Don't Have Permission to Access Disk

[iamchachi]

Forgive me for posting in this forum and mis-posting in the "Installing on an HD" forum earlier today. I have been attempting to use Knoppix to recover files from a hosed Debian install on a HDD. Knoppix boots fine, allows me to config network, but I cannot see the HDD partitions on the desktop, but I can browse the drive using testdisk. When I use the Personal Files browser (the little Red House on the taskbar), I can see hda1 as a bunch of colored boxes (ala Q-Bert), but when I click on it, I am told that "You do not have enough permissions to read the file file:///dev/hda1"

I changed the root password on Knoppix to the same root pass as I used on the Debian install. I am also told that the drive is mounted already if I attempt to mount it somewhere...although there is nothing in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab that says anything about hda1. This post is in line with what I have been experiencing. I ran cat /proc/partitions and fdisk -l /dev/hd? and both showed info for hda1 that I would expect.

At this point, I am starting to think that there is some kind of permission issue and that the drive is actually mounted...but, not shown because of some kind of permission issue. I am lost.

[malaire]

Forgive me for posting in this forum and mis-posting in the "Installing on an HD" forum earlier today. I have been attempting to use Knoppix to recover files from a hosed Debian install on a HDD. Knoppix boots fine, allows me to config network, but I cannot see the HDD partitions on the desktop, but I can browse the drive using testdisk. When I use the Personal Files browser (the little Red House on the taskbar), I can see hda1 as a bunch of colored boxes (ala Q-Bert), but when I click on it, I am told that "You do not have enough permissions to read the file file:///dev/hda1"

You can't browse the files from /dev/hda1. You need to browse from where that partition is mounted, usually /mnt/hda1 or /media/hda1.

If it's not mounted yet, you can do this from Konsole to mount it:

sudo mkdir /hda1
sudo mount /dev/hda1 /hda1

And after that try to browse the /hda1 directory

I am also told that the drive is mounted already if I attempt to mount it somewhere...although there is nothing in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab that says anything about hda1.

Did you check the output from mount command? Does it say anything about hda1? For me it gives something like

knoppix@0[knoppix]$ mount
...
/UNIONFS/dev/hda1 on /mnt/hda1 type ext2 (ro,nosuid,nodev)

This tells me that /dev/hda1 is mounted at /mnt/hda1 and so I can browse the files from there. (Just ignore the /UNIONFS on the beginning of that line).

[iamchachi]

malaire,

sudo mdir /hda1 goes fine
sudo mount /dev/hda1 /hda1 - outputs mount: /dev/hda1 already mounted or /hda1 busy

Also, mount | grep hda outputs nothing.

cat /proc/partitions outputs:

major minor #blocks name

3 0 20044080 hda
3 1 19189611 hda1
3 2 1 hda2
3 5 851413 hda5
240 0 1991680 cloop0
254 0 20044048 dm-0
254 1 19189611 dm-1
254 2 851413 dm-2

[malaire]

malaire,

sudo mdir /hda1 goes fine
sudo mount /dev/hda1 /hda1 - outputs mount: /dev/hda1 already mounted or /hda1 busy

Also, mount | grep hda outputs nothing.

That's strange. I don't know how that could be possible so I don't really know if I can help here

Did you also check /mnt/hda1 and /media/hda1 just in case hda1 would be mounted there?

[iamchachi]

Yes, I thought, with my limited wisdom, that is was strange as well. I have checked a lot of places to see if it was mounted there...but no love. There was one messge I saw somewhere along the way that warned the blocks where 2054 and not 512 in size. It didn't say it was a problem, it just mentioned it. I don't remember exactly where I saw that. But, at this point, that is all I can think of.

[iamchachi]

I am sure there is some kind of low-level conflict with Knoppix and my drive or controller at this point. But, I just had success mounting right away with MEPIS 6.0. Of course, the network would not keep my static IP configuration long enough for me to transfer anything off the machine (changes stayed in place for about 10 seconds each time). I did however have a small memory stick that has managed to keep the public safe from me and a near-rampage.

I am sure this is a rare situation, as it sounds like KNOPPIX is really good at recognizing and mounting drives on its own, but if I can help the dev team figure this out I am game.

Thanks for your help malaire.

-Jason