unable to reverse the attributes of a file.

[wamuti]

Hi all.

i am using knoppix 5.0 live cd. I tried deleting a file in Windows(tm) system 32 (I really have to delete it) using the terminal shell but when i use the command

rm logoff.exe

it prints out "rm: cannot remove 'logoff.exe' : read-only file system".

i have tried to use

attr -r logoff.exe

but it prints out a message implying i obviously don't know how to use "attr". please help me remove the file.

Thanks in advance.

[knapie]

Hallo

The message you get says read-only filesystem. In other words the whole windoze file system is mounted as readonly. Therefore you cannot change anything on the filesystem.

This is typical of NTFS filesystems. Linux by default mounts them as readonly since MS will not release all the intricacies of their filesystems inner workings linux cannot guaranty that it can modify it safely.

You could recompile your own linux kernel with read-write NTFS support, but as said, that implicates a risk. Over and above that I assume you might not want to since you are using a live CD.

Knapie

[wamuti]

Thanks alot. i really needed to delete that file but it's okay, u've taught me things i did not know. Thanks again.

[devils casper]

There is no need to recompile kernel. You can enable NTFS write access through ntfs-3g.
Open Synaptic Package Manager and search for ntfs-3g. Install it and mount NTFS partition again.
You can use PartedMagic LiveCD too. Its a Partition Manger and ntfs-3g package is pre-installed in it.

[wamuti]

i have solved the problem using your info and Knapie's info.
As Knapie says that when linux mounts a partition, it is read only, and when you say remount it again, i have realized that if the partition was mounted by a user, say an administrator, then, the file would not be read-only...
so i used:

umount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /media/hda1

and this unmounted the harddisk

and mounted using

mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /media/hda1

and just as expected, all the files were not read-only!!

Thanks so much guys, i could not have done it without you. You have taught me alot!!!! you guys are totally cool like ->