I was using root to transfer some files from windows to linux and not when I log in as user it won't let me play the songs. So is it ok to use root all the time?

you could but many people wouldnt suggest it, and i know i dont, i log in as a user n run x and everything as user. if you copied the music to /root, which...im sure it did, you dont have permission to it as user. You have 2 options here..

Option 1 (the paranoid way): You could log in as user, start x and everything, then open a terminal and su root, then type xmms, and add the music, because then, since xmms is running as root, you can access it.

Thats what i do beacuse i dont like people stealing my music, so everytime i just run xmms as root outa a terminal, loads the list up and plays everything great, but if someone just went on my menu and clicked xmms, nothing would load, and they could never get to it.

But if your not like me (probly not cus thats dumb) you could opt for

Option 2 (more normal way): open a terminal su root, and change the permissions on the music, and then you would be able to use it without being root.

Ok thanks I but the music in my /home/alan/Music not the /root so I don't know why it would not let me.

hmm...try switching to that directory and typing ls -l that will show you the permissions on all the files. root might still own them since you transfered them as root.

try running that as root..
replacing yourgrp of course with your group

Actually, you don't want to run xmms as root -- you want to avoid running as many apps as root as possible, especially X apps.

The reason you don't have permission to access them normally, even though they're in your home directory, is because you created them, (by copying them) as root -- files created by root are owned by root.

So a chmod 666 or 444 will work for you. Alternatively, you could create a new group called music or somesuch, and have root or your user be the owner, and the music in the group "music"... That way, only root and members of the group "music" will have read access.

--Shade

Due to the fact that there are absolutely no restrictions on what root is permitted to do, running as root as a matter of routine is not advisable at all. All it takes to damage your system beyond repair is to accidentally run the wrong command. Usually you'll realize you made a mistake about 2 milliseconds after you hit the Enter key, and you'll be regretting it during the entire time it takes to reinstall your distro from scratch.

In short, you should always run as a regular user, except in those infrequent and specific situations where you have to be root in order to perform a given task (such as installing new packages). -- J.W.