-1

so I'm new to Ubuntu and I get frustrated everytime I need to move/delete/rename files on the computer drive I need to go through the terminal and go 'sudo ... ' .. is there a easier way to do it without using the terminal? I checked the User Accounts but my user is already an Administrator.

Thanks in advance!

2
  • 3
    in general, you should not be mucking about with files outside your home directory. Please explain more about what you are doing.
    – psusi
    May 21, 2015 at 0:47
  • Here is an example what can happen if you use gksu nautilus askubuntu.com/questions/626379/…
    – Rinzwind
    May 21, 2015 at 11:53

2 Answers 2

0

is there a easier way to do it without using the terminal?

Yes. You change the destination to your own account. Let's say you have an external USB stick that is identified mounted in /media/ as usb1. By default this stick (when freshly formatted) is owned by user and group root.

The command

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /media/usb1

will change all files on /media/usb1 to your user. This command needs to be issues 1 time (not every time you want to do something with that disk) and that enables you to use Nautilus with your user and lets you freely copy, move, delete files to, on, from that USB stick.

If you feel experienced enough it can be quicker to use Nautilus as root but you should avoid using Nautilus as root to do this. If you get used doing that you are more than likely to cripple your operating system: some files on the system have to be set to your user and changing them as root will set them to root. In /home/$USER/ you can find lots of these files where your login depends on them being owned by your user. Having said that: if you know what problems can arise from using root and you take care not to change those important files or make sure you know how to fix a problem due to this it can be quicker to use root. But changing the ownership of the destination should always be preferred.

If you want to move files to a place that can not be changed from root you will have to use sudo. Directories like /var/, /usr/ and so on you should avoid putting files into. It is best to do this from command line. For instance files needed for websites tend to go to /var/www/. Changing those files should be done as root where root makes a backup 1st and then copy the new files over the old ones and not directly in /var/www/ by a user to avoid altering a file with a bad version.

-1

Try running your file manager as root. I believe you right click on the background of your file manager and click open as root, if that doesnt work try that on a folder. If all else fails do sudo <replace with your file manager> or gksu <replace with your file manager>

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .