Ubuntu 14.04 says I don't have permission

[The_Eric]

To move files to a separate HDD, delete them, or pretty much anything that involves changing the content. I can view files- videos, pictures and the like all I wan't. Background- I have Ubuntu 14.04 on a SSD and want to store data on the HDD. I also have Mint 17 on another SSD that I occasionally swap into the tower (need another sata cable) and it doesn't give a rat's behind what I do with the contents of the HDD... Not sure what kind of a bug Ubuntu has up it's backside, but I'm hoping that you Linux guys can help me out. Something simple I'm sure....

 

[Garak]

It's an ownership issue. When I'm in such a position, I just use the "sudo" when moving it, or open a nautilus with gksu from the terminal.

 

[simple_gifts]

Ownership issue as noted. The back story is linux is a server operating system. The concept of individual users managing entire disk drives had to be accommodated (this is totally foreign on a server) You can either 1) do everything WRT the other disk drive as administrator (easiest, not recommended) 2) spend the time to understand file ownership concepts and fix it there. Files are owned by users and that doesn't change if you swap a separate SSD into the machine, the HDD files (including the directories you might try to access) are still owned by a numbered user. You can fix it by changing who owns the files to be the same for both SSDs or change the permissions on the file so that anyone who uses the machine can manipulate the files. A number of people on the board can walk you thru this if you want; it is basic administration.

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts

Ownership issue as noted. The back story is linux is a server operating system. The concept of individual users managing entire disk drives had to be accommodated (this is totally foreign on a server) You can either 1) do everything WRT the other disk drive as administrator (easiest, not recommended) 2) spend the time to understand file ownership concepts and fix it there. Files are owned by users and that doesn't change if you swap a separate SSD into the machine, the HDD files (including the directories you might try to access) are still owned by a numbered user. You can fix it by changing who owns the files to be the same for both SSDs or change the permissions on the file so that anyone who uses the machine can manipulate the files. A number of people on the board can walk you thru this if you want; it is basic administration.

I'm certainly not arguing against that point, but why does swapping Os's to Mint 17 allow my to add or remove content from the HDD?

 

[simple_gifts]

Because the files you are trying to manipulate 'could be' owned by a different user, or you are trying to move files into a directory owned by someone else. Default linux setup doesn't allow this for obvious reasons; linux is a true multiuser system. How did you populate the HDD initially? Do either of the SSD OS installs have more than 1 authorized user? The solution is highly specific to system configuration and what you are trying to do.

 

[The_Eric]

You know, I'm not exactly sure to be honest. I can say that my first experiences with Linux, were with Mint and on that HDD (MATE 16, 32 bit and later Mint 17)- so that may well be why? I then upgraded to a SSD, a faster, more powerful box and 64 bit OS. After reading about SSD's not liking things being added and removed a lot, I set out to use the HDD as bulk storage. Whenever I use Mint MATE 17 (64 bit), it doesn't seem to mind- so if I manage to set up Ubuntu to work with the HDD, will Mint still play with it?

 

[simple_gifts]

Quote:

will Mint still play with it?

Yes. Ubuntu and Mint are just interfaces; the same stuff is running below. If you want to debug this, I'm game for that. It might be painful in a post. When you get a chance, open a terminal under ubuntu and then under Mint, and post the results of the command "id" Should like something like this: user@u1404:~$ id uid=1000(user) gid=1000(user) groups=1000(user),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),108(lpadmin),124(sambashare) If the uid # is not the same between mint and ubuntu, that is the problem.

 

[The_Eric]

Here is the report from buntu. uid=1000(eric) gid=1000(eric) groups=1000(eric),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),108(lpadmin),124(sambashare)

 

[The_Eric]

And from Mint: uid=1000(eric) gid=1000(eric) groups=1000(eric),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),112(lpadmin),119(sambashare) So yes, your suspicion was right. Now what's the next move?

 

[badtlc]

Originally Posted By: The_Eric

I'm certainly not arguing against that point, but why does swapping Os's to Mint 17 allow my to add or remove content from the HDD?

Do you have different user names and PWs between the two distributions? If they were the same, you'd likely have no issues.

 

[The_Eric]

Correction- I thought I had Mint 17 on there, but it's 16. Not sure why that is- I last remember playing with 17. badtlc- different passwords. And since we're on the subject, if it matters- unbuntu is encrypted too. Was playing with it during setup, not knowing what it did...

 

[simple_gifts]

Quote:

So yes, your suspicion was right. Now what's the next move?

The issue I was referring to occurs when the uids are different; they are the same. The name of the user makes no difference as linux maps the name to a uid (user id). If the uids match, the files are owned by the same user regards of what the name of the user is. Next time you are in Mint, post the results of df -h run from a terminal user@u1404:~$ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root 443G 58G 363G 14% / none 4.0K 0 4.0K 0% /sys/fs/cgroup udev 7.8G 4.0K 7.8G 1% /dev tmpfs 1.6G 1.2M 1.6G 1% /run none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock none 7.8G 216K 7.8G 1% /run/shm none 100M 48K 100M 1% /run/user /dev/sda1 236M 200M 24M 90% /boot /dev/mapper/disk1--vg-virtbox 118G 67G 46G 60% /VIRT /dev/mapper/disk1--vg-BACKUP 99G 76G 18G 82% /BACKUP