it was all read-only).
In lsblk I ran sudo thunar to view the drive, since permission was denied to myself. It was still read-only, meaning it's not necessarily a udiskie problem? I could mount my other flash drive alright it appeared, but when I did it with udiskie it was also readonly.
The flash drive was made with dd, so it had two partitions, the second one mounted fine, the first one not so much, and with udiskie it just mounted what looked like the second one with more files (So maybe both? I was a bit confused).
lsblk: http://pastebin.com/WdJbky9j
udiskie -a: http://pastebin.com/RT2sQE01
On a side note, those awesome arrows on the side of my terminal thanks to zsh and oh-my-zsh? They're just empty rectangles in rxvt-unicode, and I have no idea why. They display fine in pastebin. If anyone happens to know what I'm missing there, much obliged.
Solution:
Actually understand NTFS in linux (Working on it)
Install ntfs-3g
Last edited by Rojikku (2014-07-02 02:06:18)

lsblk -f: http://pastebin.com/KeHpDtF6
Anything I could say would be repetitive of the data. >>; But for record purposes, btrfs and the external is ntfs.
Edit: I don't have ntfs-3g installed, FYI. It seemed like an alternative to udiskie and I dislike installing things frivolously. I noticed another user fixed a somewhat similar problem like that, would that be my issue?
Last edited by Rojikku (2014-07-02 01:37:24)

External drives mount as read only

I am running OS X 10.6, on a MacPro. Something happened recently to make my external hard drives mount as read only. The only way I've found to be able to fix them is to run Disk Utility every time I start up my computer. Does anyone have an solution to this?
Also every time I run the Disk Utility, at the end of the repairs it says "Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required." I do not know if this is related, but I haven't been able to find anything relevant in relation to my problem with the drives mounting as read only.
Message was edited by: HeatherK

You might give this a try:
Select the drive and Press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom open the Ownership and Sharing section. Be sure the box labeled "Ignore permissions on this volume" is unchecked. If it is checked then click on the lock icon, authenticate, then uncheck that box. Close the window.
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder and at the prompt enter or paste the following:
sudo chown root:admin
Put a space after "admin" then drag the drive's icon into the Terminal window. Press RETURN. You will be prompted to enter your admin password which will not be echoed.
See if this fixes the problem.

External hard drives suddenly changed to read only

Three of my external hard drives suddenly changed to read only. These hard drives have been working on my macbook pro for months. When I click on get info 'read only' shows up and there is no lock icon nor is there a window that shows name | permissions, also in disk utility the 'verify disk premissions', 'verify disk', 'repair disk', and 'repair disk premissions' buttons are ghosted and I can not select them. I have not made any changes to my computer and I have read many other posts and have not been able to find a solution.

About a hundred times with no luck. Some of my research is leading to Western Digital, there may be a problem with the drives' 'smartware' software. I've been using this drive for months and I never used the 'smartware', but I tried it anyway with no luck. I just remembered that four days ago I had this drive plugged this drive into an Iomega wireless storage device and it seemed to work fine. Now the wireless storage device can't find the drive at all. I just need to know if there is a way I can change the permissions back to read/write, otherwise I will have to buy another drive and transfer all the data to the new drive and re-formatt the wd drive.

