Can´t write to mounted volume as regular user
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Linux user here. I am having a problem that I believe is related to what was posted here. http://sourceforge.net/p/veracrypt/discussion/technical/thread/915b04ad/
I will try to describe it more accurately and detailed than the others did.
I installed VeraCrypt in LinuxMint 17.1 Cinnamon Edition using the stable binary veracrypt-1.0f-1-setup.tar.bz2. Have not tried compiling it from source. I created a 10GB container formatted as ext2 on my data partition as a test. When I mount it in VeraCrypt as /media/veracrypt1 it shows as ReadOnly = No. I still can not write files to it as a regular user. My file manager shows it belongs to root.
I can write to it as root using the terminal or by opening my file manager as root. As a regular user I can read the files I placed in the container as root.
An Arch user reported earlier they tried to "change ownership and permission with chown and chmod...but it looks like this is locked by veracrypt". I have the same problem. It would seem to be ownership and not permission that is the problem. Being owned by root it is of course read only for other users.
Thank you very much for these details, this is very helpful.
I am very frustrated by the other people. They never answer my question and they just disappear. I spend a lot of time trying to help but there are some people who don't bother giving feedback. I'm thinking that I probably should disable anonymous posting...
Going back to the issue, did you launch VeraCrypt as normal user when you created the container?
I did many tested on Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon but I always created containers using FAT and there was no problem. So, maybe the issue is coming from Ext2 formatting (done by calling mkfs.ext2). I'll check to see this.
If VeraCrypt is run as normal user, the container file created is owned by this user.
Can you please do a test on your machine using FAT? Just to check if indeed mkfs.ext2 is the culprit.
Ok, after seeing your reply I tried creating several small test volumes. FAT and NTFS format work as expected. Any of the Linux file systems end up with the mounted volume being owned by root.
Note that the local file that is created, such as /Data/test.ext4 is owned by the local user, it is only the VeraCrypt mounted volume that the host OS is seeing as owned by root.
Regarding your comment about some people not responding to your replies. I do not think disabling anonymous posting would change that. People on the internet are notoriously unreliable in these matters.
Thank you, this is an important result. I never thought there will be such difference between FAT/NTFS volume and Ext2/Ext3 ones at the logical volume level. It explains also why I could reproduce the issue...
I'll do some debugging to check what is happening and I'll let you know.
Thank you also for the comment on the anonymous posts...you are probably right.
Hi,
In VeraCrypt, the first time a volume is ever mounted in the system, the owner of the /media/veracryptXXX mount point is positioned. After that, this owner is never changed.
Moreover, for Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 filesystems, we can't pass filesystem options to the mount command in order to explicitly set permissions. We can only do this for FAT filesystem (the following post talks about this for TrueCrypt which applies to VeraCrypt: http://askubuntu.com/questions/102259/how-do-i-mount-a-truecrypt-volume-with-special-options/102342#102342).
The last point explains why the issues doesn't occur for FAT container.
The first point explains why the issue happens for you and not for other. Actually, in your case, it appears that the first time you mounted a VeraCrypt container, VeraCrypt was run as root (probably through sudo veracrypt). That's why the owner of the mount point was set to root and when you mount the volume with another user, you don't have write permissions to the volume.
If you issue an ls command on the mount point, you'll see something like:
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 1024 mars 22 00:32 /media/veracrypt1
The solution in your case is to call the chown command on the mount point after the mount command finishes in order to set the ownership to the current user.
I'll implement a modification in VeraCrypt in order to change the owner of Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 mount point after each mount to set it to the current user.
I have committed a fix for this issue on Linux: https://sourceforge.net/p/veracrypt/code/ci/5ad42a1dad09c92672bd964c8099a0831f39a300/
You can the version 1.0f-2-Beta that contains this fix from the Nightly Builds folder: https://sourceforge.net/projects/veracrypt/files/VeraCrypt%20Nightly%20Builds/
Thank you in advance for your feedback.
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Hello.
I am trying to install Veracrypt on my new Linux Mint 17.2 (after having it installed on my Windows 7 Home Premium [64-bit]. No problem there.
The Win computer has since crashed and now I'm on Linux and hoping to Un-encrypt the USB drive I used with Windows. However, I have tried Unsuccessfully (Many Times) to install VC on the Linux. The terminal says that the Command line is Not Found!
Please help as I LOVE VC and my Linux Mint and hope never to return to the Windows OS!
