Permissions denied on depository

[kaam2811]

Hey there,

I am using Xubuntu xfce. I am the only user of the pc and the also the one who setup Xubuntu.
I am trying to Startup Disk Creator. After installing it without issue, when I try to open it I get the following message:
An unhandled exception occured:

[Errno 13] Permission denied: /home/myname/Desktop/

This kind of error is recurring. As an example I tried to go to the desktop properties to change permissions but this is not allowed neither. I still get the following message:

Error opening directory '/home/myname/Desktop/.
Permission denied

I tried the chown command to change the owner of a file.

sudo chown myname /home/myname/Deskto

p
As I still have no rights on the directory, I tried:

$ chown [-R] myname /home/myname/Desktop

But I get:

zsh: no matches found: [-R]

Me being the only user, I don't understand why I can't own my own data. And I don't understand why the chown command doesn't work.So I tried to have a look who is officially the UID and GID of files and directories with

-ls -n

And I don't see anything wrong here, there is only my name popping up in the results.
Does anyone have an idea what the access of some specific files/folders are not allowed?

[currentshaft]

b

[kaam2811]

Hey!

Thanks for your quick reply. Then I get:

chown: cannot read directory '/home/amelie-melo/Desktop': Permission denied

[currentshaft]

s1

[#&thj^%]

Hey!

Thanks for your quick reply. Then I get:

chown: cannot read directory '/home/amelie-melo/Desktop': Permission denied

Sounds like you used sudo with a GUI, please try this:

find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

Then show us these:

stat /home/$USER
### And
la -al

[kaam2811]

Hi,

I tried as well with sudo this way:

$ sudo chown -R amelie-melo /home/amelie-melo/Desktop

and this way because I was not sure of the synthax:

sudo $ chown -R amelie-melo /home/amelie-melo/Desktop

In both way, I got as a result: zsh: command not found: $

So I tried without $, but then I get nothing in return and I still can't access the directory.

I tried as well to access the root access by changing the password, but same, nothing happens. So now, I am checking who are the users on this laptop (should be only me) and how to change this

[kaam2811]

....

[kaam2811]

When I enter find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
I get a long list of "operation not permitted"


When I enter stat /home/$USER

File: /home/myname
Size: 4096 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 directory
Device: 802h/2050d Inode: 23199746 Links: 32
Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x) Uid: ( 1000/myname) Gid: ( 1000/myname)
Access: 2024-08-15 14:58:56.042081511 +0200
Modify: 2024-08-15 15:01:19.115315384 +0200
Change: 2024-08-15 15:01:19.115315384 +0200
Birth: -
When I enter la -al

total 2.1G
drwxr-xr-x 20 root root 4.0K Apr 26 2020 ./
drwxr-xr-x 20 root root 4.0K Apr 26 2020 ../
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 26 2020 bin -> usr/bin/
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4.0K Aug 14 08:54 boot/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Apr 26 2020 cdrom/
drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 5.0K Aug 15 14:12 dev/
drwxr-xr-x 144 root root 12K Aug 15 14:19 etc/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Apr 26 2020 home/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 26 2020 lib -> usr/lib/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Apr 26 2020 lib32 -> usr/lib32/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Apr 26 2020 lib64 -> usr/lib64/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr 26 2020 libx32 -> usr/libx32/
drwx------ 2 root root 16K Apr 26 2020 lost+found/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Apr 28 2020 media/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Apr 23 2020 mnt/
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4.0K Dec 1 2022 opt/
dr-xr-xr-x 328 root root 0 Aug 15 12:23 proc/
drwx------ 8 root root 4.0K Aug 13 18:05 root/
drwxr-xr-x 34 root root 1.1K Aug 15 14:55 run/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8 Apr 26 2020 sbin -> usr/sbin/
drwxr-xr-x 27 root root 4.0K Aug 13 17:03 snap/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Apr 23 2020 srv/
-rw------- 1 root root 2.0G May 6 2023 swapfile
dr-xr-xr-x 13 root root 0 Aug 15 12:23 sys/
drwxrwxrwt 19 root root 4.0K Aug 15 14:55 tmp/
drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 4.0K Apr 23 2020 usr/
drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 4.0K Apr 23 2020 var/

[kaam2811]

hey there,

As it seems that root owns everything, all my computer and all my life (me not being dramatic at all :'D), I would like the situation to end

Is there a way to know when the change was made (for sure, I initially had a normal setup)? It would help me analyse my situation.

And if I reboot everything, would I lose everything? All data? I mean of course, I can save the data externally that I want and boot afterwards. But that wouldn't be my favourite option, I would prefer to fix the computer and keep as much as it is.

[ActionParsnip]

You don't prefix the command with the dollar sign. That just signifies "ran as user"

sudo chown -R amelie-melo:amelie-melo /home/amelie-melo/Desktop

Will do it for you