Ok, so... what happened was... cognitively not all there today. Fast as I thought of it, couldn't remember what I needed to do but it went something like... let a couple different live, active operating systems make nice with each other by sharing files.
BUT FIRST, I needed to undo a stupid I did a couple days ago... messed up permissions on the targeted folder. Well, I think I did it. Is also possible it's about trying to access a hard drive created by another operating system (Knoppix). But I don't think so. SEEMS LIKE... I was able to access the target folder until I bloopered the other day..
Bumbling around trying to figure the permissions thing out, I got the bright idea to search on "manage user accounts ubuntu". Ended up at Ubuntu Help's User Management webpage. Skimmed through and knew immediately that wasn't what I was looking for so sat here pondering.
Decided to try su in a terminal. That was a FAIL. Received back an "Authentication failure" error message. Remembered I'd JUST coincidentally seen something about root and password on that Ubuntu User Management page. Bingo > sudo passwd is what you need if you've never accessed root in your system before. Turns out Ubuntu's Dream Team keeps root turned off by default (for good reason). You can activate it by entering the "sudo passwd" command then entering information as requested.
BUT DON'T TO DO THAT!
Placing sudo before commands gets you most, if not all, of what you'd ever need accomplished as system administrator as long as you've been previously granted those powers. If you go in there with full power of root, you can do something really stupid by total accident (like what I did couple days ago). And actually not sure if I messed up while as "sudo" or root but, either way, what I did was... type too fast for my brain while accessing admin powers. Accidentally started changing an entire disk's permissions when I'd only wanted to change one folder, my photo folder. Left off the folder name and off it went....
And so here we are now.. less than 24 hours before I'd like to have solved/resolved inter-Linux distro communication by first undoing something that should not have occurred in the first place. So forget root exists. Take a few extra seconds to search the W-W-W for alternatives that others have used. There's so much more newbie and cognitively friendly information available out there than there ever has been. Research, don't take shortcuts just because they do happen to exist.. The sanity you save... will be your own (and most likely fellow members of some Linux community listserv somewhere). :)
Happy Safe Surfing out there!
PS My new office mate out here on the porch.. A Carolina Wren (CAWR, Thryothorus ludovicianus) sitting on her new nest... Patience pays... :)
No comments:
Post a Comment