Can only Access some Folders in Windows XP from Ubuntu 9.04

Hampshire Hog · 01-10-2010, 01:16 PM

Following a re-install of Ubuntu 9.04 I now find that I am now unable to access some of the Windows folders on the "C:/> Drive" as I did before the re-install was done.

Using the access from "Places" only some of the folders are listed. I have also been trying to re-configure "Wine" to run one or two of the applications in Windows. However, I was able to configure one such application to run but from the External HDD, because I had a backup copy of the ".exe" file. I transferred this file to the Internal HDD and it now runs satisfactory. The other applications are inaccessible because of this "Access" shortcoming. Strangely, I somehow was able to get to the "Start Menu" in Windows listing all the applications' shortcut links, but sadly not the Programs Folder with the ".exe" files in Windows.

I would appreciate any help and/or advice of how I can overcome this problem to enable me to access all Folders in Windows XP.

Many thanks in advance for any assistance offered.

HH

alunduil · 01-10-2010, 01:50 PM

What permissions are the Windows partition mounted with? Does your user have access to those files at all?

Regards,

Alunduil

Hampshire Hog · 01-10-2010, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alunduil

What permissions are the Windows partition mounted with? Does your user have access to those files at all?

Regards,

Alunduil

Please forgive me but I am still on learning curve into all the Linux terminology and commands. So I am not sure quite what to answer here.

1) I am able to access most of the C:> Drive but cannot access some of the Folders. For example I cannot now access the Windows Desktop through to the Windows Program files and a number of other Folders. On the previous Ubuntu 9.04 installation ALL this was possible. Due to a Corruption that could not be fixed I re-installed Ubuntu 9.04.

2) I am the only user with full access to ALL files on this computer.

I hope this helps to explain my position.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice.

Regards

HH

alunduil · 01-10-2010, 02:51 PM

On the folders you cannot access would you list the output of ls -ld?

This will help us track down if it is a permissions problem or not.

Regards,

Alunduil

Hampshire Hog · 01-11-2010, 03:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alunduil

On the folders you cannot access would you list the output of ls -ld?

This will help us track down if it is a permissions problem or not.

Regards,

Alunduil

Below is a copy of the listing as requested:-

Quote:

joe@joe-desktop:~$ ls -ld
drwxr-xr-x 34 joe joe 4096 2010-01-11 09:35 .
joe@joe-desktop:~$

Thanks again for your assistance.

Regards

HH

alunduil · 01-11-2010, 10:16 AM

My mistake, but can you make that: ls -ld <path_that_doesn't_work>?

Regards,

Alunduil

Hampshire Hog · 01-11-2010, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alunduil

My mistake, but can you make that: ls -ld <path_that_doesn't_work>?

Regards,

Alunduil

Here's the offending path, see below:-

Quote:

joe@joe-desktop:~$ ls -ld /media/PRESARIO
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8192 2009-12-30 09:42 /media/PRESARIO
joe@joe-desktop:~$

Previously I was able to get right through to the Windows Desktop along with a good many more folders. This is no longer possible with this re-install.

Hope you can help.

Many thanks

Regards

HH

yancek · 01-11-2010, 07:38 PM

Quote:

joe@joe-desktop:~$ ls -ld /media/PRESARIO
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8192 2009-12-30 09:42 /media/PRESARIO
joe@joe-desktop:~$

If the /media/PRESARIO directory is where all of your windows files are, then it is not a permissions problem as everyone has read, write and execute permission.

I'm not really sure what the problem is. Can you not get to these files using a terminal? Can you not get to these files using a file manager? Are you trying to get to them using the wine program?

What exactly was the problem that required a reinstall of Ubuntu? Did you reinstall to the same partitions? Do you have ntfs-3g installed to read/write ntfs files?

Hampshire Hog · 01-12-2010, 04:56 AM

Thanks again for your reply yancek.

Quote:

1) Can you not get to these files using a terminal? No

2) Can you not get to these files using a file manager? No

3) Are you trying to get to them using the wine program? Yes - again unsuccessfully although I have been able to run the EXE file of some of these programs from copies elsewhere in the Windows partition.

4) What exactly was the problem that required a reinstall of Ubuntu? I inadvertently installed a utility program but it did not install/download all the associated library/package files. Upon trying to uninstall this software I was unable to do so because it came up with a message each time saying it needed to be re-installed first. This tied up Synaptic Package Manager and even with the help of many Linux "Experts" this was not possible to remove it at all. This therefore made the Synaptic Package Manager unusable. So I re-installed Ubuntu 9.04 again.

5) Did you reinstall to the same partitions? Yes. I first reformatted the partions in Windows using Partition Manager then did the re-install.

6) Do you have ntfs-3g installed to read/write ntfs files? No however, I have since installed it but again could not access these partitions.

