Ubuntu Help?

[piratePenguin]

Are you using the latest Ubuntu release? 5.10 "The Breezy Badger" is the latest, I'd hope you're using that (I think).

[Aloone_Jonez]

Nope, I'm using 5.04 - "The Hoary Hedgehog" Release.

How do I upgrade?

[piratePenguin]

Nope, I'm using 5.04 - "The Hoary Hedgehog" Release.

How do I upgrade?

I think you'll have to reinstall, but I'm no Ubuntu user.
You should get a quick response if you ask on IRC (irc.freenode.net #ubuntu).

Updating all the packages in Synaptic probably won't give you the 5.10 stuff (the new software updater and other things).

[cymon]

sudo apt-get upgrade dist-upgrade
That could work, at least that's how Debian does it.

[Aloone_Jonez]

Which gave me:

alun@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade dist-upgrade
Password:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Another annoyance, I've managed to install FireFox 1.5 but how the fuck do I alter the launcher on Gnome?

KDE and even Xfce were easy I just right clicked on the them and changed the path to the executable, this works on the quick launch on the top panel but it dosen't work on the Applications pulldown menu, they should make this behaviour consistant.

EDIT:
How do I get root in Nautilus?

[piratePenguin]

Another annoyance, I've managed to install FireFox 1.5 but how the fuck do I alter the launcher on Gnome?

KDE and even Xfce were easy I just right clicked on the them and changed the path to the executable, this works on the quick launch on the top panel but it dosen't work on the Applications pulldown menu, they should make this behaviour consistant.

Ah, that annoyed the feck outta me too. I believe there are graphical editors to edit the applications menu, but I just edit the .desktop (menu) file in /usr/share/applications(/firefox.desktop) manually. It's the "Exec" value you wanna change, and I think you probably should've/could've used apt/Synaptic to get the Ubuntu Firefox release and the desktop file would've been updated automatically.

EDIT:
How do I get root in Nautilus?

sudo nautilus ?
AFAIK (I don't do/use/have this myself), "gksudo" is a graphical sudo, so if you run "gksude nautilus" from the run application (or you coul create a .desktop file for it in /usr/share/applications) it should pop up.

[Aloone_Jonez]

I want to set my NTFS partition mermissions to allow the user read only access.

Here's the contents of my fstab

Code: [Select]

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
#            
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
/dev/hda1       /               ext3    defaults,errors=remount-ro 0       1
/dev/hda5       none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/hdc        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 ro,user,noauto  0       0
/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto  0       0
/dev/hda4 /mnt/windows ntfs defaults 0 0


Currently only root and read it, how do I change this to allow anyone read access?

[piratePenguin]

I want to set my NTFS partition mermissions to allow the user read only access.

Here's the contents of my fstab

Code: [Select]

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
#            
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
/dev/hda1       /               ext3    defaults,errors=remount-ro 0       1
/dev/hda5       none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/hdc        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 ro,user,noauto  0       0
/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto  0       0
/dev/hda4 /mnt/windows ntfs defaults 0 0


Currently only root and read it, how do I change this to allow anyone read access?

/dev/hda4   /mnt/windows   ntfs   user      0   0
or
/dev/hda4   /mnt/windows   ntfs   user,noauto      0   0

In the second one it's not mounted on boot (you can mount it in Computer (desktop. or nautilus > places)), you'll might prefer that if you don't use it too much.

[worker201]

Wow, lot of stuff to talk about here.

1. If apt is not seeing anything new, then you may not have the repos set up right.  Fedora has places you can go to download premade repo settings and setup scripts, perhaps those exist for ubuntu?

2. Smart is a better package manager than synaptic.  It can do both yum and apt, expanding your package options.  Check it out.

3. The way piratepenguin has suggested you change permissions on your drive works, but it is not the most correct way to do it.  The most correct way would be to create a new user group, and allow this new group access.  Tutorial at http://www.userlocal.com/tips/fatmounting.php , should be readily adaptable to ubuntu and ntfs.

4. I learned a new technique the other day.  At the prompt type:
su -
enter your password, and then press enter.
Now you can launch apps from the command line as root, without causing the system to freak out.  For instance, you could run 'gedit /etc/fstab' and be able to save your changes.  Normally, simply doing 'su' alone with this command will cause a lot of memory leaks and maybe even some minor subsystem crashes.  This might help you do whatever you need to do as root to nautilus.

[piratePenguin]

3. The way piratepenguin has suggested you change permissions on your drive works, but it is not the most correct way to do it.

They're both equally correct unless you want to control who should have access, in which case you'll have to create the group.

4. I learned a new technique the other day.  At the prompt type:
su -
enter your password, and then press enter.
Now you can launch apps from the command line as root, without causing the system to freak out.  For instance, you could run 'gedit /etc/fstab' and be able to save your changes.  Normally, simply doing 'su' alone with this command will cause a lot of memory leaks and maybe even some minor subsystem crashes.  This might help you do whatever you need to do as root to nautilus.

'su' is just a quick way to get root priviliges, the enviornment (variables) doesn't change. 'su -' creates a login shell, so it's as if you logged in as root after loggin out.