Gil Tyrelle,
NYC-USA
Hi,
There are two possible causes to this issues:
Can you please check if this solves your issue?
Also, please download the latest VeraCrypt installer for Linux available on Codeplex: https://veracrypt.codeplex.com/releases/view/616110. Unfortunately, Sourceforge is still in maintenance mode and I can't upload the new 1.12 build.
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I am so Impressed (at how fast) you replied to my inquiry!
Shortly after writing my first post to you, I was able to Install Veracrypt on my Linux Mint 17.2 system. However, I am unable to Write to it using Cut and paste as I want to transfer files to the encrypted closure!
(I used Veracrypt in Windows and was able to transfer files in and out of the VC container without any issue).
Should I re-install Veracrypt with the New instructions you posted above?
(I really LOVE Veracrypt and I don't want to lose it.)
Again, Thank You very much for helping me and I will definitely make a Donation in the future so that the work can continue on improving this Awesome software!
Sincerely,
Gil-T
Thank you for your words.
Did you install the latest version 1.12-BETA? There was a bug corrected in this beta that was causing some volumes to be mounted as read-only on Linux.
If not, please use the link above and follow the instruction.
Anyway, on Mint 17.2, there is no umask issue normally so just be sure to use the correct 1.12-BETA installer for your architecture.
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Hello. This is my Update [October 7, 2015] to what I wrote (below) on 07-29-15:
I simply LOVE VeraCrypt which I have been using since the middle of 2014.
VeraCrypt works just like TrueCrypt but think of VC as a real Enhanced version of it!
For those using Linux Mint (vs. 17.2) and are unable to write (cut and Paste) / drag-drop files to the volume make sure of two things:
In the VeraCrypt tab settings>preferences> MOUNT OPTIONS ensure that the first box (“Mount volumes as read-only”) is un-ticked!
If you are running the anti-virus program, Clamtk, make sure that it is not running when you use VeraCrypt. For some reason there is a conflict between VeraCrypt and Clamtk and VC won't run when the latter is on.
For a while I did not know the reason I was unable to write to a VC volume. After a series of trial and error I was able to fix the issue on my own computer. I cannot guarantee that the advice given above will help with your particular situation as “your mileage may vary”.
Thank You All For Reading,
Gil-T
Hello.
I am still unable to WRITE to the VeracryptC volume (container).
I put in the sudo su command in terminal as described above and still nothing.
When I typed this into command I got this: (attachment sudo 1) and when I wanted to close the terminal because I saw nothing happening I got this: (attachment sudo 2).
I am still trying to make this work and I won't give up!
I thank you for your continuing efforts to help me.
[please see attachments]
Gil-T
Last edit: Anonymous 2015-10-08
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Hi,
I don't know if this is a similar problem with the same root cause.
I tried already to post an own topic, but that seems to not sho up, only on search.
I installed the latest published v1.12 Beta on WIndows 8.1 (phys) and on a VM with Win 10 and I am unable to launch applications from Veracrypt hidden volumes in containers!
app:
http://portableapps.com/de/apps/internet/google_chrome_portable
the files are not coruppted, copying the files from the veracrypt volume to lokal drives and run the apps is ok.
Giving full access to users or everyone or all in the acl doesn't change anything.
The same happens for some other apps, for older Firefox portable, TorBrowser.
Downloaded from Codeplex:
VeraCrypt version 1.12-BETA
Jul 28, 2015, Beta
Reverting back to a beta 1.12 from around June 16, 2015 is the same.
UPDATE: Portable Browsers is fixed for me with v1.13
Last edit: Anonymous 2015-08-10
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Update:
I had some problems with running setups on a full disk encrypted W10 with latest Beta 1.12, the setups won't run.
Then I tried to relocate all Temp folders off to a normal drive and it worked!
I changed:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment]
"TEMP"=hex(2):...
"TMP"=hex(2):...
and
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment]
"TEMP"=hex(2):...
"TMP"=hex(2):...
Last edit: Anonymous 2016-02-03
Just wanted to let people know how I solved this issue. I had the same problem on my Mac. Thought it had to do with enabeling Filevault, but it turns out it was just a setting. For some reason, my Veracrypt was defaulting to mounting volumes as read only. There is an option you can untick in Settings/Default Mount Parameters/Mount Options to mount volumes as read only. Once I unticked that, the problem completely resolved itself and I can now write to my Veracrypt containers/drives just fine. Hope this helps someone.