Can't make change to home folder after changing distro

vatin · 08-12-2020, 10:39 AM

Hi,

I installed Pop OS over Linux Mint by preserving the home partition. Then, I proceed to create the same user name as the one I have in Linux Mint. This works as expected. I was able to see my files and folders on the desktop and so on. But the problem is I couldn't make change to them. I couldn't delete files and folders, I couldn't change the settings...etc. It seems I was being prevented from making change to my home folder. Any suggestion?

Thanks,
Vatin

fatmac · 08-12-2020, 10:53 AM

Try running

Code:

chown -r yourname:yourgroup /home/yourname

sevendogsbsd · 08-12-2020, 12:07 PM

What fatmac said. If unsure about your primary group, run

Code:

 id <username>

remmilou · 08-12-2020, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatmac

Try running

Code:

chown -r yourname:yourgroup /home/yourname

Should probably be:
-R in stead of -r

vatin · 08-12-2020, 05:01 PM

Thanks. I ran in the terminal

Quote:

chown -R yourname:yourgroup /home/yourname

The system spits out the list of all files and folders in my home directory, followed by "read-only file system".
But in the end, I still can't make change to my home directory. Any suggestion?

rnturn · 08-12-2020, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vatin

Any suggestion?

Check the permissions on your home directory (user and group ownership and read/write/execute permissions) and compare them to the record for your account in /etc/passwd. If you do an "ls -l" in your home directory, you'll probably see that your account name is not showing up as the owning user. You can fix this by using sudo to "chown -R youracct:yourgroup" on your home directory. Or you can edit the record in /etc/passwd to reflect the ownership you're seeing in the output of "ls -l"---so long as such a change doesn't clash with another record in the passwd file.

HTH...

berndbausch · 08-12-2020, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vatin

The system spits out the list of all files and folders in my home directory, followed by "read-only file system".

Looks like it's mounted read-only. As superuser, try

Code:

mount -o remount,rw /home

and check and possibly fix /etc/fstab.

vatin · 08-12-2020, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by berndbausch

Looks like it's mounted read-only. As superuser, try

Code:

mount -o remount,rw /home

and check and possibly fix /etc/fstab.

Thank you. But I got

Code:

mount: /home: cannot remount /dev/sda3 read-write, is write-protected

Can this be a hardware issue?

agillator · 08-12-2020, 09:18 PM

I assume you have checked ownership of files in your home directory and they do show your user owns them (by name, not uid). At this point I would actually shutdown and then restart so that the new system takes complete control and there is no vestige of the old in control. See if that clears up your read-only fs problem.

berndbausch · 08-12-2020, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vatin

Thank you. But I got

Code:

mount: /home: cannot remount /dev/sda3 read-write, is write-protected

Can this be a hardware issue?

According to a Stackexchange thread, one reason for a disk to become write-protected is file system corruption. You could check the kernel messages for clues (dmesg command, or if Pop OS deploys systemd, journalctl -k).

I suppose there might be other causes.

berndbausch · 08-12-2020, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by agillator

I assume you have checked ownership of files in your home directory and they do show your user owns them (by name, not uid). At this point I would actually shutdown and then restart so that the new system takes complete control and there is no vestige of the old in control. See if that clears up your read-only fs problem.

Indeed, after an installation I would reboot. If OP has not done that yet, it's time.

vatin · 08-13-2020, 01:59 AM

Code:

journalctl -k

Gave this result
https://ibb.co/3km5VZH

I have to mention that before installing popos I was having boot problem with my previous installation. The os just wouldn’t boot up. But I couldn’t remember the message. It dropped to recovery prompt every time.

berndbausch · 08-13-2020, 04:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vatin

Code:

journalctl -k

Gave this result
https://ibb.co/3km5VZH

Try fsck'ing this filesystem.
Could the disk have problems?

vatin · 08-13-2020, 06:29 AM

I think this might be hardware problem after all. The latest booting attempt results in.

https://ibb.co/vjr6B5V

Time to send in for a warranty claim. Lucky there's a few years left.
Thanks everyone for the help :-)