Code: [Select]

piratepenguin@pcdeclan:~$ su
Password:
root@pcdeclan:/home/piratepenguin# echo $USER
piratepenguin
root@pcdeclan:/home/piratepenguin# exit
exit
piratepenguin@pcdeclan:~$ su -
Password:
root@pcdeclan:~# echo $USER
root
root@pcdeclan:~#
One problem you might have with 'su -' is the DISPLAY enviornmental variable mightn't be set, on some distros (and on my system) you'll have to 'export DISPLAY=:0.0'.
Another is the Xserver might reject the connection ("Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server"). You can control the server access controls for X with the 'xhost' program ('man xhost') as the normal user, using 'xhost +' to totally disable it.

Code: [Select]

piratepenguin@pcdeclan:~$ su -
Password:
root@pcdeclan:~# echo $DISPLAY

root@pcdeclan:~# DISPLAY=:0.0 gedit /etc/fstab
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified


(gedit:2294): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:
root@pcdeclan:~# exit
logout
piratepenguin@pcdeclan:~$ xhost +
access control disabled, clients can connect from any host
piratepenguin@pcdeclan:~$ su -
Password:
root@pcdeclan:~# cat /etc/fstab
# file system  mount-point  type   options         dump  fsck
#                                                        order

/dev/hda5      swap         swap   pri=1           0     0

/dev/hda3      /            ext3   defaults        0     0
/dev/hda7      /home        ext3   defaults        0     0
/dev/hda8      /boot        ext3   defaults,noauto 0     0

/dev/hda2      /mnt/gnu_hurd ext2  defaults,noauto 0     0
/dev/hda4      /mnt/reiser4 reiser4 defaults,noauto 0    0

/dev/hdc       /media/hdc   iso9660 defaults,noauto,user,ro 0 0
/dev/hdd       /media/hdd   iso9660 defaults,noauto,user,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0       /media/floppy auto  defaults,noauto,user 0 0

/dev/sda1      /media/external_hd vfat defaults,noauto,user 0 0

proc           /proc        proc   defaults        0     0
sysfs          /sys         sysfs  defaults        0     0
devpts         /dev/pts     devpts gid=4,mode=620  0     0
shm            /dev/shm     tmpfs  defaults        0     0
root@pcdeclan:~# DISPLAY=:0.0 gedit /etc/fstab
root@pcdeclan:~# cat /etc/fstab
# file system  mount-point  type   options         dump  fsck
#                                                        order

/dev/hda5      swap         swap   pri=1           0     0

/dev/hda3      /            ext3   defaults        0     0
/dev/hda7      /home        ext3   defaults        0     0
/dev/hda8      /boot        ext3   defaults,noauto 0     0

/dev/hda2      /mnt/gnu_hurd ext2  defaults,noauto 0     0
/dev/hda4      /mnt/reiser4 reiser4 defaults,noauto 0    0

/dev/hdc       /media/hdc   iso9660 defaults,noauto,user,ro 0 0
/dev/hdd       /media/hdd   iso9660 defaults,noauto,user,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0       /media/floppy auto  defaults,noauto,user 0 0

/dev/sda1      /media/external_hd vfat defaults,noauto,user 0 0

proc           /proc        proc   defaults        0     0
sysfs          /sys         sysfs  defaults        0     0
devpts         /dev/pts     devpts gid=4,mode=620  0     0
shm            /dev/shm     tmpfs  defaults        0     0
###### gedit was here! #####
root@pcdeclan:~#

[WMD]

That apt command above is incorrect.  Doing "apt-get update" and then "apt-get dist-upgrade" simply installs all patches for the current release.  To upgrade to a whole newer version, you have to first change /etc/apt/apt.sources (or whatever its called) to reflect the new version.  This involves changing all refereneces in the file to "hoary" to, i'm guessing, "breezy".  Then, to be safe, shut down the GUI, and run the two commands at the beginning of this post.

[cymon]

Sorry Aloone, my dist-upgrade was incorrect. I guess it's because us Debian users don't exactly run it very often.

[Aloone_Jonez]

I'm a bid pissed now ( 6 pionts of cider haven't helped) but I've changed it too /dev/hda4   /mnt/windows   ntfs   user      0   0 wtf this is exactly as piratePenguin suggested unless I've either fucked up or my PC hates me. :confused:

[worker201]

Make sure the user has read/write permissions to the mount directory (/mnt/windows).  Also, make sure that the user you want to use is actually a member of the group 'user' - that's one reason to make your own new group.

If you can't mount the drive by hand as root, then there is something else wrong entirely - possibly a mistake on partition numbering.  I noticed that your root is 1, NTFS is 4, and Linux swap is 5.  That sounds like a strange order.

Friends don't let friends drink and configure

[Aloone_Jonez]

I've tried doing what you said sober and my ntfs partition mounts with user access now.

Another thing thats pissing me off is the meadia player that came with Ubuntu doesn't have any codes, wtf how pointless is this?

Can I use the ones on my Windows install and where do I download them from?

Also it doesn't actually say which codec I need to play a file so how the fuck am I supposed to know what to download?