Cannot change permissions for flash drive [Solved]

[xh1]

I have a 256GB SanDisk that's relatively new. I have been using it just a handful of time without any issues. Now for whatever reason it no longer mounts when I plug it in. Sometimes it does mount after a long wait and then with a message that I have no permissions. I tried opening it as root and change the permissions for my username, (which is currently read only), but as soon as I click 'read write' it reverts back to read only.
Do you guys know what's going on? and how I can fix it?

Thanks

[Eadwine Rose]

According to the forum rules (please read): Please provide full Quick System Info from the menu, use copy for forum button, no edits.

LiveUSB version is OK if needed.

[xh1]

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 6.10.10-1-liquorix-amd64 [6.10-12~mx23ahs] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0 parameters: audit=0
    intel_pstate=disable BOOT_IMAGE=/antiX/vmlinuz quiet splasht nosplash tz=America/New_York
    persist_static splasht
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.20.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.6_ahs_x64 Libretto September 15  2024 base: Debian GNU/Linux
    12 (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Nimo Direct product: N154B v: N/A serial: <superuser required> Chassis:
    type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Nimo Direct model: Portable Computer serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American
    Megatrends LLC. v: DN21CRV207 date: 03/19/2025
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 13.4 Wh (25.5%) condition: 52.6/53.6 Wh (98.2%) volts: 10.5 min: 11.4
    model: Intel SR 1 SR Real Battery type: Unknown serial: <filter> status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: model: 12th Gen Intel Core i3-1215U bits: 64 type: MST AMCP arch: Alder Lake level: v3
    note: check built: 2021+ process: Intel 7 (10nm ESF) family: 6 model-id: 0x9A (154) stepping: 4
    microcode: 0x432
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 6 mt: 2 tpc: 2 st: 4 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache: L1: 544 KiB
    desc: d-4x32 KiB, 2x48 KiB; i-2x32 KiB, 4x64 KiB L2: 4.5 MiB desc: 2x1.2 MiB, 1x2 MiB L3: 10 MiB
    desc: 1x10 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 962 high: 2501 min/max: 400/2501 boost: enabled scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq
    governor: ondemand cores: 1: 500 2: 500 3: 400 4: 2501 5: 400 6: 2501 7: 500 8: 400
    bogomips: 39936
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling mitigation: Clear Register File
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced / Automatic IBRS; IBPB: conditional; RSB filling;
    PBRSB-eIBRS: SW sequence; BHI: BHI_DIS_S
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-UP3 GT1 [UHD Graphics] vendor: IP3 Tech driver: i915 v: kernel
    alternate: xe arch: Gen-12.2 process: Intel 10nm built: 2021-22+ ports: active: eDP-1
    empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1,HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:46b3 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Sunplus IT Co PC Camera type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 3-5:3
    chip-ID: 2ef4:4944 class-ID: 0102
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.20.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 509x286mm (20.04x11.26") s-diag: 584mm (22.99")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: BOE Display 0x0c4e built: 2023 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 142
    gamma: 1.2 size: 344x194mm (13.54x7.64") diag: 395mm (15.5") ratio: 16:9 modes: 1920x1080
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 25.0.4-1~mx23ahs+1 renderer: Mesa Intel Graphics (ADL GT2)
    direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake PCH-P High Definition Audio vendor: IP3 Tech driver: snd_hda_intel
    bus-ID: 3-5:3 v: kernel alternate: snd_soc_avs,snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl chip-ID: 2ef4:4944
    class-ID: 0102 bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:51c8 class-ID: 0401
  Device-2: Sunplus IT Co PC Camera type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
  API: ALSA v: k6.10.10-1-liquorix-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-P PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel modules: wl bus-ID: 00:14.3
    chip-ID: 8086:51f0 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX201 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 3-10:6 chip-ID: 8087:0026
    class-ID: e001
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 3.0 lmp-v: 5.2
    sub-v: 37c8 hci-v: 5.2 rev: 37c8
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:4 sco-mtu: 96:6 link-policy: rswitch sniff link-mode: peripheral accept
    service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio, telephony
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.2 TiB used: 224.89 GiB (18.4%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Western Digital model: WD Green SN350 1TB 2G0C
    size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD
    serial: <filter> rev: 236050WD temp: 33.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 type: USB vendor: Samsung model: Flash Drive FIT size: 59.75 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 1100 scheme: MBR
  SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
  ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: USB 3.2Gen1 size: 232.97 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 1.00 scheme: MBR
  SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
Partition:
  Message: No partition data found.
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    file: /live/boot-dev/swap-file
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2191 libs: 1091 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/mxlinux/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
    2: deb http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/mxlinux/mx/repo/ bookworm ahs
Info:
  Processes: 353 Uptime: 1m wakeups: 3510 Memory: 31.09 GiB used: 1.41 GiB (4.5%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

[CharlesV]

What is the USB drive formatted as ? I have found that ext4 is by far the best USB drive format. I have had issues with ntfs, fat32 etc... usually when copying files. However, I have had them 'lock' up on me if I put them into a windows machine and then attempted to use them back in a linux box, when the drive was ntfs or fat32.)

[xh1]

Code: Select all

$ lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0         7:0    0   2.3G  1 loop /live/linux
loop1         7:1    0    20G  0 loop /live/persist-root
loop2         7:2    0    20G  0 loop /home
sda           8:0    1  59.8G  0 disk 
├─sda1        8:1    1  59.7G  0 part /home/blue/Live-usb-storage
│                                     /home/demo/Live-usb-storage
│                                     /root/Live-usb-storage
│                                     /live/boot-dev
└─sda2        8:2    1    49M  0 part 
sdb           8:16   0 223.6G  0 disk 
└─sdb1        8:17   0 223.6G  0 part /media/demo/Backups
sdc           8:32   1   233G  0 disk 
└─sdc1        8:33   1   233G  0 part /media/demo/MAC-GLYPH
nvme0n1     259:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0   128M  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0   100M  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p3 259:3    0 929.4G  0 part 
└─nvme0n1p4 259:4    0   1.8G  0 part 
demo@mx1:~
$ sudo blkid /dev/sdc1
[sudo] password for demo:     
/dev/sdc1: LABEL_FATBOOT="MAC-GLYPH" LABEL="MAC-GLYPH" UUID="31A1-B11F" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat"
demo@mx1:~

[CharlesV]

If your talking about the vfat disk.. then I suspect that could very well be the issue. The VFat format does not support linux permissions, and it also could be being locked by windows if your sharing that drive.

If you can, I would put it under etx4, which has journaling, performance improvements as well as obviously supporting linux permissions.

[xh1]

Is it possible to change the file system without formatting the drive or losing the data? What do I need to do?

[DukeComposed]

Is it possible to change the file system without formatting the drive or losing the data?

That is not possible, no.

[atomick]

Could try but think its now a common asset in tool feature by MX.. ntfs-3g
yes it is in /bin ( this feature allows read and right to NTFS file systems or drives from Windows plugged into Linux distro.)
per vfat or super-vfat used more for smaller all portable plugin drives seen at /media/name/drive_info_drive_label description.

so a thought be if you have space on your core drive and or another free lot of space copy this drive content off you want to save
and fire up Gparted to re Address this drive if your growing with Linux more as daily driver and repurpose the drive with ext4 formatting, (copy back to re-assume process usage ).

meaning you will have to delete what current defined is and reset the partition reformat as EXT4 file system and your going to be more happy in the long distance usage.

to my past resizing a current set partition is possible, changing the file system No never seen that, format is the only result to make change.