this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2026
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Need help with NTFS and permissions please (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 2 days ago by Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I manage a handful of small websites and have recently switched from Windows to Mint. I was using PortableApps to keep the sites separated, and for the moment want to do the same. I've set up VirtualBox with a cut down Windows 10 installation, and added the root folder of the websites as a shared folder, so Websites/Site1, Websites/Site2 etc. The root folder is still on an NTFS drive.

So far, everything works, except I can't run the PortableApps suite from the shared folder in VirtualBox. PortableApps runs and updates, but the apps don't work properly. Thunderbird is ok but has random glitches, Firefox launches but sites don't load, and Chrome instantly closes. If I copy the folder for the individual site into the virtual machine though, it works perfectly.

I'm assuming that it's a permissions problem, as the NTFS drive is owned by me but is in the root group, but copying the files to the virtual machine copies them to the vboxuser group, which I'm a member of. The fstab entry for the drive is:

UUID=BAB4BFE2B4BF9EF7 /mnt/Storage ntfs defaults,uid=tippon 0 2

but from what I can gather, it should have my UID and GID instead. The examples and questions I've found online have some extra details at the end with no explanation though, like dmask=022, fmask=133, and I don't want to risk editing my fstab without understanding them.

So, to finally get to the question, if I replace uid=tippon with uid=1000,gid=1000 (my user and group), would that let me access the files from within VirtualBox, as well as whichever other programs I might want to use, and would it break anything?

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[–] GaumBeist@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Since you can run the apps (glitchy as they may be), nothing is wrong with the read perms on the drive. Maybe write perms or exec perms? But ntfs perms don't map neatly onto POSIX perms, so it's hard to say. Maybe try setting the gid to the vboxuser group id and see if that helps?

You might also check out the mount manpage and look at the section about "Generic Mount Options"; this is the more in-depth explanation of the "options" column in fstab, and the defaults option (which depends on the distro) can hide stuff like nouser, which prevents users from mounting the drive.

Finally, look into ACLs and how to manage those for interoperability across Windows and POSIX systems.

Best case scenario, fixing it so your user has all access to the drive with the user,exec options fixes your issues. Otherwise, you've just gotta do the learning about ACLs and POSIX perms

[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

Thanks for replying, it looks like I've got some homework to do :D

I did look at the fstab page, but I didn't understand enough to get an answer. I'll look at the mount page tonight, thank you :)