New installation Jaunty constant permissions problems

Ric Moore wayward4now at gmail.com
Tue May 19 06:35:19 UTC 2009


On Mon, 2009-05-18 at 23:25 -0400, steven vollom wrote:
> File:///home/steven/.kde/share/config/arkrc.  I open arkrc using sudo dolphin 
> and change the permissions so that I can use the program.  The permissions are 
> not greyed out, and I am able to change them to give me permission, but when I 
> click OK, no permissions are transferred to me.  I can't tell you how angry 
> this makes me. 

Didja try this first? 
http://onlyubuntu.blogspot.com/2008/05/howto-install-lightscribe-in-ubuntu.html

-otherwise-
Just open a terminal, su root and use command line to solve the
problem. 
Just another learning curve is all, IF you're dead **sure** it's a
permissions problem. 

ls -la the file you are having problems with.
It'll list who owns it and the permissions given it. 
The command "chown" changes the ownership. If it reads root:root as the
owner and the user steven can't get to it, then you merely type: chown
steven filename and it's yours only. Do not do this at /usr or /bin
system directories. Bad things can happen. VERY bad things. Consider it
a red button. 

type 'man chown' for all of the gruesome techno-babble written for and
by the technocrati. 
If someone ever created a set of man pages for the technically
illiterate in step-by-step fashion, I'd kiss their backside at high noon
in front of the Post Office. :)

Now we're down to permissions. This really gets gruesome, but you can
learn it. It's far handier than some GUI to get down to business fixing
a permission problem in a New York Minute. 

type 'man chmod". I know, I can smell the rotten fruit being tossed my
way, but this guy needs to know this stuff, as much as he dinks with his
system. 
<eyeballs the yowling villagers with pitchforks and lit torches>    
Here's a video file:
ls -la Lexx01x03EatingPatternPart110.flv
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24654074 2009-03-12 04:15
Lexx01x03EatingPatternPart110.flv

You can have eXecute, Read, Write privileges. See the first dash? That
could have been set to x but a movie file is not an executable. It's a
file that is just normally Read and the W following it means that the
user Root can edit and write to it. 

So, the first three permissions are set for the owner. 
The second three are for the group who can only Read it. The last three
are for the world (everyone else), and they can only Read it, noted by
the single 'r'. But, the permissions for the three possible owners,
groups and world could ALL be set to eXecute, Read and Write for
everyone with just a single command line statement, as root, chmod 777
Lexx01x03EatingPatternPart110.flv
NOTE: you wouldn't want to do this without good reason, but there it is
as an example. 

It is THAT easy to do. 

You CAN do whatever you want, knowing how and when not to is a big
issue. So, read the man page and google around to get all of the states
of the chmod command-line. Just a bit of self education, and you'll find
that somethings are just too cumbersome using a gui. OTOH, the gui is
much -safer- until it won't do what you want it to do.  I'm leaving
learning the numbers to use to set the three states to you, just so you
don't rush in and blow sh*t up. This IS powerful stuff so take your time
and get understanding and seek the light. I would not do one blessed
thing to any file that you didn't directly create yourself. Leave the
system stuff completely alone. 

The only Nazi's to me are the ones that won't let you log in as root, in
order to get your stuff done. But, I'm old school. It's been awhile
since I last blew up my machine as root and have a pretty fair idea of
what not to dink with. I don't need for my computer to be my nanny. But,
there are those that do. So, "I accept the things that I cannot
change..." and hammer away at everything else. 
<grins hugely> Ric

 


-- 

My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
Linux user# 44256 
https://nuoar.dev.java.net/
Verizon Cell # 434-774-4987





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