i downloaded a theme it was .tar.gz and i extracted it the problem now is that i want to shift-delete it but i get the message access denied for a certain file inside i found in the permissions user:root group:root and only the root can modify it
what can i do i edited te file /etc/sudoers and put amir all.... but of no use can anyone help me ?
Thanks

do u mean u need help in deleting this file
or u need help to know how to give amir more power

Salamo 3alaikom,

At the command prompt, type sudo rm filename when prompted for a password enter the password of the user (not the root password).

Salam.

should i always do this
also when i move files the files are moved but i get the message unable to change permissions
i want the system to identify the user amir asif he was root so he can do anything the root can do
Thanks for your reply

su to root, chown -R amr:users the_files_dir/ then exit.

peace

I don't know why we get this question periodically.

if you want root power run as root.

its very simple, if you're going to run with a user who has all privileges then it hardly differs from running as root, there is no security anymore and it is pointless to run as a normal user then.

now the problem is you're trying to do things the wrong way.
in GNU/Linux you fix the permissions so that you won't need to run as root.

if a certain user needs access to non system critical files then let root give him the permission to do this.

>i downloaded a theme it was .tar.gz and i extracted it the problem now is
>that i want to shift-delete it but i get the message access denied for a

shift-delete??!! you are talking about some graphical filemanager here right??
would you please tell us which filemanager are you using, or at least which desktop (KDE, Gnome, version, etc.)

> certain file inside i found in the permissions user:root group:root and only
>the root can modify it

this is very weird, you extracted the files as a normal user and they ended up having root ownership???

anyway the solution is to switch to root and change the ownership.
yes it takes more time to do this but this is what makes GNU/Linux a secure platform.
so either fire up a terminal and su to root to do a chown or click on run filemanager as root from the menus (both desktop's support this right???).


>what can i do i edited te file /etc/sudoers and put amir all.... but of no use
>can anyone help me ?

not a good idea at all.

>also when i move files the files are moved but i get the message unable to
>change permissions

it would help if you give us more info, for instance this message probably appears when you try to move files from a Linux specific filesystem to a windows filesystem (partition).
is that what you where trying to do?? or where you simply moving files withing Linux only filesystems??
also this is very specific to your filemanager.

you see if my guess is right and you're trying to move files to windows, there is very little you can do, a FAT filesystem does not have the same permission system a Unix filesystem has, and there is no way to set all permission properly.
so what you do is inform the system or the filemanager to stop showing this error message.

cheers,
Alaa

you have download it or save it as root
this mean you brows the internet as root
this is very bad next time you should use
normal user to browes the internet and this problem is no more
----

My guess is he built the theme as root (which means configure;make;make install) thus he resulted in some extra files owned by root. Then through the file manager (as a normal user) he tries to delete them but he can't. In these cases Amir, you should do (as root) $rm -rf /path_to_theme_dir/ (After youve done a make install)

PS You should be more descriptive like alaa said.

cheers,
Maher

ok thanks guys
first i am using kde and konqurer as the file manager,the file is on the desktop
second u r right Alaa about moving to a windows partition thanks.
second maher was right i did a make install
but i also tried to move some files to /home but access denied while moving them to /home/amir is normal why? u r right about security but i am the only user who uses this computer
Thanks to all of you

but you are not the only thing that use it
yes,programs use it too
there is secure programes and non scure programes
if you run a non scure prog (like m$-internet-xploder with wine) as a root a hacker could kill you
---

ok good question.

first lets make something clear, there is no escaping running multiple users.you see even if you don't know it your distro will probably be running some services for you using different users.

for instance on my system I've got process running for the users alaa, root, daemon, postfix, etc.

thats because these services where designed with security in mind, one of the fundemental design ideas behind Unix is that it is not solution oriented.
meaning that a Unix OS for desktops should not differ much from a Unix OS for servers, and should even be similar to a Unix OS for Super Computers or for Mobile Phones.
the reason behind this is that the makers of the OS cannot tell how its going to be used, so they should not make any assumptions.
you see no one thought that single desktop users will need to connect to the internet back in the late eighties/early nineties, thats why you had to get a library called WinSock to be able to connect to the internet from your Windows machine, at that time Bill Gates thought the Internet was a fad thats going to pass, he though the future was CD-ROMs not the Internet.

