I want to change the permisions of my /home/data directory (vfat). I type in: "[root@localhost user]# chmod 777 -cvR /home/data/" this a part of the output: chmod: changing permissions of `/home/data//System Volume Information/_restore{0FF70A7C-9F67-449F-9E7D-62060D89407F}/rp5/a0005907.ini' (requested: 0777, actual: 0755): Operation not permitted mode of `/home/data//System Volume Information/_restore{0FF70A7C-9F67-449F-9E7D-62060D89407F}/rp5/a0005908.ini' changed to 0777 (rwxrwxrwx) chmod: changing permissions of `/home/data//System Volume Information/_restore{0FF70A7C-9F67-449F-9E7D-62060D89407F}/rp5/a0005908.ini' (requested: 0777, actual: 0755): Operation not permitted can someone help me? thanks in advance

You can't use the "R". For some reason, it is trying to set permissions on your Windows system restore files. This would be a BAD idea. No one should ever modify or read those from a non-WindowsXP environment. If you REALLY MUST do a 777, then you'll have to do it directory-by-directory. Maybe write a small shell script....

if I try to change a normal directory (without the R option) I get the same output: [root@localhost user]# chmod 777 -cv /home/data/files mode of `/home/data/files' changed to 0777 (rwxrwxrwx) chmod: changing permissions of `/home/data/files' (requested: 0777, actual: 0755): Operation not permitted

That is because you are trying to set file permissions on a FAT partition...which dosn't support it. You could either use UMSDOS instead (although you may lose things like long file names) or better still, change the entry in your /etc/fstab to include user and group permissions, eg: /dev/hda1 /home/data vfat uid=500,gid=500,umask=002,exec,dev,suid,rw 0 0

BTW the "R" switch does work for chmod

thank you very much. You really helped me out.