How to delete directory/file (operation not permitted)?

lvgamer1 · 12-28-2004, 09:40 AM

I (think) I'm looking at the contents of a flash card (in USB flashcard reader/writer), and I'm trying to delete the contents of the card (2 non-empty directories and a (broken) link to a file.

I've tried rm, rm -f, rm -d, rmdir, etc...I keep getting an 'Operation not permitted' message. I've tried to remove both the link and one of the directories (with 0 success).

The permissions for these are even rwx for owner, group, and user.

Any help would be appreciated.

linuxgeekery · 12-28-2004, 10:04 AM

Try 'rm -rf *' as root.

lvgamer1 · 12-28-2004, 10:14 AM

it's saying -rf* is not a valid option.

-rf is valid, but still giving me the "operation not permitted" even though I'm signed on as root.

ksgill · 12-28-2004, 10:44 AM

DO the following as root:

First of all, you need to set the permissions of the directory that you are trying to delete. change the permissions of files in there by doing
chmod 777 -R /path/to/directory
This will allow everyone to read write and delete files. Then remove the files from within the directory by doing
cd /path/to/directory
rm *

that should work.

The reason -rf* doesnt work it that you need to have a space between -rf and *.

lvgamer1 · 12-28-2004, 10:53 AM

still not working....

it won't let me delete the directories, well, because they're directories, and I'm still getting 'operation not permitted' when I try to delete the link.

I've even tried to unmount the flash card reader/writer and it won't even let me do that (says device is busy).