Hello Linux Questions
So glad I found you!
I love Linux / Ubuntu. Been using for 10 years. Recently updated the system. (Ubuntu UBUNTU 20.04.4 LTS, 64-bit; GNOME Version 3.36.8

I've searched this question periodically in the past 10 years (perhaps imperfectly. Maybe I was in the wrong place or...?) Can't believe my Search today for a thread on this comes up zero.

Found a reply that's a couple years old. Talked about Linux being designed for a hierarchy of users, & protecting files from those with less permissions etc

QUESTION: How in the world can that come up on my laptop: where I am the ONLY OWNER & User EVER?
How why where does Linux get off attacking MY memory stick & INSTANTLY LOCKING ME OUT OF ALL MY FILES?
HOW do I STOP IT?

I've gone to Settings on folders, files. Settings just change back every time I try to change from “Read Only”.

Have used Linux about 10 yrs. Because of this stopped EVER putting a memory stick into Linux. All copying / moving / updating of files I did on the Windows side.

Now Windows has started going mad: turning important files into GOBBLEDYGOOK.

NOW I MUST solve this prob with Linux.

Due to all of the above, have an extra stick I use only with Linux. In the past year or so, never a prob being locked out of it.

So when Windows started doing this the other day, I had to take a chance & try working with files in Linux.

It INSTANTLY LOCKED ME OUT of thousands of files in critical main work stick.
HELP!!
THANKS

Welcome. Can you please rephrase your problem?

Is it that you have a Windows-based USB stick (aka thumb drive) which keeps getting mounted read-only?

Yes, I would suspect the "problem" is not with linux per-se, but the carbon based life-form sitting at the keyboard.

1 members found this post helpful.

You are not necessarily the only user of your machine. You are the only LEGAL user, which is not quite the same thing. There are a lot of bad actors out there on the internet who would love to penetrate your system, encrypt your drives for ransom or install malware (a back door so they can use your machine to generate spam, or maybe a keylogger to steal your banking passwords). In Windows, that happens to people all the time. In Linux it usually doesn't because the file ownership and permissions system makes it very hard to do those things.

It's also easy to explore your system as an unprivileged user without the risk of accidentally damaging it.

2 members found this post helpful.

If you made the filesystem on you pendrive in MS Windows & it is NTFS, you need ntfs-3g on your Linux system to access your files in read/write mode, plus you need the pendrive to belong to you, via permissions, then you will be able to use it as you wish.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS-3G

1 members found this post helpful.

You are not. You may be the only person who has used Linux on this computer but if you are using Ubuntu, you will have at least 2 users, a root (administrator) user and a general user. For the root user, you need to use sudo and if you have been using Ubuntu for 10 years, you should know this. The general user has limited access. The first user created during the install of Ubuntu has root privileges which means using sudo.

Ubuntu has a User Guide at the link below so I would suggest you read that. Also answer questions asked above about how and what system you used to copy files to the USB drives.

https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/

Most grateful for all the amazing knowledge in these prompt & thoughtful replies. To which I'll have to apply more study than this first cursory read.

No doubt compared to you kind responders I'm shockingly abysmally ignorant.
I'm not a programmer. I don't code. Although I'm fairly tech savvy; enough to open a terminal & enter something I'm given to enter.

I don't know what sudo is. "Root" has been explained to me once. I've a vague idea what it means.

I never store ANY files on my computer. That's why I use sticks. All files are regularly removed & stored on sticks. Zero nothing on the hard drive. I use CCleaner to clear the system after virtually each use.

Finding that I can't connect Windows to the net without it hijacking massive amounts of data to do god knows what, I NEVER go online with Windows.

I only go online with Linux. But it capriciously locks me out of my files. So I never put my main work stick into Linux. (Until this emergency.)

I'll follow up & read Ubuntu info you Linked.

I see only one user account on the Ubuntu / Linux side. (How Ubuntu & Linux are connected or separate is another area of mystery to me.

QUESTION is simple. I'll try to re-phrase: I put a stick into the computer (using Ubuntu/Linux.) It locks me out of all the files on it. Instantly. I go into the stick's Properties. Click Permissions tab. Change the permissions to allow unrestricted access to any & all users. Click Apply. It ignores me & switches them back.

These are in the basic user-friendly controls for people who are not programmers. HOW TO FIX THAT PROBLEM. That's the QUESTION.


If I have to be a programmer or coder to understand how to use Linux, I'm afraid I haven't another lifetime to spare to become one that at the minute. I just need to use my files

THANKS A MILLION for you kind assistance & patience

Everyone in this forum started out as totally ignorant.That's what learning is for. And programming is something quite different from just using an operating system. Lots of people who learn how to manage and enjoy a Linux system couldn't write a program to save their lives.
sudo is just a command that allows you to run the following command as root. You will need to give your own password to prove that you have the right to do this. One of our regular contributors (sundialsvcs) compares it to Clarke Kent diving into a telephone booth and coming out as superman because root can do just about anything on your system.
Bravo!
That's because Ubuntu doesn't let anyone log in as root. You can only get root access via sudo. But many other distros ask you at installation to create a separate root login.

Ubuntu is simply a variety of Linux, what is technically known as a Linux distribution. It was created out of Debian Linux to be a distro specialised for the use of newbies.