If this fails I may go for a complete clean Dual Boot install. At least I have a full current disk backup copy of Windows XP so it is no problem. It just takes a lot of time doing the rebuild. Before my issues as noted in 4 above, I had no problems at all. I was impressed with the whole concept of Linux and in particular Ubuntu. Many years ago I ran a dual boot Linux Mandrake with Windows 98 but this is the first time I have returned to Linux since using Windows XP. To this end I have a huge learning curve to overcome.

Thanks again for your help and interest.

Regards

HH

Dave_Devnull · 01-12-2010, 06:42 AM

Can I ask BM/Hampshire Hog, what is it you are trying to do with the Windows files from Ubuntu? Browse them? Copy them?

alunduil · 01-12-2010, 10:39 AM

Now what is the output of the same ls command as before, but without the d option?

Regards,

Alunduil

Hampshire Hog · 01-13-2010, 04:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave_Devnull

Can I ask BM/Hampshire Hog, what is it you are trying to do with the Windows files from Ubuntu? Browse them? Copy them?

Thanks for your reply.

I am trying to run a few programs in Wine that I do not have suitable Linux versions that can easily import the data. I also want to be able to copy a few data files that I can then run in Linux using the likes of Open Office. I know I can copy all these data files to my External HDD. Secondly I didn't include the "My Documents" folder on the re-install to be copied across because the first time round it worked OK without doing it and it wasn't a problem. I was able to access all areas quite easily.

I hope that this answers your question.

Regards

HH

Hampshire Hog · 01-13-2010, 05:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alunduil

Now what is the output of the same ls command as before, but without the d option?

Regards,

Alunduil

As requested I ran it without the "d" option. See the results below.

Quote:

joe@joe-desktop:~$ ls -l /media/PRESARIO
ls: cannot access /media/PRESARIO: No such file or directory
joe@joe-desktop:~$

Regards

HH

alunduil · 01-13-2010, 11:04 AM

Did you run the second ls without the Windows partition mounted?

Regards,

Alunduil

Hampshire Hog · 01-14-2010, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alunduil

Did you run the second ls without the Windows partition mounted?

Regards,

Alunduil

I'm not sure, I must have done. For the record I didn't do anything different before than I did this time. I can't explain why the different results. Anyway here it is again, see below

PHP Code:



joe@joe-desktop:~$ ls -l /media/PRESARIO
total 787303
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root     12288 2009-06-09 16:07 1f20e11095284c5385ca75a4416ef8fe
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root     12288 2009-06-09 16:08 65b636b3864ed4e1186128ec1738
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root     50655 2010-01-13 15:48 aaw7boot.log
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root         0 2004-01-01 23:00 AUTOEXEC.BAT
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root         0 2009-12-21 15:31 $AVG
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root      4096 2010-01-13 16:30 _Backup
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root         0 2008-12-12 11:07 _Backup.RC
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root       196 2007-07-29 18:19 BOOT.BAK
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root       281 2009-10-14 09:18 boot.ini
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root     36864 2007-07-29 20:42 cmdcons
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root    245920 2004-02-11 11:25 cmldr
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root      4096 2010-01-13 16:29 Config.Msi
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root         0 2004-01-01 23:00 CONFIG.SYS
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root      4096 2008-04-02 20:17 Documents and Settings
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root      4096 2008-06-27 16:03 Downloads
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root         0 2007-08-06 10:02 EPSON
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root         0 2009-11-01 15:16 hb_10.tmp
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root      4096 2008-08-25 12:04 hp
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root         0 2007-12-22 08:34 IN
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root         0 2004-01-01 23:00 IO.SYS
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root       418 2008-12-29 16:21 LogEnbWinV.txt
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root        29 2008-12-29 16:21 LogProsType.txt
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root         0 2004-01-01 23:00 MSDOS.SYS
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root         0 2008-03-11 19:59 MSOCache
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root     47564 2007-07-29 22:41 ntdetect.com
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root    250048 2008-09-07 16:42 ntldr
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 805306368 2010-01-13 15:48 pagefile.sys
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root        32 2007-07-29 18:22 PIPIKOKO.TXT
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root     36864 2009-12-22 07:28 Program Files
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root      4096 2004-01-01 23:17 Python22
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root      4096 2009-03-24 20:24 RECYCLER
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root      4096 2007-07-29 18:22 sysprep
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root         0 2004-01-01 23:16 system.sav
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root      4096 2007-07-29 22:54 System Volume Information
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root         0 2008-12-16 14:58 temp
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root    147456 2010-01-13 16:29 WINDOWS
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root         0 2008-08-29 06:53 zimbra
joe@joe-desktop:~$

I hope that this helps

Regards

HH