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I have this error when i try to use chmod 777 -R to make a mounted harddrive writable and readable.

chmod changing permissions of <some file> Read-only file system

My fstab looks like this:

UUID=C08667CB8667C110 /media/wd_2tb_backup_photo_movies ntfs defaults 0 0

UUID=9fbfd421-7128-4eae-aa6d-fed5cb340e87 /media/pictures_raw_collection ext4 defaults 0 0

Both ntfs and ext4 i cant write to but mounts fine.

Using latest Ubuntu server 20.04 LTS

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  • chmod 777 is never the correct permissions change unless you also use the sticky bit. Use 770 or even 750. Others (3rd digit) have nothing (=0) to do on your systems.
  • NTFS is not a POSIX compliant system so linux tools will never ever work. You set user, group and permissions when mounting NTFS
  • Regarding NTFS: our NTFS driver will always refuse to mount NTFS as writable if the file system is dirty. That happens when you use hibernation or suspend (ie. fast boot) on Windows and then boot into Linux.

What are the "defaults" set for your system? I would have expected to see at least uid=1000,gid=1000 with the mount options for NTFS so the partition is mounted with your user and group. ,dmask=027,fmask=137 are also options I tend to see there.

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  • Got an example of how to mount it then? No idea what my defaults are on but my Raspberry pi 4 uses a ntfs device too with the exact same paramters set in its fstab
    – Jono
    Dec 30, 2020 at 16:24

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