Can’t make a link for the desktop

  • This topic has 12 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated Mar 26-6:06 am by scruffyeagle.
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  • #99901
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    scruffyeagle

      I want to make a link for my desktop, to open my Budgeting Spreadsheet – but it’s not working. I’m attaching 3 screenshots: Trying to make the link, failing to make the link, and the file’s properties.

      Background info that might be important:
      * I repartitioned my external hard drive, where all my data files are kept.
      * I re-encrypted partition #7, where my Budgeting Spreadsheet is stored. This changed its encryption from TrueCrypt method to VeraCrypt method.
      * I used a combination of copy/paste and LuckyBackup, to restore the data files from my backup external hard drive, into the newly formatted primary hard drive.

      I suspect the problem is that the file’s properties now disallow anyone but the owner working with the files. I have 2 antiX OS’s, v19.4 and v21, on 2 different machines, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference which one I use. Neither antiX can make the needed link for the desktop.

      But, I also have a Windows 10 installation of each of my laptops, and Windows can make the needed link.

      In the course of trying to perform a normal backup, I found that the newly formatted primary drive’s files overwrote the original files on the backup drive. So, ALL of the restored files on both primary & backup external drives are now set as the limited permissions, not allowing anything for Group. This was inconvenient, but it didn’t cause any real problems right away, other than consuming extra time.

      I can still access the Budgeting Spreadsheet, but I need to navigate to the subdirectory, and click on it directly. That’s an inconvenience, and I’d like to fix this problem instead of just living with it.

      Note that I’d previously had a link on the desktop, to the Budgeting Spreadsheet, and it continued working after I reformatted the partitions and restored the files. But, what screwed things up was when I did a major restructuring of my archive of data files. The Budgeting Spreadsheeit isn’t where it used to be, and requires a new link on the desktop. Which is what I don’t seem to be able to create.

      Also note that I can’t make links to other normal data files on the external HD’s So, the problem isn’t limited to just the Budgeting Spreadhseet. It’s all the data files on the external HD’s.

      I’m including the output of inxi -Fxxxrz.
      At least, for one of the machines… Neither the antiX 19.4 or the antix 21 can make the needed link.

      I’m not sure how to fix this. Can anybody talk me through it?

      —————————–

      spirit@antix194:~
      $ inxi -Fxxxrz
      System:
        Kernel: 4.9.0-264-antix.1-amd64-smp arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
          v: 8.3.0 Desktop: IceWM v: 3.2.3 vt: 7 dm: SLiM v: 1.3.6
          Distro: antiX-19.4_x64-full Grup Yorum 20 May 2021
          base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
      Machine:
        Type: Portable System: Dell product: Latitude E6400 v: N/A
          serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 8 serial: <superuser required>
        Mobo: Dell model: 0U692R serial: <superuser required> BIOS: Dell v: A34
          date: 06/04/2013
      Battery:
        ID-1: BAT0 charge: 76.4 Wh (102.0%) condition: 74.9/76.4 Wh (98.1%)
          volts: 12.1 min: 11.1 model: Panasonic DELL FU44196 type: Li-ion
          serial: <filter> status: full
      CPU:
        Info: dual core model: Intel Core2 Duo P8600 bits: 64 type: MCP
          smt: <unsupported> arch: Penryn Yorkfield rev: A cache: L1: 128 KiB
          L2: 3 MiB
        Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/2401 boost: enabled cores: 1: 800
          2: 800 bogomips: 9575
        Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx
      Graphics:
        Device-1: Intel Mobile 4 Series Integrated Graphics vendor: Dell
          driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen5 ports: active: LVDS-1
          empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2, VGA-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0
          chip-ID: 8086:2a42 class-ID: 0300
        Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.20.4 driver: X: loaded: intel gpu: i915
          display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
        Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1280x800 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 338x211mm (13.31x8.31")
          s-diag: 398mm (15.69")
        Monitor-1: LVDS-1 mapped: LVDS1 model: Seiko Epson 0x5441 res: 1280x800
          hz: 60 dpi: 107 size: 303x190mm (11.93x7.48") diag: 358mm (14.1")
          modes: 1280x800
        OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel GM45 Express v: 2.1 Mesa 18.3.6
          direct render: Yes
      Audio:
        Device-1: Intel 82801I HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel
          v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:293e class-ID: 0403
        Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k4.9.0-264-antix.1-amd64-smp running: yes
      Network:
        Device-1: Intel 82567LM Gigabit Network vendor: Dell driver: e1000e
          v: 3.2.6-k port: efe0 bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:10f5 class-ID: 0200
        IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
        Device-2: Intel WiFi Link 5100 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 0c:00.0
          chip-ID: 8086:4232 class-ID: 0280
        IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
      RAID:
        Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci
          v: 3.0 port: 6ea0 bus-ID: 00:1f.2 chip-ID: 8086:282a rev: N/A
          class-ID: 0104
      Drives:
        Local Storage: total: 1.14 TiB used: 140.8 GiB (12.1%)
        ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Toshiba model: MK2561GSYN size: 232.89 GiB
          speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> rev: 0C scheme: MBR
        ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Western Digital
          model: WD My Passport 0748 size: 931.48 GiB type: N/A serial: <filter>
          rev: 1019 scheme: MBR
      Partition:
        ID-1: / size: 28.71 GiB used: 8.8 GiB (30.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
      Swap:
        ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 9.77 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -1
          dev: /dev/sda3
      Sensors:
        System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0 C mobo: N/A sodimm: SODIMM C
        Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 3022
      Repos:
        Packages: apt: 2162
        Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list
          1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/antix/buster/ buster main nonfree nosystemd
        Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/buster-backports.list
          1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-backports non-free contrib main
        Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
          1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main contrib non-free
        Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
          1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free
          2: deb http://security.debian.org/ buster/updates main contrib non-free
        No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/onion.list
        No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list
      Info:
        Processes: 187 Uptime: 2h 9m wakeups: 5 Memory: 3.82 GiB
        used: 762.6 MiB (19.5%) Init: SysVinit v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 default: 5
        Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: Bash v: 5.0.3 running-in: roxterm
        inxi: 3.3.19
      spirit@antix194:~
      $

