General and stupid questions

**jzng89** · 06-07-2007

Yea, I'm still new and I'm having loads of fun learning my way around a distro.

Well, I know I'm going to have loads of questions and I don't want to end up spamming this forum so this thread will simplify everything.

The question now is how to copy files? I managed to install the new HDD and now I can't copy files from there to the old HDD. I've been using the GUI this whole time rather than Konsole. I managed to make the dir using

Code:

# mkdir /usr/local/libs/codecs

But now all the codecs are in my new HDD and I can't move them using the GUI. Every time I try it keeps telling me access denied. I made sure that both HDDs were set to read and write mode. So what's the prob? Am I missing something here?

**techieMoe** · 06-07-2007

Originally Posted by jzng89

Yea, I'm still new and I'm having loads of fun learning my way around a distro.

Well, I know I'm going to have loads of questions and I don't want to end up spamming this forum so this thread will simplify everything.

The question now is how to copy files? I managed to install the new HDD and now I can't copy files from there to the old HDD. I've been using the GUI this whole time rather than Konsole. I managed to make the dir using

Code:

# mkdir /usr/local/libs/codecs

But now all the codecs are in my new HDD and I can't move them using the GUI. Every time I try it keeps telling me access denied. I made sure that both HDDs were set to read and write mode. So what's the prob? Am I missing something here?

Yes, you're missing the concept of permissions. By default, Linux systems do not allow regular users (like the one you're likely logged in as) to have write access to anything other than their /home/ directory.

In order to copy files to anywhere else in your system you need to have root user permissions. Some distributions have a program shortcut for "root file manager". If Knoppix does not, you can copy the files using the command line.

First, open a console and log in as root:

Code:

su <enter>
Password: <enter your root (administator) password>

Then find the files you want to copy. I assume they're somewhere in your /home/ directory, and you want to move them to /usr/local/lib/codecs.

Code:

cd directoryWhereYouHaveYourCodecs <enter>
cp * /usr/local/lib/codecs/

That should copy the files over. Then close your terminal to revert back to your normal user privileges.

**jzng89** · 06-07-2007

Okay, I understand that part. So, is it possible for me to login to root using that method and then use the GUI to copy and stuff? Coz I kinda have 67 files to copy and I don't really feel like typing all their names out.

**smolloy** · 06-07-2007

From the command line type,

Code:

kdesu konqueror

This will ask you for your root password, and then open a GUI file browser for you to drag and drop your files.

**jzng89** · 06-07-2007

Originally Posted by smolloy

From the command line type,

Code:

kdesu konqueror

This will ask you for your root password, and then open a GUI file browser for you to drag and drop your files.

I did this but the a pop came up saying that Su returned with an error. Any idea what to do now?

**smolloy** · 06-07-2007

I don't understand that.

Hmmm...

If you're copying the entire contents of a directory you can use the wildcard character "*" as techiemoe wrote in his post.

**jzng89** · 06-08-2007

Is there anyway I can login as root? And use the system as root rather than my normal account? I know I did it once and now I can't remember how I did it :P

Something like I used Konsole to login su and suddenly it just switches to desktop 2 and I'm logged in as root. I tried it again and it didn't work (This happened when I was installing the new HDD)

**Juan Pablo** · 06-08-2007

Maybe you just opened a program such as Konqueror with root permissions, it's very dangerous to work this way for a lot of reasons which have been discussed already.
You don't need to type the name of all the files, just use the character (wild card) '*' to say "copy everything from here"

**jzng89** · 06-08-2007

Well, this PC is actually more for personal use rather than networking, because it's old and Linux can perform better than Windows on that PC, MUCH better, anyway I managed to copy all the codecs and it's working perfectly.

But now to the audio. Ah, there's sound but, it isn't as loud as I'd like it to be. I went to the control centre and then to the sound configuration panel. The "Enable audio hardware" (Or something like that) checkbox was not ticked and yet there was sound. So I ticked it but I couldn't find my device so I set it to autodetect and then when I tried to play something using the player it said that my audio device wasn't configured properly.

I'm using an old Ensoniq PCI audio card, do I need to mount it or something? Or is there someway I can turn the volume up manually? (During installation the card was detected, if it helps. And I installed Knoppix using a Debian-like system)

Edit : Okay, Scratch that, I found the volume control, KMIX but still, why isn't the "Enable Sound System" checked and yet there's still sound?

Okay, edit again : Is there a way to increase my res? Currently running on "vesa" drivers and my monitor had to be set to "Generic Monitor" (If not all I get is a huge blank screen) My monitor can support up to 1024x768 but the desktop config doesn't allow me to switch the res settings. My mobo is an old ATI 264VT or something like that and has a 4Mb intergrated ATI graphic card (independent memory)

**Juan Pablo** · 06-09-2007

Well, this PC is actually more for personal use rather than networking, because it's old and Linux can perform better than Windows on that PC, MUCH better, anyway I managed to copy all the codecs and it's working perfectly.

It doesn't matter the purpouse, it's always good to be safe

Edit : Okay, Scratch that, I found the volume control, KMIX but still, why isn't the "Enable Sound System" checked and yet there's still sound?

That refers to the arts sound subsystem used by KDE, you can have sound without it but a lot of apps use arts to output sound and they will not work correctly without arts

Okay, edit again : Is there a way to increase my res? Currently running on "vesa" drivers and my monitor had to be set to "Generic Monitor" (If not all I get is a huge blank screen) My monitor can support up to 1024x768 but the desktop config doesn't allow me to switch the res settings. My mobo is an old ATI 264VT or something like that and has a 4Mb intergrated ATI graphic card (independent memory)

You can use an specific driver like "radeon" or "ati" , or "fglrx"

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