Ubuntu Edgy Eft...slight help needed

[adit_sen]

Just installed Ubuntu Edgy Eft, and as usual...things are working great! My one long standing problem with ubuntu has finally been solved! No more jerky video playback

But just a small query....
When I insert my USB pen drive....I can read from it, but cannot write onto it!! It says "You do not have permission to write to this folder". How to I enable writing to usb pen drives?

And secondly,
Ubuntu now ships with Gaim 2.0beta3.1. This beta has problems while working behind an http proxy. So I want to revert back to version 1.5. How to I do that? If I use apt-get or synaptics, I only get 2.0beta3.1. The Gaim website only has the rpm's for ferdora / redhat!!


Cheers
Aditya

[Desi-Tek.com]

u need root permission to write any thing on usb drive either copy the data to usb drive using sudo cp command
or just create root login

sudo passwd root

and as long as problem with rpm is concern than use alien program.
with alien u can convert any rpm package into .deb
to get allien type

sudo apt-get install alien

[adit_sen]

in ubuntu there is no sudo root login! and i dont want to do that everytime i plug in a usb. i'm sure there must be an easier way....

[Desi-Tek.com]

no login for sudo.. i agree but no login for root..
u must be joking
first open terminal than type

sudo passwd root
enter your existing login password
now enter new root password

now go to login manager and check Allow Administrator to log in.
now log off and log in as root and copy and paste wat ever u want to usb drive.
that is the only option available in gui mode.
else u will have to use mv or cp command with sudo to transfer any file to usb drive.


//ps question mark button is not working on my keyboard..

[praka123]

You should try as below:
run

sudo users-admin

then choose ur username and look for its properties...then in user privilages TAB,tick the needed things like access external devices etc..

alternatively check ur secondary groups :

prakash@edgy:~$ groups
adm dialout cdrom floppy audio dip video plugdev lpadmin scanner admin

I think plugedev group allows u to manage and write to ext. disk.

[kalpik]

I think you USB drive is NTFS formatted. Format it to FAT or FAT32 (through windows) and you should be good to go! If you wanna use NTFS only, use NTFS -3g. More info about NTFS-3g here.

[jack// ani]

Originally Posted by kalpik

I think you USB drive is NTFS formatted. Format it to FAT or FAT32 (through windows) and you should be good to go! If you wanna use NTFS only, use NTFS -3g. More info about NTFS-3g here.

hmm.....formatting pen drive with windows....that sounds weird. This can render the pen drive useless.....there are some utilities to do so....!!!

[JGuru]

@Adit_Sen, Good that your jerky Video playback problem is solved. Format your
USB pen drive as FAT32, not NTFS. Regarding writing error, Open the Terminal Window:

$ sudo -s -H nautilus

The other workaround is to give write access a user account to USB pen drive as root.

For GAIM problem - Download the GAIM 1.5 RPM package.convert the RPM package to Debian
using alien command & install it & start using GAIM 1.5!! First remove(uninstall) the GAIM 2.0 Beta3.1 package.

$ sudo apt-get remove gaim

$ sudo apt-get install alien

$ sudo alien package.rpm

This should convert the RPM package to Debian package. Now install the Debian package of GAIM 1.5.

[kalpik]

Originally Posted by jack// ani

hmm.....formatting pen drive with windows....that sounds weird. This can render the pen drive useless.....there are some utilities to do so....!!!

Who gave you that idea? It is actually recommended that you format your pen drive once in a while (google it up if you dont believe). I think you are talking about MP3 players. Yeah, those CAN get damaged if you format them (this is because they contain special playlists which get erased if you format).

[adit_sen]

sigh! I'm still stuck. I've checked the 'user-admin' and all access is allowed. The funny thing is even as sudo I cannot write on the usb!! But when I run it on my friends machine running dapper....no problems at all!!
And no...its not NTFS formatted....

[jack// ani]

Originally Posted by kalpik

Who gave you that idea? It is actually recommended that you format your pen drive once in a while (google it up if you dont believe). I think you are talking about MP3 players. Yeah, those CAN get damaged if you format them (this is because they contain special playlists which get erased if you format).

oh...thank i got confused with mp3 player!! my player bears such a warning...so i thought same is applicable with pen drives...

[JGuru]

Maybe. that's a bug!! Just send a bug report to Ubuntu team. Hopefully it's solved
in their next release.

[eddie]

Originally Posted by adit_sen

sigh! I'm still stuck. I've checked the 'user-admin' and all access is allowed. The funny thing is even as sudo I cannot write on the usb!! But when I run it on my friends machine running dapper....no problems at all!!
And no...its not NTFS formatted....

After adding yourself to the group, did you log out and then login again? That is necessary.

Anyways, first attach your pen drive to your PC and then give us output of these three commands

cat /etc/fstab
cat /etc/mtab
id