Edit:
Well, fstab doesn't matter, because those aren't my external partitions...just my windows partition and my /share partition. But hotplug or whatever it is, doesn't allow a regular user to write to the external drives, so help with that would be great. I don't see an /etc/hotplug directory.
End Edit

(Original post which doesn't apply to my external, but I'd still like help with fstab and/or a Control Center.
I've decided to try to go to Ubuntu full-time on my laptop. One major problem I'm having is that there is not (or I cannot find) a Control Center like MCC. A good example of what I might need it for is that Ubuntu set up all my external drive partitions so that only root has the ability to write to them (and I don't understand fstab enough to fix it, especially with Gutsy's new way of writing fstab). Here's an example of what my external partitions look like in /etc/fstab:


Well, I guess the upgrade to Edgy changed 'em.
ohms@ohms-laptop:~$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 7.10 \n \l

ohms@ohms-laptop:~$ uname -r
2.6.22-14-386
ohms@ohms-laptop:~$ uname -a
Linux ohms-laptop 2.6.22-14-386 #1 Tue Dec 18 07:34:24 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

Any help? I really wouldn't mind some kind of graphical control center (I thought Ubuntu was good for n00bs).

I am running (K)Ubuntu 6.10 edgy on a ASUS W7J laptop. There is no equivalent to MCC. The closest thing you are going to find if you are a KDE user is kcontrol. However, I seem to recall you are a gnome guy correct?

All in all, I prefer the Mandriva 2005 on my desktop machine to the Ubuntu on my laptop.

It's Ubuntu- so the only good way to give certain permissions to unprivileged users is "visudo", and adding custom rules there.
Of course you can use other methods, but they are outside the generic *buntu philosophy.
And yes... *buntu has no equivalent to MCC... which is a VERY good thing!

How is it a very good thing to not be able to easily administer your system?

Ok. I still can't get my user to be able to add/delete/modify files in external disks. I added my user to the plugdev group, which was suggested on a site I found in google.



Any ideas?

well if i could find the source code for it I was thinking of making a port for MCC for ubuntu/debian based distributions.
Once I get another computer I was thinking of developing a new linux distribution based on debian (as that is what I am most familiar with)

Nobody forces you to use MCC if you are masochistic enough

btw Mandriva does not force you to do it THEIR way as *buntu, which is a VERY good thing!

I for my part ripped out the UUID of the fstab of my Ubuntu installation and after that I had much less trouble

i don't necessarily believe that either philosophy is any better.

mandriva is marketing a usable desktop OS. good for them. they've got the tools for it

ubuntu (by using a debian base!) markets to a different group of people automatically even if they don't want to do so. by not including those tools they are raising the level of expertise which a user must have and removing more of the new windows converts. that's cool too.

i like a lot of the debian-based tools way more than the mandriva/redhat/fedora rpm-based way of doing things. it's just all depending on what you're looking for in an os.

so, Steve, let me ask why the swap to ubuntu?