Change permissions on folder and sub-folders recursively using GUI

[Alan5127]

Hi All,

I have a brand new install of Ubuntu 10.10.

I am now setting up a data store that will, eventually, be used by multiple users.

I have two physical 500 GB drives in the machine, one of which has the OS partition, a swap partition (virtual memory?), and a data partition (Data1), and the other is purely for data (Data2).

I had copied some files and dorectories into Data1, but when I set it up, I used NTFS since I will be needing some Windows clients to access that partition and I figured they would not be able to read Ext4.

I then discovered that Ubuntu can't apply permissions to NTFS partitions, and my other users wouldn't be able to access it, so I used GParted to change it to Ext4, as upon reflection, I figured the data store would be 'shared' and not read directly from client machines, so the format of the partition shouldn't matter to the clients.

Now I am able to access the permissions options (right click - properties - permissions), but when I changed the ownership of Data1 from Root to Alan, it only changed the partition itself (Data1), and all the files and directories underneath are still owned by Root (ie it didn't apply recursively despite me clicking on the 'Apply permissions to enclosed files' button).

I searched here and it looks like this can be done using the command line using CHMOD -R, but if possible I would like to learn how to do this by using the GUI (I will need to train other users, and the command line is not likely to go down well with users!)

So, question:

How do I recursively change the ownership of all the files and directories in Data1 from Root to Alan using the GUI?

Thanks,

Alan.

[mikewhatever]

Training other users to change permissions is asking for trouble, especially those of the root user.
Why did you assume that other uses wouldn't be able to access files on NTFS?

[Alan5127]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for replying.

Training other users to change permissions is asking for trouble, especially those of the root user.

I want the users to learn how to use the system fully - locking them out of things will restrict their learning opportunities and as long as I have overall admin access, the worst they can do is come to me to ask to fix a problem.

It has worked well on Windows for some time (e.g. my nine year old daughter knows about 'security' settings on her personal 'drive' in Windows (actually her 'My Docs' folder mapped onto an old Windows Server 2003), so now wanting to migrate to Ubuntu too and keep the learning going.

Why did you assume that other uses wouldn't be able to access files on NTFS?

Any number of posts here state that Ubuntu is unable to set permissions on NTFS volumes, and I had no reason to figure they would be wrong, but to be honest the NTFS thing is a moot point as the partition is now Ext4 and unless absolutely necessary, I'd rather stick with that as being Ubuntu's native format.



Any idea on how to recursively apply permission changes to all files and directories using the GUI?


Thanks,

Alan.

[mikewhatever]

I don't know of any other GUI way other then the 'Apply permissions to enclosed files' button. It's either broken, or you've done something wrong. Did you launch Nautilus as root when modifying permissions?

[earthpigg]

you may find this to be an indirect solution, but an alternative file manager to the default 'nautilus' is called 'pcmanfm'. installing it will have no effect on nautilus.

when you change a folder's permissions in pcmanfm, it asks you;

Do you want to recursively apply these changes to all files and sub-folders?

and, it works.

nautilus is a bit easier to use, but i prefer pcmanfm for certain 'heavy lifting' stuff. my 'music' folder, for example has over 3,000 files and is over 15gb, but opens instantly in pcmanfm. that same task takes several minutes with nautilus.

[Alan5127]

Hi Mike,

I don't know of any other GUI way other then the 'Apply permissions to enclosed files' button. It's either broken, or you've done something wrong. Did you launch Nautilus as root when modifying permissions?

Just tried that (command prompt - sudo nautilus), but it still doesn't recurse.

Is there another way to run a command as root?

Thanks,

Alan.

[Alan5127]

Hi EarthPigg,

you may find this to be an indirect solution, but an alternative file manager to the default 'nautilus' is called 'pcmanfm'. installing it will have no effect on nautilus.

when you change a folder's permissions in pcmanfm, it asks you;


and, it works.

nautilus is a bit easier to use, but i prefer pcmanfm for certain 'heavy lifting' stuff. my 'music' folder, for example has over 3,000 files and is over 15gb, but opens instantly in pcmanfm. that same task takes several minutes with nautilus.

Just tried installing PCManFM, but it says the install failed with the following error stream:

installArchives() failed: Selecting previously deselected package pcmanfm.
(Reading database ... (Reading database ... 5% (Reading database ... 10% (Reading database ... 15% (Reading database ... 20% (Reading database ... 25% (Reading database ... 30% (Reading database ... 35% (Reading database ... 40% (Reading database ... 45% (Reading database ... 50% (Reading database ... 55% (Reading database ... 60% (Reading database ... 65% (Reading database ... 70% (Reading database ... 75% (Reading database ... 80% (Reading database ... 85% (Reading database ... 90% (Reading database ... 95% (Reading database ... 100% (Reading database ... 159206 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking pcmanfm (from .../pcmanfm_0.9.7-1ubuntu1_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ...
Processing triggers for python-gmenu ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/desktop.en_NZ.UTF8.cache...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for python-support ...
Setting up language-selector-common (0.6.7) ...
dpkg: error processing language-selector-common (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of language-selector:
language-selector depends on language-selector-common (= 0.6.7); however:
Package language-selector-common is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing language-selector (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Setting up pcmanfm (0.9.7-1ubuntu1) ...
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
Processing triggers for python-central ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
language-selector-common
language-selector
Setting up language-selector-common (0.6.7) ...
dpkg: error processing language-selector-common (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of language-selector:
language-selector depends on language-selector-common (= 0.6.7); however:
Package language-selector-common is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing language-selector (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for python-central ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
language-selector-common
language-selector

Gets better and better

Alan.

[earthpigg]

yes, that is a problem. has your new zealand language selection ever been a problem, before (from "esktop.en_NZ.UTF8.cache...")?

anything you may have done that could have influenced this, by chance?

my first reaction would be to try typing this:

sudo dpkg --configure language-selector-common

based mostly on reading this:

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of language-selector:
language-selector depends on language-selector-common (= 0.6.7); however:
Package language-selector-common is not configured yet.

or you could give this a shot:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure language-selector-common

if that doesn't do it, i'd probably open a thread specifically with that error message, and link back to this thread.

(to ensure people really good at fixing dpkg problems see it and can help you. i am very mediocre at that.)

[Alan5127]

Hi EarthPigg,

yes, that is a problem. has your new zealand language selection ever been a problem, before (from "esktop.en_NZ.UTF8.cache...")?

anything you may have done that could have influenced this, by chance?

Not in the two days since I first decided to try Linux

I can't think of anything that I could have done to cause the error. Perhaps the regionalisation is not very well developed either within the OS or more likely within that specific application, and the author(s) didn't think about it?

It is the second ever application I have installed into Linux (VirtualBox being the first).

my first reaction would be to try typing this:

sudo dpkg --configure language-selector-common

based mostly on reading this:

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of language-selector:
language-selector depends on language-selector-common (= 0.6.7); however:
Package language-selector-common is not configured yet.

Before I do that, please could you explain what it does?

or you could give this a shot:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure language-selector-common

and that too ....

if that doesn't do it, i'd probably open a thread specifically with that error message, and link back to this thread.

(to ensure people really good at fixing dpkg problems see it and can help you. i am very mediocre at that.)

Okay - let's stick with it here first, but noted.

Thanks,

Alan.

[nothingspecial]

I want the users to learn how to use the system fully - locking them out of things will restrict their learning opportunities and as long as I have overall admin access, the worst they can do is come to me to ask to fix a problem.

The worst they can do is completely hose the system. And loose all your data. If you are going to give your 9 year old daughter an admin account, make sure you have backups of everything.