Question

Linux - no permission to create a folder

Asked by: Stangman66

Hi,

I'm new to Linux and I'm probably making it more complicated then what it is. I have apache 2.2 setup with PHP5 and I need to create a temp folder in the file system and move my PHP files over to it.

Fedora 11 says that I do not have permission to do so. I logged in terminal as su and was able to run a command to copy the files from my desktop to the var/www/html folder but I'd rather learn how to cut and paste the files in the file system without getting a permissions error. I cant even create a folder onto the desktop.

So, how do I set up my Fedora to where my only login is administrator and does not need permission to do what I need it to?

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-11-05 at 12:53:58ID24876054
Tags

Linux

,

Fedora

,

permissions

Topics

Fedora Linux

,

Linux Setup

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
19

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. PHP5 vs ASP.NET
    Where PHP5 lacks ASP.NET
  2. permission denied with mkdir on Apache/PHP
    I have an Apache server running on a Linux OS and when I try to mkdir() using PHP to my /var/www/html/dotproject/files directory I get the following error message : [client 172.16.0.234] PHP Warning: mkdir(/var/www/html/dotproject/files/159): Permission denied in /var/www/ht...
  3. speed of php5
    i am new to php5 and this is my first attempt of using it. i am really just trying to find out if there are speed differences with php 5 and php 5. also, does it (5) cache or something? i have noticed weird things in simple class which gets the contents of a directory and d...
  4. php5
    Respected SIr, I had a php 4 in my rhel4. I uninstalled it. Now i want to install php 5 . i tried up2date. But it says The following packages you requested were not found: php5 Please any one can help me how to install tar of php5. and the step t...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: zivalicaPosted on 2009-11-05 at 13:01:21ID: 25753981

You can run your file browser in root user mode.

Something like :
Open command prompt and type:


Then just type nautilus or konqueror or whatever file browser you want to use.
In fedora 11 (assuming you are using gnome) the default should be nautilus

Either type: 
sudo nautilus 
OR type this: 
ssh -X root@localhost

                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: zivalicaPosted on 2009-11-05 at 13:10:09ID: 25754064

Actually it should be more like this:

su 
(Enter password)
nautilus

                                              
1:
2:
3:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: Stangman66Posted on 2009-11-05 at 16:08:45ID: 25755536

Tried, but unable to open it.... getting error:

 Failed to connect to the session manager. None of the authentication protocols specified are supported.

 

by: Stangman66Posted on 2009-11-05 at 16:58:45ID: 25755825

I know i have GNOME, and i clicked "about" in my file manager and it says it's Nautilus 2.26.4

 

by: legolasthehansyPosted on 2009-11-05 at 17:45:22ID: 25756041

Can you type the command 'id' in a terminal
Also - 'pwd'

 

by: Stangman66Posted on 2009-11-05 at 18:19:54ID: 25756149

yea, it returns results when I type those

 

by: legolasthehansyPosted on 2009-11-05 at 19:01:06ID: 25756292

Please enter those results here

 

by: Stangman66Posted on 2009-11-05 at 20:10:02ID: 25756560

uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root),1(bin),2(daemon),3(sys),4(adm),6(disk),10(wheel) context=unconfined_u:unconfined_r:unconfined_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023
[root@CpTz CTS2]# pwd
/home/CTS2

 

by: small_studentPosted on 2009-11-06 at 03:35:40ID: 25758247

Hi all you need to do is disable SELinux to allow you to move your files to your temp dir , its what is preventing you

to disable SElinux

setenforce 0

You might need to restart your machine to relabel all files

Note: Disabling SElinux decreases your security, although its still in its early stages and 95% people dont use it.

 

by: Stangman66Posted on 2009-11-06 at 12:07:19ID: 25762588

still don't have permission to create a folder.

ran "setenforce 0"

checked by "cat /selinux/enforce" and it adds a 0 before the next command line

reboot and still unable.

 

by: small_studentPosted on 2009-11-06 at 13:57:07ID: 25763439

To make sure SElinux is disabled type getenforce

If you are root user, there is no such that you cant create a dir and copy to it, even SElinux wont prevent you but it will prevent apache from reading from that Dir

please post the steps that you are doing and the error messages that you get

 

by: Stangman66Posted on 2009-11-06 at 15:05:18ID: 25763863

getenforce shows "permissive"

I go to

Click Applications -> System Tools -> File Browser
Navigate to File System -> Var -> www -> html -> Right click and Create Folder/Document are grayed out.   //I'm not sure, but is this the directory I have to place my PHP files to view when I use my browser to: http://localhost/phpsite.php


Desktop
----------
Right mouseclick and select "Create Folder"

"Error while creating directory untitled folder.

