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I have Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx).

I've noticed recently every file on my hard drive gets the executable privilege, even every text files, so when I open it a pop-up window asks me what to do (run in terminal-Display-Cancel-Run).

I tried to change permissions in the terminal as sudo chmod a-x -Rv /media/D/*. It shows me that privileges have been changed to 666 which means rw-rw-rw, but actually nothing has been done; it's still as executable privilege given.

I tried to move some files to the desktop. Then did as above, and it was successful.

My hard drive is formatted as "FAT32". What would be the problem?

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2 Answers 2

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FAT32 formatted drives do not support file permissions. The permissions for everything are determined by how the drive is mounted.

So, you can change the permissions on all the files on the drive by mounting it differently, but not dynamically like you are describing.

See https://askubuntu.com/a/96929/6161 on how to remount using different permissions.

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  • I dont think so ,because I can set permission in ntfs ans fat32 in ubuntu 10.04 ,but it wont work in 10.10 onwards .
    – Tachyons
    Apr 2, 2012 at 14:45
  • @tachyons in 10.04, you can change the permissions of a file in a FAT32 drive, unmount the drive, remount the drive, and have the permissions change you did still be there? Are you sure? I just tried changing setting permissions on a fat partition from my 10.04 box - it didn't work. If it does work for you, please provide details on what you did... Apr 2, 2012 at 14:47
  • I am sure ,but it works in 10.04 only ,and it wont work with 10.10 11.04 and 11.10 ,
    – Tachyons
    Apr 2, 2012 at 14:51
  • @tachyons please give a detailed list of how you did it - I have a 10.04 box I'd like to try what you're doing on. Apr 2, 2012 at 14:52
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    @wisdom dmask is what permissions are applied to directories, and fmask is what permissions are applied to files. As to doing it each time, if there is a certain set of permissions you need, you'll need to edit them into the fstab (I think?) file which contains the default mount settings. If you need more details than this, search for 'default mount permissions' or something along those lines, there are a bunch of related questions Apr 2, 2012 at 20:23
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NTFS and FAT32 hard drives don't support file permissions on Linux. Please follow the guide to enable the function.

I have used this for an NTFS partition, but I never tested it with FAT32.

Reference: forum post Re: How to change permission on entire ntfs partition

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  • Ownership and permissions of vfat / ntfs are set at the time of mounting. Please refer ubuntu forum link
    – Web-E
    Apr 3, 2012 at 10:50
  • it's possible to store POSIX permissions on NTFS
    – phuclv
    Jul 15, 2018 at 5:05

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