Desktop folders are read only now

[Scott Talbot]

On Tue, 2004-09-07 at 11:13 -0700, Steve wrote: 
> On Tue, 2004-09-07 at 00:45, Scott Talbot wrote:
> > On Mon, 2004-09-06 at 13:20 -0400, John & Christine wrote:
> > > On Mon, 06 Sep 2004 02:13:06 -0700, Steve <steve.bolam at telus.net> wrote:
> > > > Tonight I was installing some goodies with yum and operating as root at
> > > > times.  Now when I log in as myself, the Computer, Trash and My Home
> > > > folders have become read only. What have I done, and how do I fix it.
> > > > 
> > > > I've only had Linux installed for a week and I thought I was getting the
> > > > hang of it. Guess this is another reality check.
> > > > 
> > > > Thanx in advance,
> > > > 
> > > > --
> > > > fedora-list mailing list
> > > > fedora-list at redhat.com
> > > > To unsubscribe: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > Use Nautilus and look at the owner/permissions of one of the
> > > now-read-only files/folders. (right click/properties/Permissions). If
> > > it looks like the problem is permissions/ownership, open a terminal ,
> > > su , nautilus again and fix the permissions.
> > > John
> > 
> > 	A faster way of doing this is to open the terminal, su to root then
> > enter at the # prompt: "chown -R --from=root:root mylogin:mylogin ~*"
> > (without the quotation marks!).  This will find every file (-R) in your
> > home directory that has permissions set to owner=root, group=root, and
> > change them to your login name on both the owner and group.
> > 
> > For more info about chown use man chown at the terminal prompt.
> > 
> > HTH 
> > 
> > Scott
> > -- 
> > When in doubt -- Vote 'Em out!
> 
> > [root at d207-81-8-112 bigdaddy]# chown -R --from=root:root bigdaddy:bigdaddy ~*
> chown: cannot access `~*': No such file or directory
> This is the output I get.
> 
> When I  look at the properties for my home directory I see
> 
> Basic
>  
> Location: /home
> Volume : Root Volume
> 
> Permissions 
> 
> File owner: bigdaddy - Steve
> 
> Owner Group and Others read write and execute boxes checked
> 
> Text view: drwxrwxrwx
> Number view: 777
> 
> but at the bottom of the tab it says,
> 
> You are not the owner, so you cant change these permissions.


Is "bigdaddy - steve" your login or root or what?  1st order of business
is to make you the owner of your own home directory.

if you do a ls /home you should see a home directory for you and any
other local users to that machine. yours should have your login name as
the directory name.

Using the name you login with as the name "mylogin"

Make yourself root by executing the "su -" command on the terminal, and
entering root's password when asked.

At the "$" command prompt enter "chown mylogin:mylogin /home/mylogin"

Now you should change the permissions to 700 using chmod
700 /home/mylogin.  This is necessary to keep anyone not you from your
files!

Change directories to the /home/mylogin using the cd command (ie
cd /home/mylogin)
now use the command 
chown -R --from=root:root mylogin:mylogin *

On second thought your files may be owned by bigdaddy - steve as your
home directory was so maybe you should leave out the "--from=root:root"
you could if you choose replace the from= bit with --reference=somefile
using the name of some file whose ownership is incorrect, but it
shouldn't really be necessary.

Lastly you'll want to check file permissions especially on the files
that were not owned by you. set them to whatever you like, but don't
make non-executables into executable and you really don't need to give
"others" anything in permissions as they shouldn't be in your home
directory anyway.

P.S.  If all this seems like a big pain - you can avoid it all by making
another user account for yourself.  Later on you can move the files you
want into your new "home". Up to you

Scott
-- 
When in doubt -- Vote 'Em out!