Hi. Sorry to disturb again. Normal disclaimer – before posting a question I do check for answers online and only post if nothing materialises!

I have created a new superuser for classroom demonstration purposes. (I like a minimal, old style interface but o’level students always put form before function and expect to be wowed by ‘coolness.’ So I want a user with all the bells, whistles and animations switched on otherwise they will say, “Uh! Linux is old.” Sigh.)

The new user runs OK and I can create directories and the like without having to run ‘su’ (unlike a similar problem I had before.) But… I can’t view jpg files or play videos. I do not understand why. I just get a permission error. Everything is turned on – the user has ultimate permissions (remember, I am demoing to Windows users who expect everything enabled all the time and expect to see Linux behave the same way.)

I am lost. My existing user with the same permissions, same setup runs fine. I have deleted the new user and recreated it and got the same problem. It must be something simple but I don’t know what. I am still pretty new at Linux! Help gratefully received. Videos and images are a major part of my classes.

Thanks in advance!

Maybe add the new user to suggested groups by "adduser" command (audio cdrom floppy plugdev video power netdev). Below is my transcript.

You would serve them better by correcting that expectation rather than try and make linux look and work like something it is not.


Creating a second superuser on a box is an extremely bad idea. The linux desktop environments are simply not designed to be run as the superuser, let alone by a secondary superuser account. I'm not surprised you're having problems.

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instead of recreating the user as suggested have a glance at usermod, and figure out which groups you want to be in as your "super user" in general .. based on your needs not suggestions ( yes explore what each is intended to cover yourself )

gazl, my assumption is he does not want to recreate and have 2 root users, nonesense, just have a generally more privledged user for whatever reason..anyway i agree its a bad idea

dont know what program or the age of your students, but if this is for anything computer science its idiotic to teach them from a users perspective and with your windows management views asserted onto the not windows os.

for future issues i really suggest to have a read of the slackbook aswell as other linux / unix stuff!: itll be worth it since asking this questions gives me the feeling you do not understand to the point of even permissions and simply added the user to something like the root group assuming the emulation of sort of maybe similar to root.

Your welcome in advance!

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You made a thread about this last month: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ot-4175450498/

Maybe spend less time on this sort of thing
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...op-4175450534/
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ld-4175452177/
and more time on actually learning about how *nix systems work in general?

2 members found this post helpful.

Yep, it is possible he misused the term 'superuser' and I'm taking him too literally, but that seemed to be exactly what he was saying he had done.

Gads, and some people think Linux users are arrogant?
Aiaiaia. The problem I face is *different.*
It is NOT the same as before.
Before I could do nothing. Not Ihave limited permission problem so I assume that thre is a diffreence problem.
But, yes, I have learnt not to raise a general discussion on this site and won't be doing so again.

Now, has someone actually got a solution to my issue or are we just talk about how ignorant I am?

I cannot view jpg files or play videos for a new user. Please can someone suggest why and offer a solution please?

Please post the exact command you tried to play the video and the exact error message you get.

One person patronizes you so you neglect to read the rest of the posts? Wha?

as root, replacing username with your username, should add you to the standard groups. Then you must log out and back in completely for the changes to take effect (by which I mean exit X, and log out of the console as well if you're in runlevel 3. A system restart would always work if you can't figure out how to properly log out completely).

To verify that the command worked, after logging out+in, check the output of the following command, which should include all of those groups:
(run as the user you're trying to fix).

Also, who owns the files? Are they owned by your user or another user? More information is required...

I would have to echo the others in this thread who advise against enabling a second super-user (or pseudo-super user). No Linux/UNIX system should have two administrators or a pseudoroot account -- only one person should have a root account and there should be only one root account. Good use of sudo (once setup properly) would alleviate legitimate permissions demands. Further, you haven't explained how you have granted your other user ultimate powers, so it makes it a bit harder to help.

Maybe he is viewing jpeg/videos on NTFS partition (we never know).

On the superuser stuff, why not just use an ordinary user, then show them how cool Linux is by using sudo or su or kdesu.

One of the cool things about Linux is that a normal user cannot wreck the system, but the superuser can.

One word of advice: Slackware expects you to do your homework and read the documentation. Quite a lot, actually. This is not some luxury you put on top of your use of the system, this is vital basics:

http://docs.slackware.com/

Enjoy Linux.

T3slider...

First - thank you for the practical help. Much obliged.

I am afraid I did not get chance to make response to other posters as an emergency arrived! I only just had chance to click 'submit' and then do battle. I did read the other posts but there wasn't time to respond. So my thanks to those who did answer. I am grateful.

Note that I have used the KDE user utility, which eases user setup and config, to create my users. Of course, that could be my mistake!

So, to clarify... The perception of students here is that Linux is old, difficult to use and useless. Quote one student in a class "Linux. Worst Software Ever." Note: I will NOT be formally teaching Linux - only demoing it and warning them that any possible ICT career is likely to take them within orbit of a Unix OS. I need to demo multi-media and an all glowing KDE interface so as to demo the OS is far from 'useless' and try and remove prejudice. I reside in Indonesia now where everything has to be new and flash! (Odd thing is that in a developing country the will to be high tech makes the populous suckers for anything new, new, new!) So when I say that I wanted everything 'open' I meant I didn't want to plug in a device and suddenly have permission problems in front the students! Tha's why I am making my mistakes now! Linux has zero street cred here at the moment. I need to show Linux working on everything up front including multi-media and then demoing security restrictions. If I have time. The ICT syllabus is packed solid!

The point about multiple root users is noted. My new user was NOT thrown every group to start with but I didn't get access to jpg's or videos so then I did then throw the kitchen sink at the user to see if that was the issue. But no luck.

In terms of who is using the files... well, as far as I know... no-one. And the permissions issue is universal. No media file anywhere at anytime.

I will carry out the test as request and I will remove 'root' from the new user and will report back. Thank you.

Thanks for the help from everyone and apologies if it looked like I was ignoring the other posters - I really was dragged away from the keyboard! I hope the information I have provided has helped.

I am sure it is an error on my part. I am pleased with how I have been able to make Slackware productive but it is still a learning curve. But I am happy to make mistakes and learn. Oh, and the HD is entirely EXT4, the files stored on a mounted partition. No NTFS in sight!

Fair comment. I am taking things in stages in the learning process and I am reading. I only ask questions when I cannot find out what I need from docs, I promise!

The trouble is that I have been pumping 12 hours days six days a week recently. The good news is that my hours are now dropping back dramatically and I will have much more time for reading and testing soon!

If you don't have the time to work out all those problems and you need something flashy I would recommend to use Mint instead, with a nice user-interface and everything multimedia pre-installed, aimed at users for which everything has to have a GUI.

Aha! Thank you gentlemen. You pointed the way!

>Are they owned by your user or another user? More information is required...

This was the big clue and got me looking.

I have, in essence three users on my slackware set up.

The root – obviously.
The master user – with my preferences and where I do most of my work. (NOT a superuser by Linux standards but I have done further reading and I was using the word incorrectly in terms of Linux. I had NOT created two root users!) This user is where I do my main work and… copy files from sources.
A demo user for students with all the animations and effects turned on.

Well, I had not appreciated file ownership. All the files were owned by the master user and, thus not accessible to the new user. I had not ‘got that.’ It did not help that read status was not set for members of the group. Anyway, a bit of playing with file ownership confirmed the problem, then I had to chmod and *Bingo!*

Yeah, learning curve. I need to take a closer look at umask… Anyway, thank you for your patience guys. I am making progress.