HOW to COPY???

[Bellephoron]

I am trying to copy from the desktop to a folder in /usr/share/games

yet, I am constantly told that access is denied! "Access denied. Could not write to..."

WHAT? Help me! I'm going crazy.

[L4Linux]

Open a terminal and type:

sudo nautilus

if you have the Gnome version, or

sudo konqueror

if you have the KDE 3 version, or

sudo dolphin

if you have KDE 4. The file manager will be run with administrator priviledges, so it will allow you to copy to that folder.
If you want to copy from the command line, instead of the file manager the command is explained here.
Just put sudo in front, to gain administrator priviledges.
Be sure about what you copy/delete in the restricted folders, as it may result to damages to your system.
You may also want to read this to understand about permissions and why they are needed.

[Bellephoron]

Okay. I have Dolphin. But it still says access denied!

Thank you anyway.

[L4Linux]

You typed

sudo dolphin

and still it won't let you copy??
Open it like this, find the folder /home/username/desktop (or something like this) & copy the file to the folder you want. Make sure you don't open a second dolpin window. Only the one you opened using sudo has administrator rights.

[Bellephoron]

Right! I think that is maybe the problem- I think there was already a Dolphin open.

Okay... Here we go again. Thank you for your help. I'll post as soon as it works or doesn't. In 5 minutes.

[Bellephoron]

Okay... So I opened dolphin~

su -
password

[Then typed] Dolphin

It opened.

But then it said that /home/[username]/desktop didn't exist. This is the location of my files to move.

So, then I somehow (I think I clicked on the side bar- and selected root, or something) managed to work back to / then forward to home/[username]/desktop

Phew... I don't know why it said the desktop didn't exist. I imagine it was because I did the wrong thing and tried to get to the desktop from a starting point other than root.

It is hard to follow! I wish it was more intuitive.

Okay. Good news, it just asked me if I wanted to replace files with the same name, so it must be working!

Thank you for your help and patience. Linux is difficult, even Mandriva for me is still a little counter-intuitive.

But THANK YOU!

[L4Linux]

You 'll get the hang of it sooner than you think.
When you opened dolphin as root, it took you to root's home folder, which is /root.

[Bellephoron]

Thank you. That's encouraging. I wish I had as much faith in myself

Okay... So from /root, when I tried to find /home/desktop, I couldn't... Hahaha or something. Well, I just kept moving around until the "terrain" looked familiar. I got there.

It's weird. I installed Dolphin. Then to open it as root, I have to su - password in Konsole. Dolphin should just open (from the menu) understanding that I wish to use it as root. But then that would be a security issue. Well, maybe it could prompt for a password once someone indicates that they want to move files to a restricted area.

Perhaps there is a script I could write up for that some day and change Dolphin to be more intuitive. Hm. I'll try that some day. But for now, I'll keep it basic.

PS., Thank you for the link to the Linux Copy command. I have that bookmarked now

[minthaka]

If you have access problem with a folder or files you can do the following:
1. Open terminal in the folder or a folder above the target (if you cannot open the FOLDER)
2. Type: chmod -R 777 ./ (if you are in the FOLDER) or
Type: chmod -R 777 ./FOLDER

This will make all the files read-write accessible, but be carefull, with the usage of this command. It can do harm if somebody misuses it.

You would like to use MC too:
In terminal type: mc and there you are.

[Bellephoron]

Minthaka, Thank you for the interesting information! I will type this and keep it safe