Solving .dmrc and $HOME Permission Errors

[Jacdeb6009]

Thank you very much drs305 for this How-to!

I have noticed that every time I copy my entire home directory (including hidden files) to an external hdd I get this error the very next time I boot up or restart.

Mmm, I have the same problem with the same cause (has happened a couple of times). Can anyone explain why this happens when I copy to an external HDD and how this can be avoided? I mean the "fix" is simple, but it is a nuisance.

Thanks!

[bodhi.zazen]

See man cp

cp does not preserver permissions, and neither does FAT or NTFS file systems.

When you save (backup) $HOME you can use cipo or the -a flag or tar ...

If you archive the files (tar) you can save the archive to FAT/NTFS, but not with cp as these file systems do not preserve the permissions.

[Misaru-Meep]

I seem to be running into a problem. I tried what you asked, but I got this message in terminal:

lizz@lizz-laptop:~$ sudo chown -R lizz:lizz /home/lizz
chown: cannot access `/home/lizz/.gvfs': Permission denied
lizz@lizz-laptop:~$

[bodhi.zazen]

yea, that error is not uncommon ...

[Misaru-Meep]

Does anyone know what I should do?

[bodhi.zazen]

You should be good to go, keep following the tutorial and reboot.

[Misaru-Meep]

I did continue through with everything, and restarted my computer, and the warning stopped. But I am still getting the same *other* warning, and it not allowing me to access my home folder from the places menu. If anyone could help, I have my original thread here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1093674

[Jacdeb6009]

See man cp

cp does not preserver permissions, and neither does FAT or NTFS file systems.

When you save (backup) $HOME you can use cipo or the -a flag or tar ...

If you archive the files (tar) you can save the archive to FAT/NTFS, but not with cp as these file systems do not preserve the permissions.

Thanks bodhi!! I have looked at the man page for cp and it doesn't quite explain the problem (maybe using nautilus is a further complication). One further question, if I may, why would the cp command (or Nautilus for that matter) change the permissions of the source files and directories? I can sort of understand that the permissions in the copy may not be preserved, but changing the permissions of the source doesn't quite make sense to me.

This may simple be "how it is", but it would be interesting to understand why it is implemented in this way...

Thanks for your patience,

[bodhi.zazen]

I do not know how to explain it to you better.

Neither FAT or NTFS preserve permissions. use cp to copy a file to a windows partition then copy it back.

See also :

http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/01/...own-partition/

and

http://www.us.debian.org/doc/manuals...ml#s-archiving

That second link is a (brief) overview of the issues.

[Jacdeb6009]

Once again, Thanks!! I will take a look at the threads to gain a better understanding of this.