usb stick on two linux machines [solved]

[derxen]

Hello

 

I want to use a usb-stick on two linux machines, one at work, one at home. I have different user names on the two. How do I make the files readable, writable, and executable for me on both, without making all the files rwx for others? Is there a way?

 

derxen

[K Bergen]

You didn't say what file system the stick is formated as.

 

If it's vfat then whoever mounts it had full rwx permissions to all files as Windows file systems don't use or understand Unix permissions.

 

If it's a Linux file system you could change the group for all the files you wish to share to something like "usbsticks" with rw- permissions then create that group on both computers and add that group to the all users you want to have access to the stick.

[derxen]

Sorry, should have mentioned that, it's ext3. What complicates things is that I don't have root access on the work computer, it's a (experimental) linux work station. So creating a group is no option.

 

derxen

[scarecrow]

Mount the stick and then as root change the permissions

# chmod -R 0777 /media/usbstick

(or whatever mount point it posesses).

I cannot find a good reason to have a journaling filesystem in USB sticks. ext2 should be a better choice.

Edited May 18, 2010 by scarecrow

[derxen]

Thanks, changing permissions to 777 is what I did, but I now realize that I have to use the usb-stick on windows machines as well every one in a while, so it's back to vfat. (Can someone mark this topic as solved?)

 

Out of curiosity: why is ext3 useless for usb-sticks?

 

derxen

Edited May 11, 2010 by derxen

[K Bergen]

I believe that you can edit your first post and add (Solved) to the subject line.

 

ext3 isn't exactly useless but it is a journaling file system and will increase the writes to the stick thus wearing it out a little sooner.

[ianw1974]

You can mount ext2/ext3 under Windows.

 

http://www.fs-driver.org/

[derxen]

That's interesting. It wouldn't be any use for me though, they're not computers I could easily install anything on. I've reformatted it with FAT, it's the best solution.

 

Thanks everyone.

derxen