now in order to give you more power to choose what to do with your computer there a few things that you have to learn and a few things that you'd better live with.
you never know maybe in a few years all of us will be running servers, or maybe you'll get more machines and connect them together.
or maybe you'll have kids and you'll want to give them limited access to your computer.
there are hundreds of scenarios where you'll either need to use a multiuser environment or you'll need to run servers and care about security, you don't know what the future holds, but you can be ready for it by learning a few simple lessons, maybe you'll like it and decide to make a career out of it (after all we have with us a Pharmacologiest who now works as an admin).

now most uses of a computer would benefit from having a decent security model built into the very core of the system, and for this most software built for GNU/Linux assumes you'll be using this model, trying to ignore the model will only make things very very very hard for you.

at this point let me repeat if you realy want to ignore the security model then simply run as root, anything else will be too much trouble, and no one here will be interested in searching for solutions.

now you will also benefit from this security model.
how, you see this seperation of users and of privileges is what ensures that GNU/Linux is a virus free plaform.
a virus needs root permission to affect system files, and a virus needs to modify system files in order to spread itself and cause havoc.
by running as an unprivileged normal user you ensure that no virus can infect your system.
this is important not only for you but for the rest of the GNU/Linux community.
it is your responsibility to protect the integrity of GNU/Linux, if you run as root, and a couple of your firends act like you and a couple of their friends etc, we'll end up with enough population for spreading a GNU/Linux virus, once this happens the reputation on GNU/Linux will be damaged and the idea that running as root is fine will be spread and will cause yet more damage.

it is in the view of many an unsociable behavior to run M$ Outlook and M$ Outlook express, because these two programs are the prime cause of most viruses (there are is no such thing as email virus, only outlook virus).
but how could this be, these people are free to run their mail client of choice you say.
no my firend, these people are sending us all these viruses, and even though they cannot affect us they do hog our bandwidth, slow down our net traffic, fill our mail quotas, and waste our time in deleting them.
an Outlook user is exactly like a spammer (minus 'el neya' of course).

no as a user of a connected PC, and as a user of a community developed PC you have a social obligation to protect us from these attacks.

so to summarize don't run as root because:
1- you might care about security and multiusers in the future so you'd better learn about it now.
2- you will get limited support here and elsewhere because in our minds you'll be doing something wrong and your system will be broken
3- you actualy run a risk of breaking your system
4- you run a risk of exposing yourself to malacious code and malacious individuals
5- you encrease everybody's exposure to malacious code and you you may undermine our community reputation.

cheers,
Alaa

u r right about every word u said but i found out something

now there is a file manager in kde called filemanager(super user mode) if u run it u can do anything as u r supposed to be root
now i am not using no root password so cant a virus do the same thing and play with system files through this?

of course i know that number of people working without root password is few and also viruses for linux are few thats why i used it one time i ran msindowsxpe and connected to the internet i got the blaster:mad:

anyways i am new to linux so forgive me .the only thing that makes me stick to msindowse is the programs we use at college
Thanks

yes if you can run th filemanager as root without being asked for a password then any other program can do this.

this is in fact quite dangerous since modern desktop environments tend to give too much power to the filemanager (I don't know why Gnome and KDE choose to mimic windows on this).

I'm not an export on Desktop Environments (I don't use them), but this looks like one of two cases.
either sudo is configured to allow this.
or you actualy did give the root password and KDE is caching it for a while, I've seen this with gnome, you run a privileged program and you get a key icon on the notification area (kind of like PekSystray for gnome :-), this key last for a configurable amount of seconds, as long as the key is there you don't need to enter the password again.

I'm glad you're accepting the need to learn the GNU/Linux security model (it is quite simple really even doctors have been able to learn it :-)
of course you don't have to be paranoid, yes you can start loose, experiment and do wrong things until you learn, running as root does not automaticaly cause viruses to appear, the danger is statistical and as such only a danger if you do so for a very long time.

cheers,
Alaa

so what are the programs you use at college, maybe we have good alternatives.

well i am at the faculty of engineering communications department we use MATLAB and ORCAD i guess there are no alternatives and even if there exists it will take time to learn.
well this is the last year anyway so hopefully i won't need them anymore
Thanks for your concern

I thought so.

