I'm pretty new to ubuntu, or linux for that matter, and I'm trying to perform the simplest activity ever, copy and paste a file; for some reason, when I right-click the folder /usr/bin I see that the 'paste' option is gray (meaning I can't select it).
Why is that? I'm pretty sure I'm the ROOT User. I can see "Account type = Administrator" on the account's settings.
You're not the root user; you are a user which has the privilege to become root, using the sudo (or various graphical surrogates) method.
In Ubuntu (and in most not-embedded Unix environment) you normally work, and have the privileges, of a normal user. Only deliberately you can override the normal rules; it is a way of telling you that you have to know what you are doing. It is a great safety net that works normally quite well(1).
For example, although it can have legitimate uses, trying to add manually a file to /usr/bin is normally wrong.
You can find all the info you need here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo
(1) although remember that Unix, in general, gives you rope(2) if you really want to hang yourself.
(2) You can run the file manager application as root, as explained in the other answer.
Alas, you shouldn't.
This is the rope I mentioned in (1). A wrong click, a spurious double click, and you can have a completely messed up system, to the point of having to reinstall it. I am a power user, and I have to use root powers maybe... once a week? And most of the time is just to install some program, which you can do easily via the graphical application.
You should be able to do all of your work in normal mode; copy and paste between places you own works perfectly with the graphical interface. Why and what are you trying to copy to /usr/bin?
~/bin directory, where they will be found and executed, as if they where in /usr/bin/ --- and the GUI will let you do that. Out of the box. And if you mess things up, you can recover your system because you are messing up only your user, not all the system. I do not know how to explain this in a clearer way...
sudo et al shouldn't really matter because you should be taking your time doing that stuff anyway. If you prefer to ruin your system you can always activate the root account and use that as if it was your normal account. Then don't blame the OS when you'll have ruined your system/lost all your data.
run this command in terminal:
sudo nautilus
nautilus is the filemanager in ubuntu if you are using it to copy/paste your files where you need root access you need to run your filemanager as root
sudo -H nautilus is safer --- it avoid wrighting configuration files under your home as root.
If you are using a dual boot machine with windows, then properly this is the problem.
on windows power settings, turn off fast start-up and hopefully, the problem will be solved.
If it's already turned off, then make sure you have closed windows properly and not just sleep or hibernate.
you can execute this command from terminal. Set your drive name sudo ntfsfix /dev/
