Cinnamon: USB sticks become read-only

[nix666]

Hi there Mint folks

There is an issue with Mint 17 Cinnamon, where every now and again I try to copy paste from another drive to a USB stick - Nemo gives the error :

Error while copying to "USB stick". The destination is read-only. 

What I know already :

1. This happens only in the Cinnamon edition.
2. I've tried multiple USB sticks from different manufacturers - same result.
3. I use the USB image formatter and writer tool to format and make bootable sticks.
4. The stick does infact not become read-only , because I can write / copy to it via the command line without issues.
5. I have had suggestions that this has to do with Nemo - Therefore only happens in Cinnamon.

Can anyone shed some light on the issue ? I would like to get the attention of Clem and the team on this, so if anyone knows
about an existing bug report/ thread on this, please advise.

Thanks in advance

[anandrkris]

I faced this _earlier_ on one of my USB stick. As you say, it was suspected to be a Nemo issue by Clem.
https://github.com/linuxmint/mintstick/issues/19

[nix666]

Thank you very much for the reply. Hopefully it gets fixed in the next release.

[anandrkris]

Copying the solution mentioned in relevant forum post -
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=208&t=176546#p935333
su -c "nano /etc/fstab/dev/sdc /mnt/usb auto user

[tenoreamer]

I am running Archlinux with kernel 3.17.6 and using Cinnamon 2.4.5 with Nemo 2.4.4. It's so bad that the bug has persisted till now.

[gabrielaraujof]

Actually, @anandrkris , the exact command should be:
sudo nano /etc/fstab and then add the line /dev/sdc /mnt/usb auto user at the end of fstab file.

[pradacr]

Hi gabrielaraujof I added the line at the fstab file and now I can read/writte the SD memory, but the problem is that I get a message to mount a drive when I start Linux. I am using Linux Mint 17.2. Thanks

[tacojones]

Yeah, be careful with adding that to fstab. A user might not be able to boot to a desktop afterwards. If the USB stick is read only, try rebooting first.

[oislone]

i use archlinux.
change /etc/fusc.conf
modify

user_allow_other

to
user_allow_other

save. relogin. is OK.

[RafalSkolasinski]

It looks like bug is fixed in Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon. Why the bugfix wasn't backported to Mint 17?

[JosephMcc]

Glad it seems fixed. This issue belongs to Nemo and not Cinnamon anyway.

[aitorbk]

Nice to see it is fixed. I have Linux Mint 18 and have the problem... :(

[theoar]

I have the same problem on LMDE, Cinnamon 3.2.1.

[aitorbk]

The solution is "sudo chmod 777 /media/"user"

Do that, and the either restart nemo or reboot the computer.

[pradacr]

Hi aitorbk, I made as you did "sudo chmod 777 /media/julio"
Restarted nemo and stayed read only
If I reboot the pc, does it keep the command for the next session?
Would it be required each time a media is inserted?

[aitorbk]

Strange.. it should keep as this:
itor@Mint-McTEa /media $ ls -latr
total 20
drwxrwxrwt 2 root root 4096 May 11 2016 nomachine
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Jun 10 17:17 .
drwxr-x---+ 2 root root 4096 Jun 10 17:23 root
drwxr-xr-x 25 root root 4096 Oct 27 11:53 ..
drwxrwxrwx+ 2 root root 4096 Nov 17 18:15 aitor

I just connected a usb stick:

aitor@Mint-McTEa /media $ cd aitor
aitor@Mint-McTEa /media/aitor $ ls -latr
total 24
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Jun 10 17:17 ..
drwxrwxrwx+ 3 root root 4096 Nov 18 15:54 .
drwxr-xr-x 17 aitor aitor 16384 Nov 18 15:54 EAGET

And it should be a permanent solution.
Is it working for you?

[pradacr]

Hi Aitorbk, I think my problem is with file managers like Nemo and Nautilus, not with the terminal.
I can create and delete with terminal, but not with file manager even if I open them using sudo.
I'm a Linux user so I even find it difficult to follow you on the terminal :o(

julio@E6410 /media $ ls -latr
total 12
drwxrwxrwx 3 root root 4096 Aug 4 09:20 .
drwxr-xr-x 23 root root 4096 Nov 11 22:03 ..
drwxrwxrwx+ 3 julio julio 4096 Nov 18 10:06 julio

[jontis]

Same issue here. USB (previously used as live boot drive) formatted with several file systems.
File Manager in Linux Mint 18 says its read only, but I have no problem copying to it using the terminal.
Formatting the USB does not help and is probably not the issue.

[aitorbk]

Use my solution and it will be solved.

The problem comes, I think, because the permission levels are ok for terminal, but Nemo/Nautilus run on a different privilege level.. so as nemo is running as root it fails.

On a terminal:
Go to /media

Then do "sudo chmod 777 /media/"user" , user being the name of your user.

After that, reboot nemo or simply reboot your computer.

The problem will almost for sure be fixed/

[pradacr]

Hi Aitorbk, thanks for helping me again.

I did just as you said:

julio@E6410 / $ cd media
julio@E6410 /media $ ls
julio
julio@E6410 /media $ sudo chmod 777 /media/julio
[sudo] password for julio:
julio@E6410 /media $

After that, reboot nemo (using Cinnamon shortcut or the terminal as root)

But Nemo and Nautilus continue with the problem as if nothing was done. :o(

Note: if I reboot the PC with the SD card in, Nemo will work fine. But that is an impractical workaround of this problem.

[oniongarlic]

chmod 777 is not a solution, it makes it world readable and writable and is a serious security issue.

[cesc1989]

I tried setting permissions on the drive but it didn't work.

Restarted Nemo with nemo -q in a terminal window and then the message was gone even after unmounting-mounting the drive.

[cocokuif]

Set the action to be taken when inserting removable media to : Do Nothing.
System settings--> Preferred applications--> removable media.

That solved the problem for me

[b-schliessmann]

Hello

As it appears to me: Copying files using nemo yields the error message "the target is read only". After that, the copying dialogue is stuck while "preparing" and must be closed manually.

This is definitely no permissions issue; copying using the terminal and cp works just fine. Also checked the permissions of /media//, the above mentioned "solution" doesn't help.

What does work for a certain time, however, is killing nemo (killall nemo). After restarting nemo, the above-mentioned error doesn't appear and the files are copied successfully. Most probably a nemo bug.

Using nemo 3.2.2+serena with Mint Cinnamon (18.1).

An appeal to you guys: Please refrain from suggesting and copy-pasting manipulations you don't understand, such as manipulating /etc/fstab (interfering with automount and potentially with system boot) or doing "chmod 777" (unnecessary privileges). This can cause serious pain for other users trusting your judgment.

Best regards

Björn

[TheRuleOfMike]

So generally, after 4 years this is still happening (Mint 19 Tara here, and so far, no workaround I tried worked). Isn't it getting a little ridiculous at this point? This is a very serious issue as it affects one of the basic functionalities required from a modern desktop operating system. Not taking this seriously will be perceived as trumendously incompetent by any user coming from other platforms.