/etc/fstab bing a very important NTFS drive on boot (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by Skullgrid@lemmy.world to c/linux4noobs@programming.dev

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Debian 13.

I have an FSTAB config that auto mounts a second drive , NTFS fstype that used to be on windows (same laptop) UUID=666 /media/userName/Data auto defaults,nofail,x-systemd.automount 0 2

Because the /media/userName/Data path was made in a way that didn't transfer ownership to my user, and because I am clueless about user/group management on linux, Virtual machine manager and jenkins and all the other program based users that don't really get a "real" user I can manage on cockpit or similar (AFAIK) can't use that disk for writing information to and etc.

I already tried to change owner to a shared group in a shitty way that locked me out of that very important drive. Also, it doesn't seem to work anyway, and just fucking sets it back to root or ignores it when I try to do it.

What's the simplest change I can make to the fstab entry or ownership to make use of that drive for jenkins pipelines , steam games and most importantly, Virtual Machine Manager guest machines?

This shit scares me, and I have very little time, so I will get back to you guys in due time, and appreciate your assistance.

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[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The options user and users allow any user to mount or unmount that device. It doesn't mean that they actually have some permission for reading from or writing to that device. Afaik, the option groups=<gid> doesn't exist.

[-] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I changed the fstab to :

UUID=666 /media/myUser/Data auto defaults,nofail,x-systemd.automount,uid=1000,gid=1000 0 2

then did the following (among others)

$ chown otherUser fart.txt 
chown: changing ownership of 'fart.txt': Operation not permitted
$ sudo !!
sudo chown otherUser fart.txt 
[sudo] password for myUser: 
$ ls -l
total 16
-rwxrwxrwx 1 myUser myUser    0 Oct 14 17:27 fart.txt

I also did try with

setfacl -g g:sharedFolders fart.txt

and it still didn't change the group.

/media/myUser/Data/docs/Subfolder/Again

is the path. The other user did mention that because this is an NTFS drive so it won't work, are they right?

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The other user did mention that because this is an NTFS drive so it won't work, are they right?

Yes, the uid and gid you are setting in fstab simulate a linux uid:gid style ownership of the files an directories on the device. They can't be changed.
You may create a group, let's call it ntfsusers, and add the users that need to use the files and directories on the ntfs partition to that group and assign gid with the group id of ntfsusers in fstab.

[-] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

that's what I meant with this :

can I share it with a group like that too? like 1003?

UUID=666 /media/userName/Data auto uid=1000,gid=1000,groups=1003 defaults,nofail,x-systemd.automount 0 2
?

I already have a group like that, sharedFolders, if I use the ID from that eg :

getent group
sharedFolders:x:1003:myUser,otherUser,root

and modify FSTAb like this :

UUID=666 /media/myUser/Data auto defaults,nofail,x-systemd.automount,uid=1000,gid=1003 0 2

would that work?

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 1 points 1 week ago

At least the files and directories should then have the right ownership.

[-] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I did set it to that, and the folder I am mounting to now has this :


$ ls -l
total 24
drwxr-x---+ 3 root root           4096 Aug 28 18:28 .
drwxr-xr-x  4 root root           4096 Jan 17  2026 ..
drwxrwxrwx  1 myUser  sharedFolders 16384 Sep 28 23:15 Data

$pwd 
/media/myUser

but when I login as otherUser, they cannot access the /media/myUser/Data folder. What could I be doing wrong?

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Which groups does your ordinary user belong to and which the one that cannot acces the path?

Does the group sharedFolders have permission on the folder /media/myUser/Data before you have mounted the device?

this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2026

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