well there are several alternatives to MATLAB (we've discussed this before, you should search for the thread).

however the best alternative IMO is GNU Octave
because GNU Octave uses the same language as matlab (ie most MatLab programs are Octave programs).
there is a project to collect scripts, functions and extensions to GNU Octave @ http://octave.sourceforge.net/, thta makes even more compatible with MatLab and gives you some extra powerful tools (akin to the expensive proprietary toolkits of MatLab).

if you ever have a few free moments you should give it a try, it basicaly works like the matlab interactive command shell.

cheers,
Alaa

i thought it would be good to try octave
but when i tried to make it it told cant find g++ so i got g++ when i tried to install it it told me that libstdc++ and cpp is needed
i got them and libstdc is installed but when i tried cpp it told that several things must be removed as an idiot and a novice (though i am not) i pressed yes without reading what r the packages
then installation failed
i found out that they were rpmdrake and xfree 86 oops
restarting the system throughs me to the shell
i reinstalled the whole system
was there a solution besides reinstalling and how can install this octave
Thanks for your time

or you coulda just installed gcc and glibc headers and......
g++ and the other stuff you said are a part of gcc, you need to install it.

peace

amir you are using Mandrake right?

you need to learn the basics of package management on Mandrake.

first rule: prefer Mandrake specific packages for source code:
unless you need an package or version that is not available as a mandrake package or you need certain optimization or compile option that was not enabled in the package you should stick to Mandrake packages.

second rule: never use precompiled binaries made for other distros.
ie if you're going to use a package only use Mandrake specific packages.

third rule: use Mandrake tools to install the packages, let the tools handle dependencies and other problems for you.

fourth rule: all rules are made to be broken, don't brake these rules unless you realy realy know what you're doing.
------------------------

you can search around in the forum or ask here for the reasons behind these rules, but I think all will agree that these are good guidelines.

now in order to stick to rules 1 and 2 you need to be able to find most of the software you need in the form of Mandrake packages.
but not all software is included on the Mandrake CDs, so what do I do??

simple, there are package repositories on the internet that compliment Mandrake with extra high quality packages.
these repositories are:
Main : thats the internet mirror of the Mandrake CDs, and includes extra packages not available in the download edition of Mandrake.

Update : thats where security and bug fix updates are, essesntial.

Contrib : these are packages made by the Mandrake Cooker team, they follow the same process used to make the Mandrake CDs but these packages are not officialy supported by Mandrake (meaning they will not get security updates and bug fixes), this repository is huge, and includes loads of very important software like Octave, essential.

PLF : Penguing Liberation Front, this includes software that may be illegal for Mandrake to distribute in the USA, because it uses patented algorithms or because it reverse engineers other pieces of software, it also includes some nonfree packages (like the win32 movies codecs), mainly its multimedia and peer2peer software, very important.

Jpackage: high quality Java packages made by the Mandrake Java team.

there are other repositories like NORLUG and older releases of Mandrake had even more repositories like TeXStar but lets stick to these for the moment.

now you need to inform Mandrake's package management tools of these repositories and of the fact that you want to use them.
there is a very nice wizard on the web to help you with this task @ http://urpmi.org/easyurpmi/index.php

you select your Mandrake version, then select which repositories you want and choose a decent mirror and tadah it'll produce the commands you need to run as root to configure these repositories.
I'll try to make life easier for you and send you the commands for the repositories I use (in a post below), if they don't work for you use the wizard.

now after you have these repositories you can browse the packages from rpmdrake and install and remove them in anyway that pleases you (rule 3).
rpmdrake is easy to figure out, and in case you're lost consult the Mandrake documentation (an updated version of them is available from the updates repository).

but to speed things up you should also know how to quickly install stuff from the command line.

to install a package just run

urpmi octave


this will install the package with all its dependencies, it will ask you for the correct CDs to put in the drive and will download any needed packages, make sure to conect to the net before you use it.

to remove a package you run

urpme octave


so what if I vaguely know the package name, nothing easier, there is a neat package that teaches bash to help you with your urpmi commands.
first install bash-completion, then log out and log in again and you'll be able to use tab to complete package names

urpmi bash-completion
#logout, login again
urpme lib[tab]
>you will see a list of all installed packages that begin with lib


or you can just give urpm a substring of the package name and it'll tell you what packages have this substring in their name


urpmq gcc-
> this will show a list of all packages that have gcc in their name


or if you're looking for the package that includes a certain file

urpmf bin/octave


this will list the packages that contain files the match the substring bin/octave