There was an error creating the directory in /home/CTS2/Desktop.
Show more details
    Error creating directory: Permission denied



====================================

What I was going to do is create a TEMP directory for PHP as I need to specify one in my php.ini

I'm just so used to windows, think I"m making this entirely too difficult, but Linux seems pretty awesome. (actually more secure..especially with all these permission issues I'm having)

If you have a better suggestion for the temp directory, let me know - but doing basic things such as creating folders, copying folders to file system, and creating new documents I need to learn how to do.

 

by: small_studentPosted on 2009-11-07 at 06:08:51ID: 25766373

OK you need to login as root and do this from the command line

press Ctrl Alt F3 keys and you should get a black screen with a login prompt

Enter username root
and his password

After you are in you be at /root

Now you can do anything without any restrictions

Yes your sire should be under /var/www/html

 

by: Stangman66Posted on 2009-11-07 at 08:14:55ID: 25766800

ok, but why can't I use my GUI to do this?   How can I get rid of the "Permission Denied" error message when I try through the GUI

 

by: small_studentPosted on 2009-11-07 at 23:56:19ID: 25769741

Fedora 11 does not permit root to be in GUI mode, check the fedora site to see if you can enable it, another solution would be to login normally with your user in GUI mode, then open a terminal and type
su -
it will prompt you for the root password, enter it and you are now root on a terminal but also not for using  the GUI menus and tools.

Also try this

Open a terminal , switch to root ( su - ) then run

init 3

this will switch you to run level 3 (command line mode), make sure you are root at this point and then run the command

startx, it will open the GUI again but from runlevel 3

 

by: Stangman66Posted on 2009-11-08 at 11:51:35ID: 25771614

it gets to "Starting IRQblanace" then it just hangs there (not freezing)

 

by: small_studentPosted on 2009-11-08 at 22:45:45ID: 25773786

Just hit the enter key or switch to a terminal Ctrl +Alt + F3

To know which runlevel you are in type the command

runlevel

yo should get

5 3

which means you were at run level 5 and now you are at runlevel 3

 

by: zivalicaPosted on 2009-11-09 at 06:52:28ID: 25776370

You said that you were able to login to the terminal using su.  Instead of running the cp command, what happens when you type the word 'nautilus'?

Here is a good place to start:
http://www.fedoraguide.info/index.php?title=Main_Page#How_to_browse_files.2Ffolders_as_root_user_in_Nautilus

If you can run a command as root, you should be able to execute a program as root, regardless of whether it is GUI based or not.

Hope this helps

 

by: Stangman66Posted on 2009-11-09 at 21:50:00ID: 25782712

runlevel shows  3 3


open terminal (has a $ at the end) and type nautilus = opens file browser. (cannot create a folder on the desktop)

Closed file browser, typed su and then my password, then tried nautilus again and got an error message shown below.

---------------------------------

(nautilus:6238): EggSMClient-WARNING **: Failed to connect to the session manager: None of the authentication protocols specified are supported


(nautilus:6238): Eel-WARNING **: GConf error:
  Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details -  1: Failed to get connection to session: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.)

(nautilus:6238): Eel-WARNING **: GConf error:
  Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details -  1: Failed to get connection to session: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.)

(nautilus:6238): Eel-WARNING **: GConf error:
  Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details -  1: Failed to get connection to session: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.)
GConf warning: failure listing pairs in `/apps/nautilus/preferences': Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details -  1: Failed to get connection to session: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.)GConf warning: failure listing pairs in `/desktop/gnome/file_views': Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details -  1: Failed to get connection to session: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.)GConf warning: failure listing pairs in `/desktop/gnome/background': Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details -  1: Failed to get connection to session: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.)GConf warning: failure listing pairs in `/apps/nautilus/desktop': Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details -  1: Failed to get connection to session: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.)GConf warning: failure listing pairs in `/apps/nautilus/icon_view': Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details -  1: Failed to get connection to session: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.)
(nautilus:6238): Unique-DBus-WARNING **: Unable to open a connection to the session bus: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

(nautilus:6238): Unique-DBus-WARNING **: Unable to connect to the running instance, aborting.

(nautilus:6238): Unique-DBus-WARNING **: Unable to open a connection to the session bus: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

(nautilus:6238): Unique-DBus-WARNING **: Unable to connect to the running instance, aborting.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...