1 members found this post helpful.

There are few reasons your drive is read only.

Ubuntu is mounting the drive as read only for some unknown reason. Ubuntu should automatically mount it using permissions as your user. You can try remounting it as rw but suggest using the command line.

The filesystem has errors and will only mount read only. I assume the filesystem is NTFS and you can run ntfsfix from linux but it only can repair simple errors. Better to run a filesystem check from Windows.

USB flash drives do fail and if yours is failing be happy that it is read only. However, if this is the case better to copy the files sooner then later because when it completely fails your files might be inaccessible. Always better to have multiple sources for a backup and never rely on a single USB flash disk.

1 members found this post helpful.

Post a screenshot showing what this "locked out... gobbledygook" looks like.

2 members found this post helpful.

Good. Opening up the terminal and entering something still isn't programming: its merely running programs with typed words, instead of with mouse clicks. The mouse-click programs know the words and are saying them to the terminal for you. But those terminal commands are not too tricky, and the more you use them, the less important the mouse-clicking programs become. Often the mouse-clicky programs, such as file managers, differ between linux-distributions, but the words those file managers are saying to the terminal for you, are still the same. So if you learn these words, then you learn linux. However, this is not programming. It is just the way computers were before the mouse.

So here is a list of terminal steps that can get us some info to help you, and after you go through them, you'll wish you had done it ten years ago, because it's really not all that tricky.

1. Start without your usb memory stick inserted, or if it is, unmount it and remove it.

2. Open up the terminal.

3. Insert your usb memory stick.

4. I like the superman analogy listed. I always think of sudo as Super User Do -- in other words, do this as the super user. In that terminal, type:
Technically, this will display messages from the kernels ring buffer, which include messages about recently inserted thumb drives.

It will prompt you for your password, and after you type it in, you will see: lines and lines of GOBBLEDYGOOK filling up your terminal window. This is normal. Ignore it all, until it stops. Then copy and paste back here in this LQ thread, the last few lines that take up your terminal window, but don't select all the gobbledgook above those, and then paste what your selected here for us to see.

What the last lines should contain, is how your computer named your usb stick. Then we can use this name to control it (i.e., we'll figure out what file system is on it, mount it, change the ownership and permissions, and after that, you will feel like the super user of your computer

2 members found this post helpful.

Molly, just remember that "questions like yours are what this forum is for." All of us hope that you will be a participant here for a very long time.

Please review the "stickies" that talk about how to "post a question effectively," but never fear to "post anyway." When you are totally new at something –*well – "you are totally new at that thing." And everyone here has been at that exact same place. Far better to "post the wrong question" than to be afraid to post anything at all.

"Post a screen shot" is an excellent suggestion, because as always "the devil is in the details." Even if, at this point, you don't know what the "details" are – and of course cannot be expected to. Take a picture with your phone if you have to ...

"Welcome Aboard!" You have "stumbled upon" probably the very best and most accommodating "Linux questions site" that I have ever encountered – and you can see for yourself my join-date and post-count.

1 members found this post helpful.

THANK YOU.
(Yours is one of the most helpful answers.)

Ubuntu not only mounted it as read-only.
When I take the same stick back to Windows, it says "[read-only: change permissions to do this action]"

OK. I go into file options for the stick in Windows. Of all the wiz-bang gimcracks it offer to do, that you'll never use, & can't even understand what it means, NO OPTION TO CHANGE PERMISSIONS.

Through some action or other, I managed to get a prompt saying "Unset read-only" & "Apply" to all files on the stick.
Ran it twice.
Check the stick: STILL READ-ONLY (GRRRR-rrrrr-aRRRR-GHghghhhghh!!!)

So Ubuntu not only "mounted" it as Read-only. It's locked it as Read-only so it can't be reset.

I don't know what that means.

No, it's not the stick.
A couple months ago I was trying to make an extra backup stick in Windows when the Gobbledygook first appeared, That's what the new copy looked like.
I presumed then it was a flawed stick & put it away for minimal use.

Then recently, I put my main work stick into Windows for routine actions, and when I opened it, one of my most current & important work files was now Gobbledygook. Just that one.

It's not the sticks. It's Windows.

But Windows is more & more aggressive. It's set to invasively scan all your files, carry away as much private info as possible, store it in places you can't find & can't erase.

Don't know what that means. But it's not the stick. Had this problem with Linux all the time I've used it. No problem with the sticks elsewhwere.
My only solution has been never to put a stick into Linux.

Now that Windows is going off, it would be great if this could be sorted out, so my sticks would be safe in Linux.


Yes, of course. I was trying to make another extra backup copy when Windows started reducing files to Gobbledygook.
Then I ran to Linux & it locked all the files as "read-only."

Now I have only one copy of the main work stick which I can work with. I'm afraid to put it into either Windows or Linux in view of all this.

So until this is sorted out, I can't make any new backup copies.

(Pardon my tardiness in providing a screenshot of the Goobledygook. I'm afraid to put my sticks into Windows so I can make one.)

Yes, I actually remember them days...

I'll try your suggestion definitely.
Thanks very much.

I'm dead in the water & can't do a lot til this is sorted out.

If this works, I already wish I could have found you ten years ago.