Permissions problem?

[réjean]

Hi everyone!

I haven't asked questions for quite a while now but have read many of the posts without commenting but I now have a problem which should be simple for you but is puzzling me.

Someone gave me a computer that doesn't work anymore but the hard drive is still good. I partitioned it last night and installed Ubuntu on it. It is a 1 TB drive and I created a storage partition (sdb1, 500 GB) XFS, then a (sdb5, 10 GB) Swap partition, a (sdb6, 40 GB) / partition and a (sdb7, 60 GB) /home partition, with 390 free space left, planing to install more distros later.

This afternoon I transfered some folders from my other hard drive and from my wife's computer (Windows) downstairs both on the storage drive and the /home partition. Everything looked good!

This evening I rebooted from the other hard drive which runs Mint but I couldn't see the partitions and their content that I created last night and this afternoon. I rebooted into Ubuntu (the new hard drive) no problem but again I cannot see the 500 GB partition (sdb1) nor the content of the Document folder on the 60 GB.

I am posting from Ubuntu so the hard drive is working and when I check the disk I am told it is fine but I cannot see the storage partition nor what's in the Document folder. What should I do?

Thanks in advance for any suggestion.

[réjean]

Back in Linux Mint (sda11) and transferring again files and folders from wife's computer to storage partition (sda1). I'll see how it goes.

[réjean]

recap: 2 computers ->wife's Windows

->me; 2 hardrives; sda-> Linux Mint (sd11)

sdb->4 partitions;storage (xfs), swap, Ubuntu / (sdb6), Ubuntu /home (sdb7)

 

from Mint I can paste folders from Windows and Mint to storage but after reboot they disappear

I can paste folders from Windows and Mint to Ubuntu Documents (sdb7) and I can see them again after reboot into either Mint or Ubuntu.

 

Ubuntu doesn't see storage partition (sdb1) but can paste folders from Windows to itself (sdb7).

[réjean]

Since this afternoon when I boot into Linux Mint I get the following message;

User's $HOME/.dmrc file being ignored. This prevents the default session and language from being saved. File should be owned by user and have 644 permissions. User's $HOME directory must be owned by user and not writable by other users.

.

Which I am ignoring but can it have an impact on the copy and pasting from other computers or machines? And why would this impact my not seeing the storage partition from Ubuntu.

 

I could reinstall Ubuntu or not have it at all since I have it on another machine and install something else in it's place, or make the whole new hard drive just a storage partition.

[abarbarian]

Since this afternoon when I boot into Linux Mint I get the following message;

User's $HOME/.dmrc file being ignored. This prevents the default session and language from being saved. File should be owned by user and have 644 permissions. User's $HOME directory must be owned by user and not writable by other users.

.

Which I am ignoring but can it have an impact on the copy and pasting from other computers or machines? And why would this impact my not seeing the storage partition from Ubuntu.

 

I could reinstall Ubuntu or not have it at all since I have it on another machine and install something else in it's place, or make the whole new hard drive just a storage partition.

 

Permissions are not my strong suit but MX-16 might be a good replacement or Bunsen Labs or if your feeling adventurous Netrunner.. Netrunner is apparently running a KDE that is very nicely optimized to run well on older kit.

 

[raymac46]

This may help.

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=976610

How have you got GRUB set up? Is it on sda and chainloading Ubuntu? My preference would be to keep all O/S on sda and use sdb strictly for storage.

Also how does /etc/fstab look for both distros?

[Hedon James]

I was thinking along the same lines as Ray. Sounds like a GRUB issue to me, so I'd start there first.

 

If I understand you correctly, Ubuntu seems to be working as expected, but Mint still reflects your "older" configuration. Perhaps a simple sudo update-grub from within Mint will fix things? But if you have 2 GRUBS, on 2 separate drives, this could rise above my pay-grade very quickly. Might be a job for Yanni's Boot Repair?

