Comments on: Linux or ubuntu Directory structure

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 02 May 2011 19:37:43 +0000

If you already have two partitions just run the ubuntu cd as live system choose install and then you will have a GUI setup. Choose one partition as to be root and let it be formatted, leave the second one intact and mark it as swap. Try to use ext fs. It is really simple. Otherwise you can install partition editor even on live system (it’ll be stored in RAM) by typing: sudo apt-get install gparted

By: john

john — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:42:13 +0000

Hello I am trying to install Ubuntu 10, i have partitioned my hard drive, and even included some swap. However It gets so far then says ‘there is no root directory’
It tells me to fix it but i dont know how.
I have tried Youtube, and some of the videos help a bit, but the ubuntu I am installing is off a cd, and doesnt seem to have a partition editor

Can you help please ?/

By: Sergio Luiz Araujo Silva

Sergio Luiz Araujo Silva — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:26:34 +0000

(cd /home/user/source/; find -type d -print0) | xargs -0 mkdir -p

By: EliBei

EliBei — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:22:40 +0000

Hi Bulat,

Thank you, your advice ended my several hours spent browsing the net in order to get songbird playing web flash content. I have been using Ubuntu for couple of weeks now, and man every little tweak you need to make takes a lot of research. I like this operating system, but it needs a lot before it becomes user friendly.

By: Bulat

Bulat — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:58:06 +0000

>Not quite sure where root user permissions and >mine should differ as I am an admin user
It’s done for security purposes. By default you are working as a common user even if you are admin. It protects you from malware etc. breaking into your system while browsing internet or reading e-mail and so on.

In order to be able to use your admin rights you have to switch to a superuser mode (‘su’ command), or just run a program in a superuser mode (‘sudo’ and ‘gksudo’ commands).

(Those commands will ask for your password in order to use a superuser mode.)

So you can copy your files by running a ‘cp’ program from terminal:
sudo cp /source/directory /destination/directory

Or by running Nautilus (Ubuntu built in file-browser):
gksudo nautilus

P.S. Giving to system directories weaker permissions (o+rwx etc) will make your system vulnerable (or even open to everyone) and error prone. So don’t do that.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:22:43 +0000

Hi there, I am also new to linux/ubuntu
I understand there are various permissions for the files/folders.

To give context to my query, I want to copy a folder into /usr/lib but it won’t let me as owner is root and I have no permission.
Is it prudent to change the owner of the folder to the user (being me) or change the permission of the folder for other users to read and write apart from executing ie.

chmod o+rwx /usr/lib

Not quite sure where root user permissions and mine should differ as I am an admin user

Many thanks

By: kiruthiga

kiruthiga — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:10:03 +0000

the linux obuntu file structure can be differentiated from distributor id differentiated

By: Gabara

Gabara — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:00:01 +0000

Mike, you can probably see all folders containing your installed programs by switching the ‘show hidden files’ to ON. Windows users are often frustrated when they can not easily find the installed program folders.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:50:43 +0000

I am having a bit of trouble. I just switched to Ubuntu yesteday from Windows. Have zero experience with Linux. I like the OS but something is bugging and hopefully you can help.

I am installing programs from the Synaptic Package Manager (such as ushare and fiaif). When I look in Applications, none of them are there. I m trying to locate them in the folders in FILESYSTEM/BIN and I can’t find any of them. I did LOCATE in the Terminal, but it couldn’t find them either. What am I doing wrong and where could all the prorams I installed be?

By: Nescafi

Nescafi — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:22:15 +0000

For example in Windows your usb flash drive will be mounted as “E:\”.
In Linux it will be mounted as e.g. “/media/USBVOLUME/”.
But it doesn’t matter too much in normal use, you just click on the drive icon.

Any other partitions (such as a windows partition) or file systems are found in the /media or /mnt directory and can be browsed as Linux natively handle many partition formats.

By: admin

admin — Sun, 18 May 2008 09:35:16 +0000

these are not partitions all these are directories in side a partition

By: Batbayar

Batbayar — Sun, 18 May 2008 09:32:17 +0000

Are these all partitions? I mean, is very main directory a partition? I’m new to ubuntu. In fact, I have installed it on my conputer’s second hard disk just two days ago.