Home folder permissions issue

**shirike** · August 9th, 2012

Hi,

I'm very very new at Linux.

I've installed 12.04 Precise Pangolin on my microsover by following this guide: http://www.havetheknowhow.com/Install-Ubuntu.html

My first attempt at installing 12.04 went perfect - I could follow every step to completion and the environment worked fine. I'd installed openssh for putty access, installed VNC for remote GUI work and installed samba/webmin for administration of shares etc.

Everything worked fine.

Then I stupidly managed to delete some things I shouldn't have but wasn't too concerned - I'd just do it all over again.

However, I've hit a snag. I've followed the guides steps word for word but suddenly I can no longer create or even access the /home/chris folder within putty.

I am trying to create a folder in /home/chris so I can store cron scripts there.

When I type

Code:

cd /home/chris

I get:

Code:

chris@ubuntu:~$ cd /home/chris
chris@ubuntu:~$

When I type

Code:

cd /home

I get:

Code:

chris@ubuntu:/home$

From there if I type

Code:

cd /chris

I get:

Code:

chris@ubuntu:/home$ cd /chris
-bash: cd: /chris: No such file or directory
chris@ubuntu:/home$

If I type

Code:

ls

I get:

Code:

chris@ubuntu:/home$ ls
chris

Note: chris in the second line above is in blue.

Weirdly if I try to make a directory called chris I get:

Code:

chris@ubuntu:/home$ mkdir chris
mkdir: cannot create directory `chris': File exists

When I try to view permissions of "chris" by typing

Code:

ls -l /home/chris

I get:

Code:

chris@ubuntu:~$ ls -l /home/chris
total 0

If I type

Code:

sudo -i

and log into root I am able to traverse the home folder fine.

Code:

chris@ubuntu:~$ sudo -i
[sudo] password for chris:
root@ubuntu:~# cd /home/chris
root@ubuntu:/home/chris#

I am sure I didn't have to log into root on putty to create folders in my first successful install.

Note: I have not encrypted my home folder. I've tried starting from scratch three times now and each time I have the same issue.

I'm sorry if I'm not providing sufficient or the right type of info. I've tried troubleshooting this myself and I suspect I have really cocked up the permissions by trying various chmod/chown commands.

I just can't figure out whether if the problem is with chris@ubuntu OR the /home/chris folder itself.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

**Frankincense93** · August 9th, 2012

Just a guess, and this is probably not the problem atall.

By try 'cd chris' instead of 'cd /chris'

**2F4U** · August 9th, 2012

When you execute a command like

cd /folder_name

then folder_name is expected to be at the highest level. If folder_name is a subfolder of the folder you are currently in, then just type

cd folder_name

without a preceeding "/".

You could also type

cd ./folder_name

to change into the subfolder.

**shirike** · August 9th, 2012

That's the thing - when I type

Code:

ls

there are no directories showing.

So I typed

Code:

mkdir test

and then

Code:

ls

which showed I'd created a directory called test.

I typed

Code:

find .

to get the following:

Code:

chris@ubuntu:~$ find .
.
./.bash_logout
./.bashrc
./.bash_history
./test
./.cache
./.cache/motd.legal-displayed
./.profile
./.rnd
chris@ubuntu:~$

then

Code:

cd /home

and then

Code:

find .

to get:

Code:

.
./chris
./chris/.bash_logout
./chris/.bashrc
./chris/.bash_history
./chris/test
./chris/.cache
./chris/.cache/motd.legal-displayed
./chris/.profile
./chris/.rnd
chris@ubuntu:/home$

I'm confused - how come there is a test folder within chris? I've clearly just created it yet I can't navigate to it?

I type

Code:

cd /

then

Code:

ls

and get:

Code:

chris@ubuntu:/$ ls
bin   home            lib64       opt   sbin     tmp      vmlinuz.old
boot  initrd.img      lost+found  proc  selinux  usr      webmin-setup.out
dev   initrd.img.old  media       root  srv      var
etc   lib             mnt         run   sys      vmlinuz

**thnewguy** · August 9th, 2012

It doesn't look like you've tried to navigate to the test directory at all based on your above example. After you typed

mkdir test

That created the directory. Next type

cd test

And you will be inside the test directory.
Usually I don't recommend books, but I think you might benefit from a textbook like "The Linux Command Line" (http://nostarch.com/tlcl). It's a good resource for starting you out and dealing with these sorts of operations.

**shirike** · August 9th, 2012

^^ I'll give that a try. Like I said, I have very very basic knowledge. At the moment I'm going to install VNC. It may help me understand things if I can physically see the directories etc.