I hope this clarified things.

so in short what you need to do to install octave now is setup a contrib package repository and run

urpmi octave


if you need g++ you run

urpmi gcc-c++


and it'll take care of the rest for you.

cheers,
Alaa

as promised follows are the commands to set up remote package repositories as I did on my system.
but let me remind you, these repositories are huge, and if you spend time with them you'll want to download hundreds of MB of stuff, unless you have broadband you'll be in trouble (the updates alone are over 100MB).
I made a couple of CDs to compliment Mandrake 9.2 with the latest updates and a wide collection of packages (search for the Mandrake Extras CDs thread), these CDs might make your life with Mandrake easier, I'm giving away a copy to the first person who can deliver a copy to someone in the distributrs list (safrout and Uniball are supposed to meet each other one day and exchange but we've been waiting for a month already).
if you have the time to spare you can be that lucky person.

now there are two sets of command, one will download huge files that include complete description of the packages, this is good if you intend to browse the packages and find out what cool software is available, but you'll need to download 30MB of data.
and another set that only includes package names and their dependencies, if you browse rpmdrake using these commands you'll know little about these packages, but they're fine if you always know what you're installing.

1st set, huge files maximum info

urpmi rsync

urpmi.addmedia main rsync://ftp.uninett.no::Mandrake/Mandrake/9.2/i586/Mandrake/RPMS with ../base/hdlist.cz

urpmi.addmedia contrib rsync://ftp.uninett.no::Mandrake/Mandrake/9.2/i586/Mandrake/RPMS2 ../base/hdlist2.cz

urpmi.addmedia --update update rsync://distro.ibiblio.org::mandrake/Mandrake/updates/9.2/RPMS with ../base/hdlist.cz

urpmi.addmedia plf ftp://ftp.club-internet.fr/pub/linux/plf/mandrake/9.2 with hdlist.cz


small files, minimal information

urpmi rsync

urpmi.addmedia main rsync://ftp.uninett.no::Mandrake/Mandrake/9.2/i586/Mandrake/RPMS with ../base/synthesis.hdlist.cz

urpmi.addmedia contrib rsync://ftp.uninett.no::Mandrake/Mandrake/9.2/i586/Mandrake/RPMS2 ../base/synthesis.hdlist2.cz

urpmi.addmedia --update update rsync://distro.ibiblio.org::mandrake/Mandrake/updates/9.2/RPMS with ../base/synthesis.hdlist.cz

urpmi.addmedia plf ftp://ftp.club-internet.fr/pub/linux/plf/mandrake/9.2 with synthesis.hdlist.cz


BTW only Main and Contrib have realy large files, so you might want to mix commands form the two sets.