All USB drives mount as read only for user

I have searched a bunch and thee results I find seem to be irrelevant to my situation. Most relate to a single USB media that is a problem and won't read or write.
On a new Arch install on a new computer (my third base system install). Running Gnome.
All USB mass storage devices mount as read only for the logged in user. Root has write permissions and I can mkdir no problem. It is not an issue with the USB drive itself as this occurs with multiple USB media (I've tested several SD cards on a reader and at least two drives, all the media works correctly on my existing installations)
I'm posting the contents of my /etc/group file in case there's an obvious error there I don't see, and my dmesg output upon plugging in the drive. User name is changed in the group file posted to "archie"
This is a single-user system.
/ect/group
root:x:0:root
bin:x:1:root,bin,daemon
daemon:x:2:root,bin,daemon
sys:x:3:root,bin
adm:x:4:root,daemon
tty:x:5:
disk:x:6:root
lp:x:7:daemon
mem:x:8:
kmem:x:9:
wheel:x:10:root,archie
ftp:x:11:
mail:x:12:
uucp:x:14:archie
log:x:19:root
utmp:x:20:
locate:x:21:
rfkill:x:24:
smmsp:x:25:
http:x:33:
games:x:50:
lock:x:54:
uuidd:x:68:
dbus:x:81:
network:x:90:
video:x:91:
audio:x:92:
optical:x:93:
floppy:x:94:
storage:x:95:
scanner:x:96:
power:x:98:
nobody:x:99:
users:x:100:archie
systemd-journal:x:190:
archie:x:1000:
avahi:x:84:
polkitd:x:102:
rtkit:x:133:
gdm:x:120:
brlapi:x:999:
kvm:x:78:
ntp:x:87:archie
dmesg output
[ 968.044188] usb 4-3: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci-pci
[ 968.170628] usb-storage 4-3:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 968.171435] scsi7 : usb-storage 4-3:1.0
[ 969.174450] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access Generic USB SD Reader 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[ 969.175068] scsi 7:0:0:1: Direct-Access Generic USB MS Reader 1.03 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[ 969.939417] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] 15572992 512-byte logical blocks: (7.97 GB/7.42 GiB)
[ 969.941028] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 969.941037] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
[ 969.944664] sd 7:0:0:1: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 969.945509] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[ 969.945517] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 969.952682] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[ 969.952693] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 969.956396] sdb: sdb1
[ 969.965003] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[ 969.965011] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 969.965015] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
I'm sure I'm just missing something in user management, but I can't find what.
Last edited by hooya (2014-04-27 03:10:49)

I am also having the same problem. Root can read and write to automounted drives, but my user cannot. I've tried with a variety of drives, I am assuming they are being automounted by root instead of the logged-in user somehow. (I am running x directly, and am not using a display manager, if that has anything to do with it).
When I look at how it is mounted it is as follows:
/dev/sdc1 on /run/media/myuser/drivename type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0022,dmask=0077,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,showexec,utf8,flush,errors=remount-ro,uhelper=udisks2)

My External Seagate Hard drive just changed to read only

my External Seagate Hard drive just changed to read only on its own?
I went to get info and scrolled down to the Sharing and Permissions
But there is nothing there but a greyed out : You can only read
There are No boxes to check or uncheck, No options to change to read and write, No name of owner or ignore ownership box. NOTHING ELSE IS THERE
HELP!
I have recently upgraded to Mountain Lion and am having other problems as well

Click on the external HDD icon COMMAND+I. You should see a display such as this:
You should be logged on as the administrator. Click on the lock icon. It should open and allow you to make the required changes.
Ciao.

I have an external hard drive but it is read only on my macbook.

I have an external hard drive but it is read only on my macbook. I have tried my friends which works on his macbook but this is also read only on mine. Do I need to change any settings?

Here's my lo-tech solution (if you have Parallels) to this frustrating problem:
Eject your hard drive.
Unplug (USB) your hard drive from the MAC .
Start Parallels.
When Windows has started, plug your drive back into the MAC.
You should get a little screen asking if you want the drive to be utilized by MAC or Windows. Select Windows.
Use Windows to copy your files over to the hard drive.
This is less than ideal and not a long-term solution, but I was afraid of attempting any reformatting since I have many files on my hard drive.
Just remember that Windows has to be running first, before you plug in your hard drive.

