linuxgeek: RE: RE: Re: [LINUX_Newbies] USBs Read only

What you have written helps a bunch. FYI, I installed Linux Mint 15 Cinamon last night. Before applying any updates, I plugged in a USB drive. It worked perfectly. I was able to copy from and copy to the drive without issue. I then applied all of the current updates down to level 3. I again plugged in a USB thumb drive. Again, it worked perfectly. I was able to copy from and copy to the drive without issue. In other words, I was unable to reproduce your issue. This makes me suspect the install again. I can't give you a good reason why, just based on my install and testing I do not get the same results. There is another new possibility that I would like to discuss. I noted in v15 when I right click the drive, one of my options is to "Open as root". If you did this, we may have found your issue. Now, please see below. ***Walter's Message >The two PCs I have are not networked and I don't plan on doing so. >I do nothing that would require me to do so. My intent is to use >the one with Mint 15 Cinnamon (M15C) and the one with XP will >stay offline and only be used at times when I want to run a >Windows program I'm familiar with and don't want to add to Wine, >or, if I come across a Windows program that I want to add/try >I'll download it using M15C and then move the exe to XP with a USB >drive for installation, hence the need to be able to read-write to USB. > That makes perfect sense. However, I would suggest looking for a Linux alternative to that Windows program. Some are better than that Win program, some are worse. But at least you will try to run it on your active computer before going to XP. > >I have what I refer to as basic home-user PC needs: email, Might I suggest Thunderbird for this. Or if you really need something slow and confusing like MS Outlook, might I suggest Evolution. (Sarcasm chip engaged here) > bill >paying, It depends on how you are doing this. If you are going to the bank's site to do so, might I suggest Google Chrome? Firefox comes with the Mint install. I much prefer Chrome. You might also. If you are doing this from Quicken I have to tell you there is nothing close to it in Linux. Sure there are Linux alternatives, but none of them is even close to Quicken. >shopping, Browser so I think we covered this. >edit a few pictures, I am not 100% sure what you mean by this. If you are talking about things such as fixing red eyes, I would not know what to tell you. Maybe others can help. >edit a very few videos Again, not something I do but hopefully others can suggest something. >and edit some music/recorded files. For this I use Audacity. It does what I need. > >Learn or use Linux? My intent is to use M15C instead of Windows >after April when XP gets to its end-of-life. I am not really >interested in learning Linux but find myself being forced to learn >much more than I want in order to get M15C to function well, and >to my liking. Frustrated by my lack of command, coding, and dare >I say, programming knowledge. Yeah, this has been a bit much for someone who just wants to use Linux. I am sorry you have had so many issues. > >Of the four points you made about USB usage only "3. Allow you >to copy files to/from the USB drive" did not function properly: >copy from worked, copy to did not. That has been resolved with a >"jump through hoops" after learning about the Advanced File Manager >and using it to change some permissions. > I still suspect the install, not meaning you did anything wrong. Here are things that can happen that might cause an issue: 1. Download. Do we know that what was downloaded is the same as what was on-line? We can know this. 2. Copy to/from USB if you did this. 3. DVD burn. This sometimes happens. 4. Bad read from DVD. Mint packs most of the install into one file which is compressed. Any issue reading this file during the install could cause an issue. 5. The Install itself. It has been a rare thing for me to have a bad install. However, every now and then it does happen. I have had this with Windows as well as Linux. In every case, simply doing a new install over what I had done fixed it. That is all of the suggestions I have. Let me know what your think and we will see if we can help more. Loyal

PS I hate the new Yahoo! Groups web site.  It used to be OK for replies

and now it just stinks.

---In LINUX_Newbies@yahoogroups.com, <linux_newbies@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

The two PCs I have are not networked and I don't plan on doing so. I do nothing that would require me to do so. My intent is to use the one with Mint 15 Cinnamon (M15C) and the one with XP will stay offline and only be used at times when I want to run a Windows program I'm familiar with and don't want to add to Wine, or, if I come across a Windows program that I want to add/try I'll download it using M15C and then move the exe to XP with a USB drive for installation, hence the need to be able to read-write to USB.

I have what I refer to as basic home-user PC needs: email, bill paying, shopping, edit a few pictures, edit a very few videos and edit some music/recorded files.