 

https://launchpad.net/~yannubuntu/+archive/ubuntu/boot-repair

 

With respect to Ubuntu not seeing your storage partition (formatted XFS), what version of Ubuntu are you using? I'm not familiar with XFS formatting, or recommended use cases, so I'm only GUESSING that perhaps Ubuntu is missing some XFS support out-of-the-box. Perhaps this may be of interest:

 

https://linuxacademy.com/community/posts/show/topic/1502-how-to-install-xfs-filesystem-in-ubuntu-1404-lts

 

Interesting problem, Rejean, but it sounds like maybe you have 2 or 3 minor overlaying issues, rather than 1 major fix. I'll be watching this thread for resolution...

[réjean]

This may help.

https://ubuntuforums...ad.php?t=976610

How have you got GRUB set up? Is it on sda and chainloading Ubuntu? My preference would be to keep all O/S on sda and use sdb strictly for storage.

Also how does /etc/fstab look for both distros?

 

Thanks ray!

I tried what they suggested;

sudo chown rejean /home/rejean/.dmrc

and

chmod 644 /home/rejean/.dmrc

 

but upon rebooting I got the same message. I am not too worried since it doesn't seem to affect my use of Mint.

Here is my /etc/fstab;

/etc/fstab: static file system information.

#

# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a

# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices

# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).

#

# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>

# / was on /dev/sdb10 during installation

UUID=0e04afbf-70e2-4973-b1f2-c3f00a3d8589 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1

# /home was on /dev/sdb11 during installation

UUID=8c9b1726-ef50-4c60-92e2-4d6bb88316a7 /home ext4 defaults 0 2

# swap was on /dev/sdb7 during installation

UUID=a0e35828-c001-41df-be34-99d8f179cca3 none swap sw 0 0

[réjean]

I was thinking along the same lines as Ray. Sounds like a GRUB issue to me, so I'd start there first.

 

If I understand you correctly, Ubuntu seems to be working as expected, but Mint still reflects your "older" configuration. Perhaps a simple sudo update-grub from within Mint will fix things? But if you have 2 GRUBS, on 2 separate drives, this could rise above my pay-grade very quickly. Might be a job for Yanni's Boot Repair?

 

https://launchpad.ne...ntu/boot-repair

 

With respect to Ubuntu not seeing your storage partition (formatted XFS), what version of Ubuntu are you using? I'm not familiar with XFS formatting, or recommended use cases, so I'm only GUESSING that perhaps Ubuntu is missing some XFS support out-of-the-box. Perhaps this may be of interest:

 

https://linuxacademy...ubuntu-1404-lts

 

Interesting problem, Rejean, but it sounds like maybe you have 2 or 3 minor overlaying issues, rather than 1 major fix. I'll be watching this thread for resolution...

 

Thanks James!

I normally install the grub of a new distro on its own / partition and then go into my main distro (actually Linux Mint) and do a "upgrade-grub" except that this time I installed the Ubuntu grub on the master of the 2nd hard drive (sdb) and then did the "upgrade-grub".

I have no problem booting into either distro so I don't think I have a grub problem and indeed it seems to be a few small problems and not a unique big one.

I will reinstall Ubuntu (after formatting the whole sdb drive) because I vaguely remember choosing "/tmp" as a mounting point for the XFS storage partition. I've never used XFS before (it used to be ntfs) and was puzzled why I needed a mounting point, and /tmp seemed to be the most logical choice offered to me beside /var and a few others.

[réjean]

 

With respect to Ubuntu not seeing your storage partition (formatted XFS), what version of Ubuntu are you using? I'm not familiar with XFS formatting, or recommended use cases, so I'm only GUESSING that perhaps Ubuntu is missing some XFS support out-of-the-box. Perhaps this may be of interest:

 

https://linuxacademy...ubuntu-1404-lts

 

Interesting problem, Rejean, but it sounds like maybe you have 2 or 3 minor overlaying issues, rather than 1 major fix. I'll be watching this thread for resolution...

 

I tried what they suggested just for the fun of it and got the following;

rejean@rejean-G41MT-S2PT:~$ sudo apt-get install xfs libguestfs-xfs partman-xfs xfslibs-dev xfsprogs
[sudo] password for rejean:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree	  
Reading state information... Done
Package xfs is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'xfs' has no installation candidate
E: Unable to locate package partman-xfs
rejean@rejean-G41MT-S2PT:~$ 

 

so I will reinstall this evening.

