Why is this failing?

[WB0HYQ]

This is a directory in my home directory that I am trying to delete. Every time I try, I get "Operation not Permitted." Even when I elevate myself to root, I cannot do it.

root@bill-UBU:/home/bill# ls -ald Novels
drwxrwxrwx 2 bill bill 4096 Sep  2 21:10 Novels
root@bill-UBU:/home/bill# rmdir Novels
rmdir: failed to remove 'Novels': Operation not permitted
root@bill-UBU:/home/bill#

If I move up a directory, I see that somehow I am NOT the owner of my own home directory. Something named "124" is the group and not "bill". Can this be changed?

root@bill-UBU:/home# ls -ald bill
drwxrwxrwx+ 110 bill 124 12288 Jul  3 21:25 bill
root@bill-UBU:/home#

Found the 'change group' command. It still does not work.

root@bill-UBU:/home# chgrp bill bill
chgrp: changing group of 'bill': Operation not permitted
root@bill-UBU:/home#

Really confused, as I thought root could do anything. Any help here?

Bill

[Dennis N]

drwxrwxrwx 2 bill bill 4096 Sep  2 21:10 Novels
root@bill-UBU:/home/bill# rmdir Novels

Novels is a directory
rmdir will not work unless the directory is empty. Could be file(s) inside?

If you want to remove the directory and its contents, use rm -r Novels

[WB0HYQ]

I should have shown the commands prior to trying to remove the directory. I'd emptied it completely. There are no files inside Novels. Wouldn't the error have been "Directory not Empty" if there files in it?

bill@bill-UBU:~$ rm -r Novels
rm: cannot remove 'Novels': Operation not permitted
bill@bill-UBU:~$ sudo su
[sudo] password for bill: 
root@bill-UBU:/home/bill# rm -r Novels
rm: cannot remove 'Novels': Operation not permitted
root@bill-UBU:/home/bill#

Bill

[ActionParsnip]

Is the folder stored on an NTFS file system by any chance?

[WB0HYQ]

Another oddity:

the commands compgen -u and compgen -g show no group/user named "124" as shown in my second code block above. Maybe I have a ghost in the machine.

Bill

[WB0HYQ]

Is the folder stored on an NTFS file system by any chance?

Not that I know of. The system is dual boot (Windows 7 and Ubumtu/XUbuntu) but everything on the Linux side was created when I installed OS.

I booted into Windows 7 and attached the Linux drive, thinking I might be able to remove the directory from Windows. It failed as well, with virtually the same message: 'can't do this.'

Bill

[Impavidus]

See that + after the permissions? From the manual:

     Following the file mode bits is a single character that specifies
     whether an alternate access method such as an access control list
     applies to the file.  When the character following the file mode
     bits is a space, there is no alternate access method.  When it is a
     printing character, then there is such a method.

     GNU ‘ls’ uses a ‘.’ character to indicate a file with a security
     context, but no other alternate access method.

     A file with any other combination of alternate access methods is
     marked with a ‘+’ character.

I guess there's your problem.

[WB0HYQ]

Here's the output of the df command:

root@bill-UBU:/home/bill# df -T
Filesystem     Type      1K-blocks      Used  Available Use% Mounted on
udev           devtmpfs    8134492         0    8134492   0% /dev
tmpfs          tmpfs       1639368      1752    1637616   1% /run
/dev/sdb1      ext4      240231392  41523268  186481952  19% /                          <<--- Linux
tmpfs          tmpfs       8196824         0    8196824   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs          tmpfs          5120         4       5116   1% /run/lock
tmpfs          tmpfs       8196824         0    8196824   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/loop2     squashfs      56832     56832          0 100% /snap/core18/2074
/dev/loop0     squashfs     101760    101760          0 100% /snap/core/11606
/dev/loop3     squashfs      56832     56832          0 100% /snap/core18/2128
/dev/loop1     squashfs     101888    101888          0 100% /snap/core/11420
/dev/loop4     squashfs     166784    166784          0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/145
/dev/loop5     squashfs     168832    168832          0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/161
/dev/loop6     squashfs      66688     66688          0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1515
/dev/loop8     squashfs      82432     82432          0 100% /snap/shotcut/451
/dev/loop7     squashfs      86912     86912          0 100% /snap/shotcut/282
tmpfs          tmpfs       1639364        24    1639340   1% /run/user/1000
/dev/sdd1      fuseblk   976074748 317910448  658164300  33% /media/bill/My Book       <<--- external USB
/dev/sdc       fuseblk  1953514580   3700672 1949813908   1% /media/bill/Big_U             <<--- internal SATA
/dev/sda1      fuseblk   976758784 209249184  767509600  22% /media/bill/WIN764              <<--- Windows 7
/dev/sde1      fuseblk   244196001 120239331  123956670  50% /media/bill/WD_PASSPORT   <<--- External USB
root@bill-UBU:/home/bill#

Bill

[WB0HYQ]

See that + after the permissions? From the manual:

     Following the file mode bits is a single character that specifies
     whether an alternate access method such as an access control list applies to the file.  When the character following the file mode bits is a space, there is no alternate access method.  When it is a
     printing character, then there is such a method.  GNU ‘ls’ uses a ‘.’ character to indicate a file with a security context, but no other alternate access method.

     A file with any other combination of alternate access methods is marked with a ‘+’ character.

I guess there's your problem.

I don't know what "alternate access" means. What other methods of access are there?

Bill

[WB0HYQ]

Even the setfacl command won't work:

root@bill-UBU:/home# ls -ald bill
drwxrwxrwx+ 110 bill 124 12288 Jul  3 21:25 bill
root@bill-UBU:/home# setfacl -b bill
setfacl: bill: Operation not permitted
root@bill-UBU:/home# setfacl -R -b bill
setfacl: bill: Operation not permitted
root@bill-UBU:/home#

Bill