On Mon, 5 May 2008, James B. Byrne wrote:
I wish to change the ownership and access permissions of files and directories contained on this device. The device is immediately recognized and mounted when plugged in and I can create and move files on it. However, I cannot change either the permissions or the owner of any file or directory on this device, nor of the device mount itself, whether logged in as the owner or as root.
Why is this so and is their any way to alter this behaviour.
Most flash memory devices are formatted with a FAT or VFAT filesystem, which doesn't support Unix file permissions.
If you're only using the device under Linux, you can re-format it with your filesystem of choice (ext3, xfs, ...) et voila!
If you need to pass the device back and forth between Linux, Windows, and/or Macs, then V/FAT (warts and all) is probably the only good solution.