[partially solved] Root mounted as read-only, lots of errors

I started my laptop without the power cord, and the boot stopped at several steps. I could continue the boot with pressing the power button for a second. XFCE booted fine, but some things were broken. Then I rebooted, and I cannot boot to xfce anymore at all (with or without power cord), since the root is mounted as read-only, and other partitions are not mounted at all. I didn't change my system at all so it is difficult to fix the problem. Now when I boot I just get lots of errors due to the read-only root partition. Fstab should be okay since it worked before, and has not been modified in months.
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
#/dev/cdrom /media/cd auto ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
#/dev/dvd /media/dvd auto ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
#/dev/fd0 /media/fl auto user,noauto 0 0
UUID=141f10a8-d0f2-43e0-b71e-5d01f1b3b126 /boot ext2 defaults 0 0
UUID=7f0ebf97-6e66-4e39-9db8-05fabd53180b swap swap defaults 0 0
UUID=859ac481-922b-4126-a575-462b145581fd / jfs defaults 0 0
UUID=3439fb11-ee6f-443a-9635-73ee7268e31c /media/disk ext3 defaults,data=writeback 0 0
UUID=82e37328-095e-4fd8-87ca-a74c6decc746 /media/oldroot ext3 defaults,data=writeback 0 0
I found related errors in daemon.log
Jun 23 13:15:26 nawi laptop-mode: Remounting filesystems.
Jun 23 13:15:26 nawi laptop-mode: /dev/sda6 not found in PARTITIONS.
Jun 23 13:15:26 nawi laptop-mode: / not found in PARTITIONS.
Jun 23 13:15:26 nawi laptop-mode: Checking /dev/sda6 against HD because PARTITIONS contains "auto".
Jun 23 13:15:26 nawi laptop-mode: Considering /dev/sda.
Jun 23 13:15:26 nawi laptop-mode: /dev/sda6 contains /dev/sda, which is in HD, so we will remount it.
Jun 23 13:15:26 nawi laptop-mode: Original options: rw
Jun 23 13:15:26 nawi laptop-mode: Reducing file system type.
Jun 23 13:15:26 nawi laptop-mode: Executing: mount /dev/sda6 / -t jfs -o remount,rw,atime,norelatime
Jun 23 13:15:26 nawi laptop-mode: Executing: /sbin/blockdev --setfra 256 /dev/sda6
Jun 23 13:15:26 nawi laptop-mode: none not found in PARTITIONS.
Jun 23 13:15:26 nawi laptop-mode: /dev not found in PARTITIONS.
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: Checking none against HD because PARTITIONS contains "auto".
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: Considering /dev/sda.
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: none not found in PARTITIONS.
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: /proc not found in PARTITIONS.
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: Checking none against HD because PARTITIONS contains "auto".
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: Considering /dev/sda.
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: none not found in PARTITIONS.
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: /sys not found in PARTITIONS.
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: Checking none against HD because PARTITIONS contains "auto".
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: Considering /dev/sda.
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: none not found in PARTITIONS.
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: /dev/pts not found in PARTITIONS.
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: Checking none against HD because PARTITIONS contains "auto".
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: Considering /dev/sda.
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: none not found in PARTITIONS.
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: /dev/shm not found in PARTITIONS.
Jun 23 13:15:27 nawi laptop-mode: Checking none against HD because PARTITIONS contains "auto".
Last edited by nawitus (2009-06-23 20:57:47)

It seems that laptop-mode remounted the partitions as read-only, because of bug in laptop-mode(?). I disabled that daemon, and now boot works. After that I can boot normally even with laptop-mode daemon, but now I'm afraid of booting without the power cord as that can break the system..

I purchased a IMac in Feb later I added a Seagate ext. hard drive. On April 29 I received an errors that the ext. Drive may be a read only and not backing up files. I'm unable to check disk permission or correct errors. Help would be appreciated.

I purchased a IMac in Feb later I added a Seagate ext. hard drive. On April 29 I received an errors that the ext. Drive may be a read only and not backing up files. I'm unable to check disk permission or correct errors. Help would be appreciated.

Click on the hard drive on the desktop, then File > Get Info. What does it say about permissions? If this is just a data drive you may want to consider "ignore ownership on this volume".
Otherwise I can only say I have not been reading good things about Seagate drives recently. I have some of their rock-solid ones from about 10 years ago (still running well), but now...?

Disk image mounts as read only

I have a set of disk images that are mounting as read only. How can I change the permissions for these images? The image files themselves have r/w permission, but when they get mounted, they are mounted as read only. The images are formatted as "Mac OS standard". I notice that Disk Utility now can only create images in Mac OS Extended. Is that the problem?

That obsolete volume format is no longer fully supported in Mavericks. You can read it, but you can't write to it.

All external Drives stopped mounting after repair disk permissions

My 2.3 GhzPPC G5 10.4.11 was running a bit slow so I ran repair disk permissions and now none of my external drives will mount, can't see them in disk utility either.
Drives work fine on my macbook pro.
I've searched for help but no luck..
Thanks for any advice...

Neil, you really should repair the disk before repairing permissions.
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Tiger Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
How to reset the SMU on a Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) or Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) ...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1436

[solved] External drive automatically mounted as read-only

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