mintstick formats usb as root

[Bee]

Linux Mint 16 xfce 32-bit

When I format a USB stick with either USB Stick Formatter (aka mintstick) or GParted as ext4 (or ext2) owner is set to root and files can not be dragged to it.

I can change owner to me (current user), and then it works.

This will not work for some of the people I install Linux Mint, they have no clue what root is or how to change owner.

Should USB Stick Formatter set owner to the current user?

Bill

[chemicalfan (mike-lumsden)]

Where are you seeing the "owner" as root? When you format it, there won't be any files on it, and any files you copy over should have the same ownership as the original. It might be mounted as read-only - if you unplug and replug the drive after formatting it, does it behave as expected?

Out of interest, why ext4 and not exFAT or FAT32 (if 4Gb or less)?

[Bee (200309-s)]

Linux Mint 16 xfce 32-bit

Note: ownership resulting from formatting as ext[2-4] is always root:root whether the drive is USB flash or USB harddrive.

> Where are you seeing the "owner" as root?

After formatting using either 'USB Stick Formatter' or 'GParted' to format as ext4, then unplug and replug:

+ right click on the mounted USB drive
+ select Properties
+ select Permissions
- Owner: root (root)

--OR--

If the current USER is 'tech' and the USB drive LABEL is 'ext4':

In terminal:
# cd /media/tech
# ls -laF
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 1024 Apr 11 08:18 ext4/

In terminal, I can:
# sudo chown -R tech:tech ext4

After the chown, the USB drive works as expected. That is, I can drag-and-drop files to the USB drive from desktop folders. But that is not an option for the people I am installing Linux Mint.

> When you format it, there won't be any files on it, and any files you copy over should have the same ownership as the original.

After formatting, it is NOT possible to copy files to it, because the USB drive has Owner root:root.

> It might be mounted as read-only - if you unplug and replug the drive after formatting it, does it behave as expected?

It is not mounted as read-only, unplug and replug change nothing.

> Out of interest, why ext4 and not exFAT or FAT32 (if 4Gb or less)?

FAT32 will format and be usable without the need to chown.
+ right click > Properties > Permissions Owner: tech (tech)

--BUT--

'USB Stick Formatter' only supports: FAT32, NTFS, and EXT4
'GParted' is more flexible, but results are the same.

Most USB drives I use are greater than 4 GB (16 and 32 GB)

Using rsync to backup to a FAT formatted USB drive, some files will not copy properly because of permissions.

--AND--

+ Curiosity.
+ I am new to Linux Mint, but not Linux.
+ There is a tool, and I MUST try it.

I get free WinXP laptops, install Linux, then give away to friends.

I try many apps so I know what to expect, and this was unexpected.

Bill

[Adrien Lamothe (alamo)]

I just experienced the same problem. The way to fix it is as follows (make sure the newly formatted stick is mounted first):

    $ sudo chown -R your_username:your_username /media/your_username/name_of_stick

After changing ownership of all the folders and files on the stick, you will now be able to access the stick when plugging it in (i.e. mounting it.)

Would be good if the usb stick utility set the ownership by default when formatting a stick, or better yet let the user specify which user will own the stick.