USB stick mounts read only

[MacDuff]

I have a Sandisk Cruiser I am trying to use with Ubuntu 9.04 and it mounts only as Read Only. It is immediately recognized and mounted at /media/disk but I cannot write to it no matter what I do.

I have tried to chown the drive and chmod but each time I get a message that the drive is read only and I cannot change ownership nor permissions.

It worked with Ubuntu 8.04 and it works with Virtual Windows XP in VirtualBox running on Ubuntu 9.04.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

[munky99999]

Does it boot properly?

Simply sounds like presistence isnt working.

Using the built-in usb creator in ubuntu + an iso. You should be able to adjust the "stored in reserved extra space" move it to like max on the bar and it should work.

[wojox]

Are you doing this through the terminal or nautilus?

[Jebtrix]

Post the output from (in terminal):

cat /etc/mtab

[MacDuff]

Here is the result of cat /etc/mtab


$ cat /etc/mtab
/dev/sda6 / ext3 rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 0
tmpfs /lib/init/rw tmpfs rw,nosuid,mode=0755 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
varrun /var/run tmpfs rw,nosuid,mode=0755 0 0
varlock /var/lock tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777 0 0
udev /dev tmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
fusectl /sys/fs/fuse/connections fusectl rw 0 0
lrm /lib/modules/2.6.28-13-generic/volatile tmpfs rw,mode=755 0 0
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs rw,devgid=46,devmode=664 0 0
securityfs /sys/kernel/security securityfs rw 0 0
binfmt_misc /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
//192.168.0.49/Volume_1 /media/RAID cifs rw,mand 0 0
//192.168.0.49/Volume_2 /media/*******AK cifs rw,mand 0 0
gvfs-fuse-daemon /home/mac/.gvfs fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon rw,nosuid,nodev,user=mac 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /media/disk vfat rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,shortname=mixed,uid=10 00,utf8,umask=077,flush 0 0

[synapsys]

Can you modify it with:

sudo nautilus /media/disk

?

If so, unmount it and change ownership of /media/disk.

[MacDuff]

Good Idea but No Joy

When I try your suggestion I get the following:
** (nautilus:3754): WARNING **: Unable to add monitor: Operation not supported

--- Hash table keys for warning below:
--> file:///media/disk

(nautilus:3754): Eel-WARNING **: "nautilus-metafile.c: metafiles" hash table still has 1 element at quit time (keys above)

(nautilus:3754): Eel-WARNING **: "nautilus-directory.c: directories" hash table still has 1 element at quit time
mac@T-61:~$

Mac

[MacDuff]

We can put PAID to this. The problem appears to be that the SanDisk Cruzer has built-in security that prevents the stick from mounting as read/write on Ubuntu 9.04. (Oddly it will work perfectly with V. 8.04).

The solution was to put the stick into a Windows System and re-format the stick to remove the security partition (also removes the data partition). It now auto-mounts and works as a simple (non secured) USB storage device with read/write privileges.

[synapsys]

The first thing I do when I buy any type of storage media is wipe it. Sorry I was assuming everybody did that. You can implement your own security if you are worried about that. I would use at least 128 bit encryption.

[MacDuff]

Yes that works BUT should not be necessary, at least not if all the dependencies required to work with DOS formated devices are installed.

It was not necessary with Ubuntu with versions 8.04 and earlier. Something has changed in later versions which has created complications, not only when using some USB devices but also connecting formerly compatible Network Accessible Storage Devices.

Some people have been able to circumvent the problem with changes to the OS but nothing they have done appears to work on my 9.04 system.

Quel frustration!