Changing Permissions

JD P,
I will take a look at that. I agree with you that it is fun. I've already learned a lot installing to four other machines including two new builds. I thought it would be relatively easy to install on my friends laptop, but the two hard drives surprised me and couldn't find much on how to partition with two internal drives installed. (only dual boot stuff which I did on my first installation). Thanks again for the link!
 


John, you couldn't unmount /usr because it has files in use.

Since your data partition isn't being mounted at startup, the easier way is simply to modify fstab to mount it on your directory within your home directory.

First thing, post the contents of /etc/fstab, and delete the symbolic link you made earlier (/home/randy/Data). Next just create a directory named Data in /home/randy (mkdir /home/randy/Data) Then, I can show you how to modify the fstab file to automatically mount that partition in the right place.
 
Grumpyoldman,
OK, here are the contents of /etc/fstab:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=92d15c39-dd88-4872-bac6-2a7706b654b1 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=6c0ac1e9-10d2-41d7-ab6a-042debfe7374 /boot ext4 defaults 0 2
# /home was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=2b959597-c48e-4e2d-925b-e1e35cd18b3d /home ext4 defaults 0 2
# /usr was on /dev/sdb1 during installation
UUID=4719878e-cb84-4f21-9288-914da160301e /usr ext4 defaults 0 2

you lost me on everything after that :-(
 
I think I found it, it has a little lock on it. Also I noticed that diditwork file is in the home folder if it makes any difference? Hope you can see it in the screenshot....
Screenshot from 2015-02-28 17_13_41.png
 
It is usually easiest to do "partition things" by booting off a liveCD or Flash drive.

It gets more complicated if LVM or encryption were used.

This applies to fsck stuff too, but you can force an fsck at boot, if the fstab allows and you create the forcefsck file in the root of the file system.
 
OK, John, here's what you're gonna do:

First, delete that link you made:

rm /home/randy/Data

Then create a directory there:

mkdir /home/randy/Data

Next, you need to find the UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier):

sudo blkid /dev/sdb2

Now, you need to modify /etc/fstab. To do that I think the easiest way is to use vi:

sudo vi /etc/fstab

Once that's open, use the arrow keys to go to the bottom line, then hit the end key (to go to the end of that line), then type an "a" character. That puts you into append mode. Hit the enter key, then type:

UUID=<whatever your UUID is> /home/randy/data ext4 defaults 0 2

Then hit the esc key to exit append mode, then type a colon <:> to enter command mode, then the x key to save and quit.

Now, whenever your computer is started, that partition will be mounted for use on /home/randy/Data, and you should be able to read and write to it. There may still be some horsing around with permissions, but this SHOULD get you 90% of the way there, without lots of ongoing fussing around.
 
Grumpyoldman,
Sorry for the delay in getting back. I gave the laptop back to Randy and she is perfectly happy with the computer the way it is now. It seems way too complicated to fuss any more with it now, but in the future when the next stable release of Mint comes out I will reinstall the way you suggested in post #10. I thank you all for taking the time to help, and I have certainly learned a lot. Just worried that I will mess it all up at this point, so will leave well enough alone. Thanks again!!
 

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