      =============================
      NOTE: I screwed up the screenshot for trying to make a link, the first time I tried – made it look like I hadn’t changed the filename. But, I DID. So, I tried again, and took a new screenshot – but, the forum’s editing doesn’t let me see or edit the attachments! It made it look as if the attachments were simply GONE – which is why I added them all a 2nd time. So, just ignore the 1st 3 attachments, which includes the defective 1st copy of trying to make a link screenshot.

      #99911
      Moderator
      christophe
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        I want to make a link for my desktop, to open my Budgeting Spreadsheet –

        I see you are using Icewm. Do you use rox-icewm or zzz-icewm (aka space-icewm in antiX 19)?

        You won’t be able to make a “desktop” shortcut without rox- or space/zzz – variants, because no icons are shown on the “plain” icewm desktop.

        (I don’t mean to tell you this if you already know it — Maybe I’m misunderstanding the situation.)

        confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

        #99912
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        stevesr0
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          Hi scruffy eagle,

          For a long time, I wanted to have a terminal icon on my Desktop when my system boots, but I didn’t know about how to script this. So, last year or so, I did something which simply involved “drag and drop” (IIRC) and since then on this machine install when I boot there is an icon for the urxvt terminal. In the Desktop directory, there are two .desktop files – one entitled roxterm.desktop and the other rxvt-unicode.desktop.

          So can you do the same thing (if I can figure out what I did) with the Budgeting Spreadsheet you want to be on the desktop?

          stevesr0

          #99921
          Member
          RJP
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            I want to make a link for my desktop, to open my Budgeting Spreadsheet –

            I see you are using Icewm. Do you use rox-icewm or zzz-icewm (aka space-icewm in antiX 19)?

            You won’t be able to make a “desktop” shortcut without rox- or space/zzz – variants, because no icons are shown on the “plain” icewm desktop.

            (I don’t mean to tell you this if you already know it — Maybe I’m misunderstanding the situation.)

            Actually with IceWM you can use idesk also for getting icons to desktop.

            http://wiki.archlinux.org/title/idesk

            #99939
            Member
            Robin
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              Maybe it’s an issue with the permissions of parent folder: To be able to create new files or folders within an existing parent folder, this parent folder has to be set as „executable”. (strange enough, „write” is not enough for writing. But that’s the way it works by default in linux file systems.)

              Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

              #100255
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              scruffyeagle
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                I’m using space-IceWM.

                Making links was never a problem, until I restocked the file system with files. The old links on the desktop even kept working – until I moved the spreadsheet, and had to create a new link.

                I’ve tried to use the Properties/Permissions window to add permissions for the group (checkmarking read/write/execute), but the changes don’t stick. It seems as if the moment I close the permissions window, any checkmarking I’ve done gets wiped out.