cheers,
Alaa

ya Alaa enta betetkalem fe kalam yas3ob 3ala amsaly fehmoh:)
i will try to read it carefully later
but i tried to install a program called gnucap (circuit simulator)and here is the result
The following packages have to be removed for others to be upgraded:
ImageMagick-5.5.4.4-7mdk (due to missing libwmflite-0.2.so.7)
OpenOffice.org-1.0.2-7mdk (due to unsatisfied OpenOffice.org-l10n == 1.0.2, due to unsatisfied OpenOffice.org-l10n >= 1.0.1-8mdk)
OpenOffice.org-l10n-ar-1.0.2-7mdk (due to unsatisfied OpenOffice.org == 1.0.2)
SysVinit-2.84-2mdk (due to unsatisfied pam >= 0.66-5)
XFree86-100dpi-fonts-4.3-5mdk (due to unsatisfied chkfontpath *)
XFree86-4.3-5mdk (due to missing menu)
XFree86-75dpi-fonts-4.3-5mdk (due to unsatisfied chkfontpath *)
XFree86-server-4.3-5mdk (due to missing XFree86-xfs)
XFree86-xfs-4.3-5mdk (due to unsatisfied chkfontpath *)
amsn-0.83-3mdk (due to missing coreutils)
arts-1.1.0-2mdk (due to unsatisfied libarts == 1.1.0-2mdk)
aspell-0.50.3-1mdk (due to missing libncurses.so.5)
at-3.1.8-6mdk (due to unsatisfied fileutils *)
aumix-2.7-13mdk (due to unsatisfied initscripts >= 4.42)
autologin-1.0.0-7mdk (due to missing libpam.so.0)
basesystem-9.0-3mdk (due to missing dev)
bootsplash-1.4.1-1mdk (due to unsatisfied mkinitrd > 3.1.6-25mdk)
cdialog-0.9b-2mdk (due to missing libncurses.so.5)
chkfontpath-1.9.5-1mdk (due to missing XFree86-xfs)
console-tools-0.2.3-42mdk (due to unsatisfied coreutils *)
coreutils-4.5.7-1mdk (due to unsatisfied pam >= 0.66-12)
coreutils-doc-4.5.7-1mdk (due to unsatisfied coreutils >= 4.5.4-2mdk)
cups-1.1.19-0.5mdk (due to unsatisfied cups-common >= 1.1.19-0.5mdk)
cups-common-1.1.19-0.5mdk (due to unsatisfied rpm >= 3.0.4-6mdk)
cups-drivers-1.1-102mdk (due to unsatisfied ghostscript >= 7.05)
cvs-1.11.5-1mdk (due to missing libkrb5.so.3)
cyrus-sasl-2.1.12-1mdk (due to missing libkrb5.so.3)
devfsd-1.3.25-23mdk (due to unsatisfied rpm-helper *)
docbook-dtd31-sgml-1.0-6mdk (due to unsatisfied sgml-common >= 0.6.3-2mdk)
docbook-dtd412-xml-1.0-13mdk (due to unsatisfied sgml-common >= 0.6.3-2mdk)
drakconf-9.1-11mdk (due to unsatisfied menudrake >= 0.7.2-1mdk)
drakcronat-0.1.3-1mdk (due to unsatisfied drakxtools >= 1.1.5-97mdk)
drakfirsttime-0.91-12mdk (due to unsatisfied drakxtools >= 9.1-0.19mdk)
drakxtools-9.1-26mdk (due to unsatisfied drakxtools-newt == 9.1-26mdk)
drakxtools-newt-9.1-26mdk (due to missing urpmi)

this is only part of it and of course i sayy no can u explain why does this happen?
Thanks

I think I may have made a mistake and assumed you use Mandrake 9.2

you are using 9.1 right??

did you follow my advice and add all these external sources??
where did you get the gnucap package from??



what did you do exactly??

cheers,
Alaa

1-i am using mandrake 9.2
2-i didnt download the external packages
3- i searched rpmfind and got gnucap
gnucap-0.33-1asp.i386.rpm
4-i did nothing just urpmi gnucap
well actually this is not exact
first it asked for something called readline when trying to install it it didnt then i got libreadline after installing it running urpmi gnucap gives me the error message
5-i know it is hard to diagnose a problem when i cant remember what i did exactly
sorry for that i'll be more specific next times
Thanks

Salamo 3alaikom,

urpmi is used for satisfying rpm dependencies doesn't it? Try satisfying those dependencies manually.

Salam.

what do you mean by manually?
Thanks

you broke dependany
---
see
http://www.daif.net/linux/ar/postsetup.html#7
----
what you did ?!! you download a package for let me say suse or RH and replace the one that comes with mandrake
----
what to do next time ?
1st search the CD's
2nd search these links to download rpms
http://ftp.du.se/pub/os/mandrake/
http://plf.zarb.org/
---
when you want to compile you need to have gcc and shomething-devel rpm's installed from your mandy CD's
----
what to do know uninstall every thing that you broke and install them agian from mandy CD's
----
you may use the command
rpm -q `which somefile` to know the rpm name
rpm -e pack1 pack2 ... to remove them
or just
rpm -Uvh --force file1.rpm file2.rpm ...
---
you may use
urpmi as alaa said to reinstall
----

wait a mintue, you must have done something teribly wrong.

first of all if you are running Mandrake 9.2 then your drakxtools packages version should say
drakxtools-9.2-*

while the output you sent us says drakxtools-9.1 ??

>1- i searched rpmfind and got gnucap
>gnucap-0.33-1asp.i386.rpm

ok look forget rpmfind, if you want to install rpms for Mandrake, they have to be built for Mandrake.
the only RPMs built for Mandrake are available from these package repositories I told you about.
so please please please listen to me and configure these package repositories.
if the package you need is not on these repositories your only decent option is to compile it yourself.

