Linux Question - root sign in

[superatarian]

Hello,


I know this will be a studpid question to most, but I am mostly a begginer with Linux. I have notice that I can delete/copy folders in the "appdata"


folder, but I cannot delete any of the files. I made a word file using Abiword and I wanted to rename it. I went into it's appdata folder, found the


file, highlighted it and tried to rename it. Both the "delete" and "rename" options were not activated. This was the same of all the other files in that folder. However, I then stuck the SD card in my wife's PC and was able to do anything I wanted. Now I know I need to be in the system as "root" to do things like this, but where do I sign in so I can make changes on the desktop? Or is there another thing that is causing this?

 

[Prometheus]

Given what you say about being a Linux-beginner I'm guessing that you don't have the card formatted with any of the Linux filesystems (ext2, ext3, or ext4, for example), so permissions really shouldn't be being an issue here. The appdata directory is usually user-editable, as it belongs to the user - you shouldn't need to be root to do anything there, to the best of my knowledge.


Most likely the card is mounting read-only on the Pandora due to corruption somewhere on it - Linux is extra-careful about this, whereas Microsoft Windows is not. Assuming your wife's computer is running that, this would likely be why you can access the card fine there.


Your best bet would be to back up the contents of the card, and then reformat it, as this will most likely clear up the problem. (I know some will suggest running it through various tools and checks, but that strikes me as using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut, as reformatting tends to be quicker and more thorough, in my own experience.)

 

[superatarian]

Given what you say about being a Linux-beginner I'm guessing that you don't have the card formatted with any of the Linux filesystems (ext2, ext3, or ext4, for example), so permissions really shouldn't be being an issue here. The appdata directory is usually user-editable, as it belongs to the user - you shouldn't need to be root to do anything there, to the best of my knowledge.


Most likely the card is mounting read-only on the Pandora due to corruption somewhere on it - Linux is extra-careful about this, whereas Microsoft Windows is not. Assuming your wife's computer is running that, this would likely be why you can access the card fine there.


Your best bet would be to back up the contents of the card, and then reformat it, as this will most likely clear up the problem. (I know some will suggest running it through various tools and checks, but that strikes me as using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut, as reformatting tends to be quicker and more thorough, in my own experience.)

Well the card is formatted in fat32 I believe, but I am running the Pandora on an SD card that had the OS on it. I used the PND program that copies the Pandora OS to a SD card. I thought it formatted it in ext2 because I know there is a SWAP partition on it. Maybe I should just boot the system up with the OS in the Pandora and see how things go. Thanks for the imput.

 

[shadow.8]

Maybe this will help you...





Assuming you are in XFCE, pull up the menu (Pandora button), click on "terminal." It should pull up a window with a black background and white lettering. Type in "sudo thunar" and press enter. It should ask for your password, put in the password you made when you setup your pandora for the first time. You won't be able to see what you type but it will be recognizing your input. Press enter and it will pull up thunar with a purple bar that says "Warning, you are using the root account..." You should be able to edit files in the appdata folder this way.


Sudo will let you run any program as root and is configured out of the box for the Pandora OS. You can find out more information about sudo here.

 

[superatarian]

Maybe this will help you...





Assuming you are in XFCE, pull up the menu (Pandora button), click on "terminal." It should pull up a window with a black background and white lettering. Type in "sudo thunar" and press enter. It should ask for your password, put in the password you made when you setup your pandora for the first time. You won't be able to see what you type but it will be recognizing your input. Press enter and it will pull up thunar with a purple bar that says "Warning, you are using the root account..." You should be able to edit files in the appdata folder this way.


Sudo will let you run any program as root and is configured out of the box for the Pandora OS. You can find out more information about sudo here.

Thanks alot. I will try this out.....

 

[superatarian]

Maybe this will help you...





Assuming you are in XFCE, pull up the menu (Pandora button), click on "terminal." It should pull up a window with a black background and white lettering. Type in "sudo thunar" and press enter. It should ask for your password, put in the password you made when you setup your pandora for the first time. You won't be able to see what you type but it will be recognizing your input. Press enter and it will pull up thunar with a purple bar that says "Warning, you are using the root account..." You should be able to edit files in the appdata folder this way.


Sudo will let you run any program as root and is configured out of the box for the Pandora OS. You can find out more information about sudo here.

Thanks alot. I will try this out.....

Well I tried it out and it did not work. However, what did work was I had to put all my data on the card on my wife's PC. Then I reformatted the SD card in fat32. Put all the data back and things were fine again. Can't figure out what happened....

 

[shadow.8]

Maybe this will help you...





Assuming you are in XFCE, pull up the menu (Pandora button), click on "terminal." It should pull up a window with a black background and white lettering. Type in "sudo thunar" and press enter. It should ask for your password, put in the password you made when you setup your pandora for the first time. You won't be able to see what you type but it will be recognizing your input. Press enter and it will pull up thunar with a purple bar that says "Warning, you are using the root account..." You should be able to edit files in the appdata folder this way.


Sudo will let you run any program as root and is configured out of the box for the Pandora OS. You can find out more information about sudo here.

Thanks alot. I will try this out.....

Well I tried it out and it did not work. However, what did work was I had to put all my data on the card on my wife's PC. Then I reformatted the SD card in fat32. Put all the data back and things were fine again. Can't figure out what happened....

Weird.

I'm glad you found a solution though.

 

[smcameron]

To become root, do:


sudo su -


type in your normal user password when it asks.


You'll then be root.

 

[korky]

Or if you want to login as root and don't know the password:


sudo passwd root


change password then just use su to get root.