                I made a copy of the budgeting spreadsheet, with a new name. Then, I tried modifying the attributes of the newly created file, using sudo chmod g+rwx

                But, that didn’t change anything. The group line in the permissions window is still entirely unchecked.

                #100256
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                scruffyeagle
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                  Thanks, but I can’t do click/drag, because the file manager window takes up the entire screen (except taskbar), and can’t be made smaller.

                  #100257
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                  PPC
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                    I can’t do click/drag, because the file manager window takes up the entire screen (except taskbar), and can’t be made smaller.

                    Press ctrl + alt + 2 and the window will take only the right side of the screen (or 1, instead of 2, to take only the left side of the screen
                    If you are using icewm (the default antiX window manager) – right click the title bar of the window > Tile > choose where you want the window to be…

                    Edit: you can also just select the file you want, right click it > copy it; using zzzfm/spacefm go to the “Desktop” folder, and then right click > paste the file. It should pop up instantly in the desktop… Adapt that procedure to create links to files…

                    P.

                    • This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by PPC.
                    • This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by PPC.
                    • This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by PPC.
                    #103210
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                    scruffyeagle
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                      Maybe it’s an issue with the permissions of parent folder: To be able to create new files or folders within an existing parent folder, this parent folder has to be set as „executable”. (strange enough, „write” is not enough for writing. But that’s the way it works by default in linux file systems.)

                      Thanks for your reply.

                      I used my “Budgeting” folder, on the VeraCrypt7 drive, as the test case. Its parent folder is “Archive”. I opened a Permissions dialog box for the Budgeting folder from within zzz-fm, and clicked so that Group & Others could all have read/write/execute permissions. I also clicked for the changes to be recursive. I closed the box, and then opened it up again right away – and, NONE of the changes I’d made were still in effect.

                      I repeated the test, trying to adjust permissions for “Archive”, and same result – the changes were lost.

                      Just to be sure, I checked the permissions of “Budgeting Spreadsheet.odt” file within the Budgeting folder – and same result. No change.

                      Note: I’d set up an antiX22 installation, and lost track of this thread – so, I started a new thread on the same topic, in the antiX21/22 forum area. (This trouble is happening under antix22, also.)

                      #103212
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                      christophe
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                        What happens if you open 2 rox-filer windows.
                        Then drag the file from wherever it is in one window, to the other window, opened to ~/Desktop.
                        Upon releasing the drag to the Desktop folder, select “link (relative)”.
                        Does that work?

                        confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

                        #103216
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                        scruffyeagle
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                          I can’t do click/drag, because the file manager window takes up the entire screen (except taskbar), and can’t be made smaller.

                          Press ctrl + alt + 2 and the window will take only the right side of the screen (or 1, instead of 2, to take only the left side of the screen
                          If you are using icewm (the default antiX window manager) – right click the title bar of the window > Tile > choose where you want the window to be…

                          Edit: you can also just select the file you want, right click it > copy it; using zzzfm/spacefm go to the “Desktop” folder, and then right click > paste the file. It should pop up instantly in the desktop… Adapt that procedure to create links to files…

                          P.

                          This didn’t work. Copy/paste just produced a new copy of the file, with no option to make it a link. If there’s a method to adapt this procedure, I’m missing it…

                          #103220
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                          scruffyeagle
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                            What happens if you open 2 rox-filer windows.
                            Then drag the file from wherever it is in one window, to the other window, opened to ~/Desktop.
                            Upon releasing the drag to the Desktop folder, select “link (relative)”.
                            Does that work?

                            FANTASTIC!
                            Click-drag/drop/make a link worked like a charm, using Rox filer.

                            This is a great work-around for making the desktop links, But, it doesn’t address what I believe is the root problem, that the file attributes on veracrypt7 are all set to only allow rwx permissions to my usual user, “spirit”. Attempts to change that, return that 0700 was changed to 0777 – but, either no actual change occurs, or it get changed back immediately. The ownership of all files on the drive is also set to “spirit:spirit”, and can’t be changed. I did a bunch of work in the terminal this evening as Root, but was unable to make any changes to ownership or attributes.

                            #103222
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                            scruffyeagle
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                              NOTE: I’d lost track of where I’d started this thread, and so I created a new thread in the antiX21/22 forum area.

                              As synchronicity would have it, as soon as I started the new thread, I was given a reply on this one. So, I’m hopping back & forth between threads right now, trying to keep up with both.

                              The other thread on this issue is:
                              Attributes? Can’t make links!

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