[cumbria_lug] fat32 file system and linux

[cumbria@mailman.lug.org.uk]

guy.murray@boltblue.com wrote:
> Hi,
>    can anyone advise me on the following. I share a fat32 partition between 
> Linux and Windows XP. Linux only lets me write to the fat32 in root and 
> although telling me I own the files, it won't let me transfer ownership to a 
> user. This is a real pain.

 MS files on a 'fat' partition don't have owners and groups as do linux systems (at least not in a compatible way)
 so you can't change ownership from root without first moving the file (as root) to a linux file. (ownership doesn't matter with Windows) There are some options you can set in fstab if you post the line from fstab that mounts your partition I'll look and see if there are any helpfull options...

Try linking the partition from users home directories and giving them access rights to the link. 

> 
> Is this an inherent limitation of fat32 or is there a workaround?
> 
> the fat32 partition is mounted at start up using "vfat" in fstab.
> 
> thanks
> 
> 
> Guy