Trouble with file permissions

[MrSparkle]

I have a Fedora server with an external harddrive hooked up to it which I use as a file server. A few days ago I set the permissions on the external harddrive so people could access it but not create of delete files. Now I'm trying to switch it back so I can add shit to it over the network but I cant.

When I try to change its file permissions with gnome when I select "Create and delete files" on anything other than the owner it just switches back to "Access files" automatically. When I try to chmod 666 from the command line it doesn't give me any error messages but it doesn't change any of the file permissions.

I tried logging in as root but same thing it just won't change the permissions back to Create and delete files. Anyone know whats wrong here?

[Kamisama]

Post your /etc/fstab
You might have it in there as read-only.
Something is deemed read-only, unless you're using an NTFS HDD.
It could be user/group permissions.

[MrSparkle]

The external harddrive mounts once I plug it in its not listed in fstab

LABEL=/                 /                       ext3    defaults        1 1

tmpfs                   /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0

devpts                  /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0

sysfs                   /sys                    sysfs   defaults        0 0

proc                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0

LABEL=SWAP-sda2         swap                    swap    defaults        0 0

When I was using it at the start it was read/write for all users but like I said I changed it so nobody could write to it now I can't change it back.

[Prometheum]

This isn't an fstab problem, it's a problem with whatever NFS system you're using (actual NFS, samba, etc.)

What are you using, and how did you change the permissions in the beginning? Remember, you might not be able to change it from client, regardless of your permissions.

(If I remember correctly, you're using samba, so) Check samba's config files and see if it's a problem there, then see if you're fully authenticated on the remote host. File permissions won't matter if Samba's blocking write access.

[MrSparkle]

I tried changing the permissions of the external harddrive while I was physically in front of the server its connected to but I had the exact same problems. I think I'm just gonna switch to a different distro though because I've had a near endless amount of problems with Fedora but I've never had any trouble with Ubuntu. I hear Debian is similar to Ubuntu so I might install that on the server instead of this Fedora bullshit.

[Prometheum]

Waaait

What filesystem is the harddrive running?

If it's an external, if it's using FAT32 or NTFS, it's quite possibly just a file system bug. Check if it's mounted read-only like the above poster said, and if it isn't, then see if root can create a file on it. I've had a lot of problems with those filesytems, usually the best thing to do is to ntfsfix or fsck over it, or just salvage what you can and format with a real FS, like XFS or reiserfs4.

[Kamisama]

I kept thinking internal. Yeah, fstab wouldn't give any info unless you manually added the UUID in there.
Other than that, I suggest you get a live-cd and try to write to it that way. It could be corrupted.

I think I would do the following

1. make sure it's not corrupt
2. make sure you can read from it
3. find a way (anyway) to write to it

If you can write to it, then it's good for working.

Now that you have established it works, check the various programs and protocols that allow you to share it.
This is why every techie needs two computers. I'm a firm believer in that these days.

Connect both boxes and try to share files.
If you can't then check the files that are part of the programs, that allow you to share.
Something isn't set correctly.
One last trick is to uninstall the application and reinstall it.
Corruption of a program isn't common, but I've had it happen to me before.