[raymac46]

I assume that your /etc/fstab/ is from the install on the "new" drive. I don't see any reference to sda so it isn't getting mounted as far as I can see. What does the /etc/fstab look like on the other drive?

[réjean]

I assume that your /etc/fstab/ is from the install on the "new" drive. I don't see any reference to sda so it isn't getting mounted as far as I can see. What does the /etc/fstab look like on the other drive?

Confusing because the /etc/fstab is from the Mint distro. I assume it says "sdb" because at the time I installed it there was another hard drive which died on me.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Hi, réjean!

[réjean]

Hi, réjean!

Hi Eric!

[raymac46]

I'm not sure what's going on and I don't know if I can help beyond some general thoughts. I haven't had more than one distro on any machine since before GRUB 2 came along.

However when I did try this I had one GRUB in control, edited it and chainloaded the other distros through it. I kept all the distros on one drive. Also when I was chainloading I did not try any fancy partitioning - just kept everything in / for a given distro. If a chainloaded distro needed LILO or GRUB I always installed it at root, not the MBR except for the master distro.

Right now I'm running two drives on my Linux box, but I have only one distro installed and the second hard drive is simply for data. I edited /etc/fstab to mount it automatically in my /home/ray directory as datadrive2. Other folks mount it in the /media directory. Just make sure your user ID is the owner of the 2nd drive and all its files. You don't want to have it controlled by the root user.

I still think the problem has to do with 2 GRUBS fighting over control.

Maybe the more experienced multi-distro users will be more helpful.

[réjean]

I'm not sure what's going on and I don't know if I can help beyond some general thoughts. I haven't had more than one distro on any machine since before GRUB 2 came along.

However when I did try this I had one GRUB in control, edited it and chainloaded the other distros through it. I kept all the distros on one drive. Also when I was chainloading I did not try any fancy partitioning - just kept everything in / for a given distro. If a chainloaded distro needed LILO or GRUB I always installed it at root, not the MBR except for the master distro.

Right now I'm running two drives on my Linux box, but I have only one distro installed and the second hard drive is simply for data. I edited /etc/fstab to mount it automatically in my /home/ray directory as datadrive2. Other folks mount it in the /media directory. Just make sure your user ID is the owner of the 2nd drive and all its files. You don't want to have it controlled by the root user.

I still think the problem has to do with 2 GRUBS fighting over control.

Maybe the more experienced multi-distro users will be more helpful.

 

I am making some progress. I reinstalled Ubuntu, formatted all the partitions on /sdb and made the storage partition (sdb1) fat 32 and the mount point windows. After rebooting Ubuntu doesn't see the partition ( that's ok I have Ubuntu working on another machine. I'm using it right now) but from Linux Mint (sda) I see the storage partition and can move files and folders from my wife's machine and Mint. So I'm happy as it is.

I like having at least 3 places where I can save my wife's data (our business) because one time lightning hit our road and zapped the 2 machines we had at the time plus a few other households. Another time I lost 1 hard drive but at least my wife's machine was ok and I had another drive with the data.

[sunrat]

Is your UID the same in Mint and Ubuntu?

Is your $HOME shared? I always use separate /home for separate distros to avoid issues such as this.

You should be able to mount it as root read-only at least. I have some shared partitions mounted to directories in $HOME using fstab entries and they are directly accessible. Example fstab entry -

LABEL=Music			 /home/roger/Music		  auto users,noatime    0  0

[Hedon James]

I'm not sure what's going on and I don't know if I can help beyond some general thoughts. I haven't had more than one distro on any machine since before GRUB 2 came along.

However when I did try this I had one GRUB in control, edited it and chainloaded the other distros through it. I kept all the distros on one drive. Also when I was chainloading I did not try any fancy partitioning - just kept everything in / for a given distro. If a chainloaded distro needed LILO or GRUB I always installed it at root, not the MBR except for the master distro.

Right now I'm running two drives on my Linux box, but I have only one distro installed and the second hard drive is simply for data. I edited /etc/fstab to mount it automatically in my /home/ray directory as datadrive2. Other folks mount it in the /media directory. Just make sure your user ID is the owner of the 2nd drive and all its files. You don't want to have it controlled by the root user.

I still think the problem has to do with 2 GRUBS fighting over control.

