Applying permissions to external USB HD EXT4

[medicineman25]

Hey everybody!!,

I am new to the forum so just a quick hallo from Australia!! I am also new to pi and arch but really love them both. especially arch; so light. so yum.

So, it's Arch on Raspberry pi.

Externally mounted ext4. Running headless torrent (transmission). Had "Error: Permission denied" after a few minutes of downloading for any file, no I still have not run a full successful download.

There are 3 folders in my external hard drive; 'complete', 'incomplete' and 'torrentfiles'

When I apply:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'chmod -R 777 /mnt/MEDICINEBOX')

Nothing happens. No error returned or 'operation not permitted', just a new line in terminal opened as if the argument passed.

but when I cd to /mnt/MEDICINEBOX and run

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'ls -l')

it still returns:

#drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 512 Dec 6 12:08 complete (same for incomplete and torrentfiles)

So I trawled some more and found that permissions on mount points are irrelevant. So I ran:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'chmod -R 777 /mnt/MEDICINEBOX/complete')

then did the same for the 'incomplete' and 'torrentfiles' directories. Still nothing

I have tried every combination of chmod and own. I tried the letter combination $this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'chmod -R a=rwx /mnt/MEDICINEBOX/complete') again, the same for other directories. And still no result.

curiously, I tried to mess with the chmod command i.e. $this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'chmod -R 444 /mnt/MEDICINEBOX/complete')

just to see if, gee i dunno, something haha... but then when I ran $this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'ls -l') it still returned drwxr-xr-x ?? so not really sure what is happening there either...

I have tried adding the user 'transmission' when chown and still nothing.

I have also tried changing the group of mnt/MEDICINEBOX/complete (also /incomplete & /torrentfiles) to 'storage' but I get :Operation not permitted, even as root.

Basically the goal is to have the permissions set correctly so that Transmission can download to the external hard drive...

Apologies if this topic has already been covered, there seems to be one other, very short thread regarding this issue however it is fairly old and I have attempted the solutions given (outlined above, links below):

http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=5349&p=30215&hilit=file+permissions#p30215

Any suggestions would be awesome, Cheers

[Socaltom]

check this wiki page under "choosing a user"
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Transmission

Personally, I would continue to use the default tranmission user & group, but instead of the chmod 777 I would go with

chwon transmission:transmission <dirs of choice>

Then you are better protected, and the root can still move the files out as needed.
Tom

[medicineman25]

Yeh I've already tried that one... gave it another shot but it's returning:

chown: changing ownership of 'mnt/MEDICINEBOX' : Operation not permitted

[moonman]

Whats the output of 'mount' and are you root when executing the commands?

[sdjf]

If you pasted output rather than typed, then it may be you have two different "mnt" directories you are dealing with. Just to make sure, I would do the following:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
pwd
ls mnt/
ls /mnt/
')

[medicineman25]

Apologies for my absence. I volunteered my bed to someone in need and I have since been unable to re-visit the project. I will be online by Wednesday 09:00 EST. Cheers guys.

[medicineman25]

Back online. Forgot to mention there is a USB powered hub powering the pi, the harddrive and the fan (power rating is fine, 5A with 2A of running headroom)

Hub is then sending signal into the USB hub. I am going to split the cable and run power out of the hub and signal out of the pi.

Currently fixing a usb cable. Will report on progress as this project moves forward.