Hi, On Sat, May 03, 2025 at 06:22:45AM -0400, Haines Brown wrote: > I want to enable a user to copy files to a USB key mounted on a directory > under /media.
Are you talking about the automatic mounting under /media of a user's removable media devices (USB keys etc) under a desktop environment, or manual mounting that you are doing with "the "mount" command and/or the /etc/fstab file, possibly outside of a desktop environment? > I can change the ownership of that directory to that of the user, but > when I mount the the key on it the ownsrhip reverts to root. The reason why I ask the above is that under a mainstream Linux desktop environment you problem doesn't really exist - the current user's media will be mounted under /media/$USER/<something> and owned by them. The only way you should experience the problem you're describing in that circumstances is if you are trying to do file operations on the removable media as a user OTHER than the one logged in to the desktop environment. However if you are manually as root using the "mount" command to mount something under /media then yes by default the mount point is usually going to be owned by root. If the filesystem on the media supports Linux permissions then you could change the ownership of the root of it after it is mounted. If the filesystem doesn't support Linux permissions, like the common range of Microsoft filesystems like fat, exfat, vfat etc that are often seen on removable media, then you would need to specify the desired owner/group in the mount options either on the "mount" command line or in the options field in fstab. If your question has not by now been answered by this and other responses you've received, please post a transcription of your exact set of steps including full command output, "ls -la" of the mount point directory before and after your mount, contents of your /etc/fstab, and no censored details. Thanks, Andy -- https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting
