Installed Pop OS for Gaming on new SSD - But having new issues :(

[GCandy77]

Hey all,

 

Bought a cheap-ish SSD (120gb Crucial BX500)

 

Installed Pop-os (had to do twice cos I accidentally deleted the Gnome GUI in package manager ) & installed all the system updates etc ... Dam its responsive & fast!

 

But I got a few problems that are causing big issues.              TLDR - Cant copy/create files to other internal HDD`s 

 

1 > I installed "Timeshift" so I could take a snapshot (just in case I did something stupid like the above) ... I ran the wizard & the program & now have the "snapshot" in my "computer" folder ( the same folder where the boot, Bin & root folders are ( I would put the path up but I cannot figure out how to make it show   ))

 

This is where my issue comes in - whenever I try to copy these to anywhere on my pc that "IS NOT" on this SSD ..  I get permission or read-only errors   

 

From within Timeshift - If i hit browse it shows me the folder where the snapshot files are contained, I then go back a few directories to find the "snap-shot folder", I then right click and select "copy to" ... I select a partition on a separate HDD that is formatted to the "ext4" format ... and it starts to copy ... however b4 it ends I get this error .. ( the same happens if i drag and drop the folder ) 

 

 

So atm I have a snapshot on the boot drive that I cannot copy to any other part of my system (including usb`s) 

 

 

 

2 > The second issue for me is that I cannot get steam to install the games on my  "linux games" drive as the drive has a "lost+found" folder on it .... I got around this on my last install of POP OS on a separate 80gb HDD, by just creating a new folder in the drive called "steam" which allowed me to direct steam to it once I had mounted the drive.  

 

This time however ... I can mount the drive no probs but I cannot create a folder within it as the option is greyed out?  I read that this is all to do with permissions again but I haven't done anything different to my 1st run of POP OS apart from install it on a SSD - So im baffled

 

-In Gparted the "linux games" drive shows that it has no flags selected (I dont know if this makes a difference)?

-In "Disks" it says the drive is mounted & running in "Ext4" of which most pages on the net suggest that is the format needed to fix permission problems?

 

I have added other screenshots just in case

 

 

 

One things that is confusing me (and might be the problem) is that even tho I have the drive mounted there a "zzz" icon next to the drive I am having issues with comes up every now n then?

 

 

 

The folder u can see is a failed copy of the Timeshift saved state files - So in my head, It can create files to that drive - it just wont allow me to do it personally     As I mentioned b4, I did get this setup to work when I installed POP on a 80gb HDD about 2 days ago ... so I'm totally baffled again

 

As you can see in the pics - I am running out of SSD space due to me using it to test other features - But I would prefer to keep this SSD purely for POP in the future.

 

I kinda knew that I would be facing a few challenges when moving over to linux ... but this permission issue ... I dont get it .. why does it set the system up without giving the "actual" user basic permissions? Is it just a security thing?

 

If you got this far .. thx for reading & hopefully you can help too ;D

 

 

[Windows7ge]

Your issue with Timeshift is something I've been needing to explore myself. I want to move the snapshot off the drive because it doubles the used space. My immediate questions would be did you use sudo? If yes did you try becoming root?

 

Sometimes it just comes down to permissions and I've had instances where even sudo won't let me do something and I had to be root itself.

[2FA]

35 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Your issue with Timeshift is something I've been needing to explore myself. I want to move the snapshot off the drive because it doubles the used space. My immediate questions would be did you use sudo? If yes did you try becoming root?

 

Sometimes it just comes down to permissions and I've had instances where even sudo won't let me do something and I had to be root itself.

It's really just a GUI for rsync (assuming you're using the rsync method) so just use rsync to move the copy elsewhere and configure Timeshift to output to there. I personally have an NFS share on my server mounted through fstab at /timeshift for this express purpose. If you wanted to store it on a secondary drive, mount either a partition or a directory on the secondary drive to /timeshift in fstab.

[GCandy77]

2 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

Your issue with Timeshift is something I've been needing to explore myself. I want to move the snapshot off the drive because it doubles the used space. My immediate questions would be did you use sudo? If yes did you try becoming root?

 

Sometimes it just comes down to permissions and I've had instances where even sudo won't let me do something and I had to be root itself.

I don't really know my way around the terminal yet as Ive only been using Linux as my main driver for a few days ... so I haven't tried any of those options as I don't know how to implement them

1 hour ago, 2FA said:

It's really just a GUI for rsync (assuming you're using the rsync method) so just use rsync to move the copy elsewhere and configure Timeshift to output to there. I personally have an NFS share on my server mounted through fstab at /timeshift for this express purpose. If you wanted to store it on a secondary drive, mount either a partition or a directory on the secondary drive to /timeshift in fstab.

I understand that you are telling me just to re-direct the mount to a partition or a directory on the secondary drive via the Timeshift program .... but I dont know what fstab is cos im a noob(sorry) ... I searched for it in the terminal & App`s window, but found nothing.

 

Can you elaborate in child terms for X win7 user ;D

[2FA]

1 hour ago, GCandy77 said:

I don't really know my way around the terminal yet as Ive only been using Linux as my main driver for a few days ... so I haven't tried any of those options as I don't know how to implement them

I understand that you are telling me just to re-direct the mount to a partition or a directory on the secondary drive via the Timeshift program .... but I dont know what fstab is cos im a noob(sorry) ... I searched for it in the terminal & App`s window, but found nothing.

 

Can you elaborate in child terms for X win7 user ;D

There's a file at /etc/fstab that you can edit that requires root or sudo to edit.

 

It's syntax is basically (example)

/drive   /mountpoint  filesystem parameters

 

more verbosely

/dev/sdb1 /timeshift ext4 defaults 0 0

 

You can read more here: http://www.landoflinux.com/linux_fstab.html

 

This will create a permanent mount point for a drive at that location, so if you wanted store the backups on your game drive I would suggest first mounting that specific drive to either "/Games" or "/mnt/Games" instead of /timeshift, where the /mnt one is more standard practice but imo doesn't matter. You could then have a directory on the drive, for example /mnt/Games/timeshift, and you create a symbolic link to the drive.

 

So the /timeshift directory can't exist for this command to work, you will need to delete it prior to running the link command.

Symbolic link command:

ln -s /mnt/Games/timeshift /timeshift

 

EDIT:

Now make sure the directory /mnt/Games/timeshift exists for the link to start working, it if doesn't either use your file manager or the command

mkdir /mnt/Games/timeshfit

[GCandy77]

1 hour ago, 2FA said:

There's a file at /etc/fstab that you can edit that requires root or sudo to edit.

 

It's syntax is basically (example)

/drive   /mountpoint  filesystem parameters

 

more verbosely

/dev/sdb1 /timeshift ext4 defaults 0 0

 

You can read more here: http://www.landoflinux.com/linux_fstab.html

 

This will create a permanent mount point for a drive at that location, so if you wanted store the backups on your game drive I would suggest first mounting that specific drive to either "/Games" or "/mnt/Games" instead of /timeshift, where the /mnt one is more standard practice but imo doesn't matter. You could then have a directory on the drive, for example /mnt/Games/timeshift, and you create a symbolic link to the drive.

 

So the /timeshift directory can't exist for this command to work, you will need to delete it prior to running the link command.

Symbolic link command:

ln -s /mnt/Games/timeshift /timeshift

 

EDIT:

Now make sure the directory /mnt/Games/timeshift exists for the link to start working, it if doesn't either use your file manager or the command

mkdir /mnt/Games/timeshfit

 

I really appreciate you trying to help but as i keep on pointing out - Iinux code is like looking at Japanese when u only speak you own native language (english) .. so giving answers in "Japanese" arent going to help me ..

 

I did find the fstab "file" (was looking for a folder for ages) ... opened it - added you line -

"/dev/sdb1 /timeshift ext4 defaults 0 0"     (kinda know what it was ment to do but as pointed out (japanese to me atm)

 

& hey ho .. i cant save it & it give me a permissions error again

 

Im really getting a feeling that maybe linux isnt as user friendly as people keep on making out ... maybe i need to use another distro?    

 

Im really getting to the point of not caring cos of all the issues im getting from a basic Os install - Why does linux setup all this non-sense permission stuff for basic stuff like external drives?? Even Win 10 is more user friendly than this atm ..... I cant use half my pc

[GCandy77]

This person has fixed the problem that i have

I tried going into terminal & copying and pasting to no avail ... I even tried to use my brain and change it to " gio mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/ " this did bugger all unsurprisingly

 

I saw somewhere that i can get into "root" by typing "su" in the terminal ... this game me the error " su: Authentication failure " even tho I typed my psw with 1 finger at a time just to make sure too

 

 

[GCandy77]

I have now found this which also seems to solve the problem in a different way ..

 

https://askubuntu.com/questions/527304/how-to-change-permission-of-a-drive-in-an-external-hard-disk

 

In terminal i typed & got the result of -

 

sudo chown -R rob:rob /media/rob/dev/sdb1
[sudo] password for rob:
chown: cannot access '/media/rob/dev/sdb1': No such file or directory

 

So hopefully im nearly there I just need to figure out the path that this partition is on - I wish there was a way just to display it like there was in mint - I cant find it in the setting ... Anyone else know?

 

[2FA]

5 minutes ago, GCandy77 said:

This person has fixed the problem that i have

I tried going into terminal & copying and pasting to no avail ... I even tried to use my brain and change it to " gio mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/ " this did bugger all unsurprisingly

 

I saw somewhere that i can get into "root" by typing "su" in the terminal ... this game me the error " su: Authentication failure " even tho I typed my psw with 1 finger at a time just to make sure too

 

 

Please don't just copy and paste commands that you don't understand. Using mount or gio will not persist upon reboot.

 

If you want to run a command as root, just put sudo at the front of it.

 

For example, running the command sudo gedit /etc/fstab in the terminal will let you edit the fstab file.

 

[GCandy77]

2 minutes ago, 2FA said:

Please don't just copy and paste commands that you don't understand. Using mount or gio will not persist upon reboot.

 

If you want to run a command as root, just put sudo at the front of it.

 

For example, running the command sudo gedit /etc/fstab in the terminal will let you edit the fstab file.

 

Unfortunately for me & my life .... im one of those people that learns from actually doing something rather than reading a load of txt ... So even if mount or gio will not persist upon reboot .. im gonna remember that way more than reading it somewhere ... I may bugger my system & have to start all over again but at least i did something that I can learn from. 

 

I really do appreciate you basicly trying to help me out but now all im left with is to copy & paste ure suggestion

 

Yet again I understand what ure example will do but I dont understand why I have to constantly do it just to use a basic drive that windows could access straight away ... its a basic thing?

[GCandy77]

18 minutes ago, 2FA said:

For example, running the command sudo gedit /etc/fstab in the terminal will let you edit the fstab file.

 

 Ive just read this & no know why sudo is used ( so ironically ... some reading does help ) lets just hope i remember it after "i" suspend later

https://askubuntu.com/questions/500284/why-my-root-password-is-not-working

 

I did manage to edit the fstab tho using your suggestion via the terminal & i could edit & save (which is a start) but there is no difference with the drive & i still cant make a folder or copy to it

 

I am now trying this method via the terminal -

 

The drives will be located in /media/username folder. Goto that directory using cd command. And then on terminal

sudo chmod 777 nameofdrive

777 assigns read,write and execute permissions to all users

 

but im hitting another problem - whereas i can see the media folder in the file manager after hitting Ctrl+h ... within the terminal i can only see the standard folders

 

desktop    Downloads  Pictures    Steam       Videos
Documents  Music      Public    Templates  winehq.key

 

what command do I use to show hidden folders in terminal? 

[2FA]

You need to run sudo mount -a after editing fstab, sorry forgot to mention that part

[GCandy77]

well ive got futher ... I just cant find the dam fecking root "area" in terminal .... heres the last bit of my  terminal session -

 

as you can see .... im just having problems navigating to the area i think i need to go to

[GCandy77]

3 minutes ago, 2FA said:

You need to run sudo mount -a after editing fstab, sorry forgot to mention that part

without me looking that up and trying to figure out what that does myself - does that mount "all" my drives in via terminal, so that the file system can tell I have edited fstab?

[GCandy77]

51 minutes ago, 2FA said:

Please don't just copy and paste commands that you don't understand.

