Still can't figure out the permissions problem for copying to second disk

[Tyrannocaster]

Linux Lite has been mostly great, and I have been showing it to people, who tend to be impressed. One thing, however, is really NOT impressive, and for most people it's a deal breaker - this is the problems I have when I want to copy files from (for example) my flash drive to (for example) my second internal disk. I cannot do this with drag and drop, period. However, I can COPY the files on the flash drive and then paste them into the folder on the internal drive. What in the world is the problem here? According to the permissions, I can do anything I want to all of these files and folders, so why won't the drag-and-drop interface let me?

When I show LL to friends, this part is a real problem, because we're often copying mp3s or pictures over. It's really not impressive when it won't let me do this and I have to do a kludgy workaround to make it happen. Plus, since (IMO) this shouldn't be happening, it's irritating. And unfortunately, it's what people tend to remember about the OS. "Oh, yeah, that was the one that couldn't copy files."

I don't have any trouble copying files within my system disk, only with my other internal disk. It's FAT32, if that helps.

[supergamer]

Can you please copy and paste your fstab file that is located in the /etc folder. You can also attach as a file. I think I know what might be the issue but let me look at it first please.

[Tyrannocaster]

You bet! Here it is:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>  <type>  <options>      <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=203851b3-54bb-44f5-a27a-eca1f9a6cafe /              ext4    errors=remount-ro 0      1
/swapfile                                none            swap    sw              0      0

[supergamer]

It does not look like the second disk is being mounted automatically. How do you want to proceed? Do you want it to auto mount at boot up or leave as is?

[Tyrannocaster]

I tried automounting them (I used Gnome Disks to do it), but while that worked, it changed the path from (for example) /media/ben/TOSH to /mnt/38FA4774FA472E06/ and I find that not useful at all. I put it back the way it was and now I just remember to manually mount the two external drive partitions when I boot up.

So, to answer your question, it doesn't matter which way I do it as long as I can keep a path structure that makes sense to me; using the mount point to identify the drive is never going to work for me.

EDIT: just now I tried to move a file from one directory on the partition to another directory on the SAME partition of the second drive, and it wouldn't let me do it with drag-and-drop at all. No USB drives involved, and no transfer from one hard drive to another - just from one directory to another. Once again, I had to COPY the file, then PASTE it into the other directory, then manually delete the original copy. I checked again, and all permissions say I can do anything with that file; actually, anybody can do anything with it.

EDIT 2: I tried again with a different file from the same folder and got the same result so I opened a RUN window from the destination folder and entered sudo -i pcmanfm [that's my file manager] which gave me a superuser file manager and I was able to drag to that window and drop the file into it, which worked. Several YouTube videos have shown people opening folders as root as an option in their file manager but mine does not give me that option.

[trinidad]

1) Pcmanfm installs and runs on many Linux systems but it is basically designed for Debian gnome, which means, though you use it in Linux Lite you do not have the Debian UI to choose the settings for mounting volumes, or open as administrator. Of course these things can be configured manually, but that is really not what LL is about, and running XFCE to do so is counter-intuitive anyway, given that the functions are already available in a UI for Thunar the default file manager for XFCE. The UI for Thunar is not functionally interchangeable with the UI for pcmanfm. We should be discussing drag and drop problems with Thunar not pcmanfm. Also gksu is no longer used in Debian to open pcmanfm as root thus the terminal gtk warnings I'm sure you noticed when you did so.

2) Your partitions on the storage disk are fat32 which means the volumes are seen as media and mounted from the media channel thus the /media/ in the file path, and the lack of an entry in fstab. A permanent entry is not necessary to mount to the /media/ path.

3) I'm not responding in this fashion to criticize this discussion, but to point out that as a whole the thread may confuse other new LL users, as it is generally not about DE configuration issues specifically involving Linux Lite, and thus not a support thread.

TC

[Tyrannocaster]

Very good points. As a new Linux user, I certainly didn't realize that. Unfortunately, I don't like Thunar much, so I guess I'll post again in one of the other forums here. Honestly, I find the multiplicity of forums and what does and does not go in them somewhat bewildering. Where should I post this, then?

In the meantime, I will go back to Thunar, even though I'm not crazy about it. I thought both file managers would work the same way, but obviously, that is not correct.

[Tyrannocaster]

I have now switched to Thunar, eliminating that whole issue. It works better, but honestly, copying files is still wildly erratic. Sometimes I can and sometimes I can't. For example, I just stuck a flash drive in, it mounted, and I tried to copy a file from my second drive to it using an instance of Thunar that was already open. Wouldn't do it. However, I COULD copy it to the flash drive IF I copied it to the instance of Thunar that I opened by double clicking on the flash drive's icon.

I can't believe this is the way this is supposed to work. Can someone explain what the rules are for this?

[TheDead]

The first rule is, you don't talk about Fight Club... er, that should go in another forum too I guess Just joking!

Anyhoo, when switching to Lite 64 bits I strangely had a few problems like this when trying to configure themes etc.
I noticed that in some instances, doing some commands required sudo but this prevented usage of "normal" operations in other instances.
I know it's pretty vague but thought maybe this could help you with your situation. Good luck, may the force be with you like a little green dude with pointy ears says!

Cheers!