>4-i did nothing just urpmi gnucap
>well actually this is not exact
>first it asked for something called readline when trying to install it it didnt

I don't get this, urpmi asked to go and install the libreadline dependecy or claimed that this is a missing package that it cannot find??

>then i got libreadline after installing it running urpmi gnucap gives me the
>error message

where did you get libreadline from?? how did you install it??

>5-i know it is hard to diagnose a problem when i cant remember what i did
>exactly

yeah it is hard to diagnose, but it is easy to tell you don't install this package at all, let us fix your dependency tree, configure external sources, then you can just compile gnucap (since I don't think it is available as a Mandrake rpm).

now how to fix dependency tree

this is the most important thing to do now.
please read carefully, I'm trying to explain things to you belra7a

-first we need to find out what non Mandrake packages you installed and remove them, run this command

rpm -qa | grep -v mdk


this should show you a list of non Mandrake packages, you can proceed to remove them all by running

urpme pkg1 pkg2 pkg3 etc.

better keep a list of them, so you can tell us what they where and so you can replace them ASAP

now that we removed the broken packages we need to let Mandrake fix things, run this command


urpmi --auto-select


if your installation is not totaly broken this should be enough.

afterwards you should carefully read my previous email and configure these package repositories, they'll make your life much easier.
Mandrake is very very easy if you follow the correct procedure.

if things don't work out tell us.

cheers,
Alaa

sorry for that i'll be more specific next times
Thanks

oh then thats why
i broke the dependancy
i'll follow your advice and search for mandrake only packages
1-sorry i am using 9.1 i wrote 9.2 by mistake

2-i got libreadline from rpmfind but it is a mandrake package
libreadline4-4.3-7mdk.i586.rpm
but i remember now that something asked me for ncurses and it wasnt a mandrake it was pld somehing i removed it

3-there were 2 non mandrake packages i found installed using the command u given me they r:
electric-webdownloader i removed them actually electric didnt work

4-now gnucap tells me that libreadline.so.4 is needed
i guess i dont want to run it anymore

Thanks i know i am bothering you
:( :( :( :( :)

I think I'm repeating myself :-(

don't install any packages not made for your distro (and the specific version of your distro)

the gnucap package you have is not made for your distro

DON'T INSTALL THE GNUCAP RPM

don't just download stuff from rpmfind, use properly configured external package repositories

actualy forget about rpmfind, it is needed for distros without a decent package management system, DON'T USE RPMFIND WITH MANDRAKE

if you have to use rpmfind (don't) at least make sure it is a mandrake package that fits the version you are running (IE IT IS A MANDRAKE 9.1 PACKAGE).

as for external package repositories, you can't use the command I posted above since they're for 9.2 but you can still go to http://urpmi.org/easyurpmi/index.php and use the wizard to configre proper repositories.

as for gnucap you can compile it from sourcecode, get it from http://www.geda.seul.org/

cheers,
Alaa

Salamo 3alaikom,

Gerneal hints for rpms:

1- Don't mingle rpms for different distributions. If you want to get something like that get the srpm. Install it using rpm -ivh edit the .spec with the appropriate settings of your distribution and rebuild the rpm package with rpmbuild -bb (or ba)

2- Whenever you have a dependency checking utility with rpm on your distribution use in order to save yourself the effort of resolving dependency.

3- If you installed a package that is needed by a package, you can use rpm --force -Uvh to install a package that needed the installed package. Again don't install packages from different distributions.

Salam.

what an ediot am i?! anyways forgive me i am just a novice.

Thanks for your help and concern Alaa
and thanks for this great site edatools i'll download the source and compile it

Thanks habdin for the great hints

how did you know all this guys the linux seems to me a very big world but surely a great one

Thanks

well we took things slowly (which you are not doing at all), and we read documentation (Mandrake has very good manuals, which you can download and probably are already on your CDs anyway).

cheers,
Alaa

Salamo 3alaikom,

The secret in linux is read read read.

Salam.

i'll read sure but the problem is that currently i dont have that time i'll start in the holidays

Thanks guys without people like you i dont know what would we have done

bye