Ure are deffo right about that ... Ive just rebooted after running the "sudo mount -a" after checking that the line was still in fstab & now my drive had completely disappeared 

 

I dunno whether to love or hate linux atm ... its didnt work ... but it gave me a laugh - thx for trying anyway 2FA

[2FA]

1 minute ago, GCandy77 said:

Ure are deffo right about that ... Ive just rebooted after running the "sudo mount -a" after checking that the line was still in fstab & now my drive had completely disappeared 

 

I dunno whether to love or hate linux atm ... its didnt work ... but it gave me a laugh - thx for trying anyway 2FA

Well, the mount -a command will mount everything is fstab, fstab == persistent, whereas the specifying the drive in the mount command doesn't, that's the distinction I was trying to make. Are you sure the drive isn't mounted at /timeshift? You should be able to check that in GParted.

[GCandy77]

 

The drive is obviously there but i have to ask - have u basically set my "timeshift" program to use a whole 195GB of my drive & thats why I cannot use it normally?

 

I wanted to use the drive to install steam games to & a copy of my save state?

[2FA]

17 minutes ago, GCandy77 said:

well ive got futher ... I just cant find the dam fecking root "area" in terminal .... heres the last bit of my  terminal session -

 

as you can see .... im just having problems navigating to the area i think i need to go to

" / " is quite literally the root of the filesystem.

 

Use "cd /" to get to it.

[2FA]

Just now, GCandy77 said:

 

 

The drive is obviously there but i have to ask - have u basically set my "timeshift" program to use a whole 195GB of my drive & thats why I cannot use it normally?

It's just the path you use to access it, it has no bearing on what you use it for. Timeshift can't be configured to use a different path unfortunately, so if you want your partition to be mounted elsewhere, we can change that and have the /timeshift directory automatically link to the the drive instead. It doesn't really matter either way.

[GCandy77]

25 minutes ago, 2FA said:

" / " is quite literally the root of the filesystem.

 

Use "cd /" to get to it.

Dam I was using backslash ... thx

 

[GCandy77]

25 minutes ago, 2FA said:

It's just the path you use to access it, it has no bearing on what you use it for. Timeshift can't be configured to use a different path unfortunately, so if you want your partition to be mounted elsewhere, we can change that and have the /timeshift directory automatically link to the the drive instead. It doesn't really matter either way.

as shown the drive is visable & mounted in gparted but I cannot see the drive anymore in file manager, so I cant actually use it at all atm .... how do i get the drive back so I can test to see if the permissions have changed ?

 

[GCandy77]

can you tell me how to "un-do" everthing you have told me? ... this is getting way to complicated for just a simple thing & its only resulted in taking a step backwards as i cant even find the drive in terminal now cos its disappeared

 

I appreciate you trying to help but the unambiguity of the way you describe what to do inst teaching me anything as its a big mess - Ive been trying to fix this for almost a whole day & feel im being taken down a rabbit-hole as I still dont know how to fix the original problem myself ( im just coping and pasting with faith ) but its not working ....

 

Thx again .. but sorry gotta end

[2FA]

10 minutes ago, GCandy77 said:

as shown the drive is visable & mounted in gparted but I cannot see the drive anymore in file manager, so I cant actually use it at all atm .... how do i get the drive back so I can test to see if the permissions have changed ?

 

 

Go to other locations.

 

 

Go to Computer.

 

 

Go to timeshift. This is where the drive is. You can click and drag a folder to the menu on the left to add a bookmark to that folder.

 

 

[GCandy77]

I did find this but its a really crap work around from the setup i had 36 hrs ago - 36 hrs ago I could just access the friggin drive like normal without all this pap - im sorry but I switched to pop because people said it was easy to use - but its been a massive pain it the most basic way ( just being able to access hardware THAT I OWN )

 

Youre method may suit you, but to me its Bol****x - please just tell me how to "un-do" it and il try to get help somewhere else

[GCandy77]

And to top this whole lot off ... I still cannot create a folder withing the timeshift folder/drive(what ever uve made it?) 

 

So I still cannot direct my steam games to that drive ??

 

If ive just spent the last 4 hrs setting up a drive for timeshift - problem solved - I just wont use the program - I`d rather have to re-install a whole os & everything in it that go thru this config nightmare again