Maybe the more experienced multi-distro users will be more helpful.

 

I think Ray is correct. Mint GRUB is installed and works just fine when booting Mint; Ubuntu GRUB is installed and works just fine when booting Ubuntu; they just aren't "aware" of each other and don't "see" each other. On the other hand, "seeing" and mounting the XFS storage partition is a head scratcher for me. XFS driver support is the only thing I can think of. Out of curiousity, why XFS? If compatibility with Windows AND Linux is the goal, why not NTFS or FAT? Or perhaps EXT4, and install EXT2FS in the Windows machine? Just thinking out loud, trying to help determine options...

[réjean]

Is your UID the same in Mint and Ubuntu?

Is your $HOME shared? I always use separate /home for separate distros to avoid issues such as this.

You should be able to mount it as root read-only at least. I have some shared partitions mounted to directories in $HOME using fstab entries and they are directly accessible. Example fstab entry -

LABEL=Music			 /home/roger/Music		 auto users,noatime 0 0

I have given up sharing the same /home between distros. Not sure what you ask about the UID being the same in Mint and Ubuntu since they are on a separate hard drive.

 

Here is my /etc/fstab for Ubuntu;

 

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sdb6 during installation
UUID=2441863c-b014-4a09-9591-bd6a5b30a03e /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /home was on /dev/sdb7 during installation
UUID=9b143458-0fca-4c0c-956d-8e3424ab3af5 /home           ext4    defaults        0       2
# /windows was on /dev/sdb1 during installation
UUID=B27B-CD14  /windows        vfat    utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=a0e35828-c001-41df-be34-99d8f179cca3 none            swap    sw              0       0
# swap was on /dev/sdb5 during installation
UUID=8e9da6ef-2d76-428f-bd44-e5e94d64ba84 none            swap    sw              0       

 

and the one for Mint;

 

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sdb10 during installation
UUID=0e04afbf-70e2-4973-b1f2-c3f00a3d8589 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /home was on /dev/sdb11 during installation
UUID=8c9b1726-ef50-4c60-92e2-4d6bb88316a7 /home           ext4    defaults        0       2
# swap was on /dev/sdb7 during installation
UUID=a0e35828-c001-41df-be34-99d8f179cca3 none            swap    sw              0       0

 

except that it is now /sda and not /sdb. Should I change it?

Edited January 30, 2017 by réjean

[réjean]

I'm not sure what's going on and I don't know if I can help beyond some general thoughts. I haven't had more than one distro on any machine since before GRUB 2 came along.

However when I did try this I had one GRUB in control, edited it and chainloaded the other distros through it. I kept all the distros on one drive. Also when I was chainloading I did not try any fancy partitioning - just kept everything in / for a given distro. If a chainloaded distro needed LILO or GRUB I always installed it at root, not the MBR except for the master distro.

Right now I'm running two drives on my Linux box, but I have only one distro installed and the second hard drive is simply for data. I edited /etc/fstab to mount it automatically in my /home/ray directory as datadrive2. Other folks mount it in the /media directory. Just make sure your user ID is the owner of the 2nd drive and all its files. You don't want to have it controlled by the root user.

I still think the problem has to do with 2 GRUBS fighting over control.

Maybe the more experienced multi-distro users will be more helpful.

 

I think Ray is correct. Mint GRUB is installed and works just fine when booting Mint; Ubuntu GRUB is installed and works just fine when booting Ubuntu; they just aren't "aware" of each other and don't "see" each other. On the other hand, "seeing" and mounting the XFS storage partition is a head scratcher for me. XFS driver support is the only thing I can think of. Out of curiousity, why XFS? If compatibility with Windows AND Linux is the goal, why not NTFS or FAT? Or perhaps EXT4, and install EXT2FS in the Windows machine? Just thinking out loud, trying to help determine options...

I did reinstalled Ubuntu and this time (after formatting it) I made the storage partition (sda1) Fat 32 instead of XFS. I used to make them NTFS but cannot see this option so I thought that XFS was the type that replaced it.

At least now I can access the partition from Mint even if it is on the other hard drive (sda11) and I don't care if I cannot use Ubuntu since I have it on another machine. I did install MX16 last night (on sda9) and will probably start a new thread about it soon.