Learn or use Linux? My intent is to use M15C instead of Windows after April when XP gets to its end-of-life. I am not really interested in learning Linux but find myself being forced to learn much more than I want in order to get M15C to function well, and to my liking. Frustrated by my lack of command, coding, and dare I say, programming knowledge.

Of the four points you made about USB usage only "3. Allow you to copy files to/from the USB drive" did not function properly: copy from worked, copy to did not. That has been resolved with a "jump through hoops" after learning about the Advanced File Manager and using it to change some permissions.

---In LINUX_Newbies@yahoogroups.com, <linux_newbies@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

On 10/19/2013 3:56 AM, waltmatheus@... wrote:

>
> Joan, thanks for your reply. I believe you know that I've been
> struggling with Linux for quite some time.
>

Walt, don't worry about that. Everybody and I do mean EVERYBODY has
been where you are. None of us was
born with a knowledge of Linux.

>
> "SU mode to your file manager", when you refer to SU mode I'm guessing
> you mean access to the root. If so, at this time I don't have root
> access.
>

Actually, in Mint you do but probably don't know how to access it or use
it. SU (actually typed as "su" without
quotes) simply means "switch user". It is a command line concept but
can be extended into the GUI/desktop
manager. Your desktop manager we will refer to as Cinnamon which is not
perfectly accurate but is good enough
for our purposes. The correct way to issue the command is "su [-]
[user]". The dash means to run all of the
startup information for the user to which you are switching. User means
the username to which you are switching.
If no user name is supplied (command "su -") then the user defaults to
root which is god-like in Linux. An extension
of the su concept is a command "sudo" which allows the user to run any
single command as the root user. This
is used by Mint and by Ubuntu to try to keep people from harming
themselves and their computer. In both
distributions when they are installed you really cannot do "su -" to
become root. There are ways to change that
but that is not needed to accomplish what you want.

> Don't know how to get it, not sure I even want to at his time because
> of my lack of understanding of the language of Linux.
>

That depends on whether you are trying to learn Linux or trying to learn
to use Linux. If you are trying to learn Linux, remember
you can always scrap the current install by reinstalling over it. That
gives you a tremendous amount of freedom
to try things and not worry if you screw them up. If on the other hand
you are trying to learn to *use* Linux
then you probably want to stay away from "sudo" until you are more
comfortable.

What you are trying to learn is not obvious from your original post.
Attaching a USB drive or stick to your
computer would be something you would want to do regardless of what you
are trying to learn. Furthermore,
you should not have to jump through hoops like we are describing to do
it. I don't have Mint 15 installed on any
machine so I will fire it up later and see if I can figure out what went
wrong. I have Mint 13 (Long term support)
installed and never had the issue you are describing. Mint should do
the following when you plug in a USB drive:

1. Put an icon for the drive on the desktop
2. Open a window showing the content of the drive
3. Allow you to copy files to/from the USB drive
4. Allow you to delete files on the USB drive.

And Mint 15 as you have installed it is not allowing you to do it. That
could be an issue with Mint 15 or with
the install. I will do some more checking in order to figure out what
the issue is.

> "probably a permissions problem", yes, it is definitely a permission
> problem. I am unable to change the permissions from read only to
> read/write.
>
> "Check into their Forum", I have not done so yet in this regard, but,
> have posted two other inquiries in a mint community forum that have
> not gotten any responses. I have searched on Google and found that
> others have the same permissions issue but I did not find a simple
> solution.
>

Then it does not sound like an install issue if others have the same
issue. It sounds like a Mint 15 issue. If
so, they should have it fixed pretty soon.

> I will try booting to the Mint DVD then accessing a USB drive but
> would much rather be able to do so from the installed OS.
>
>

Agreed. My guess is that check is to see if it is a Mint 15 issue
rather that being suggested as a reasonable workaround.

> My primary reason for wanting to be able to write to a USB device is
> to be able to transfers any needed/wanted files to an XP machine that
> will go offline when XP reaches end-of-life in April.
>
>

Are the two computers on the same network? If so there is a simpler
process where you can transfer the files
over the network. Let us know if that is the case.

<snip>

>
>
>

Please see my suggestions in-line above. What I mean by in-line is that
I will go directly below a given statement
or question and respond to it.

Loyal