I Received a Weird Error ... Tell Me What It Means

Hello

In order to become Root in Ubuntu, one needs to enable the Root account. Below you'll find the steps to enable your Root account in Ubuntu:

In the terminal: (applications -> accessories -> terminal)

$ sudo passwd root <enter regular user password> <enter new Root password> <repeat new Root password>

Or better way is type the following command pressing cntrl+alt+f2

gksu xterm

which starts the terminal as root

regards

bhavani shankar.

cntrl+alt+f2
gksu xterm

I will type my password in my root

I did what you asked and below is what I got:

x@xx:~$ sudo passwd root
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
x@xx:~$ chown root:users /dev/ttySHSF0
chown: changing ownership of `/dev/ttySHSF0': Operation not permitted

What does this mean and what should I do now?

You have set root password but you are still as user. I mean you need to give $su command and enter as root.

x@xx:~$ sudo passwd root
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
x@xx:~$ su
and enter password of root and do as u wish

Ok, I did what you asked and this is what I got. In this command, 'chown root:users /dev/ttySHSF0', I'm supposed to change group ownership ttySHSF0 so that it is usable for users. From the results of that command, as you can see below, did I actually change group ownership to make it usable for users?

x@xx:~$ sudo passwd root
[sudo] password for x:
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
x@xx:~$ su
Password:
root@xx:/home/x# chown root:users /dev/ttySHSF0
root@xx:/home/x#

you changed the owner of the directory from root to users and it must be accessible to change group ownership use the chgrp command

More info:

http://linuxcommand.org/lts0070.php

Regards

Bhavani Shankar.

Hi Taurus,

This is for your reference http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fileowner.html.

-Murali-

< chgrp - change the group ownership of a file >

In addition to chown, you can also use the chgrp command to change the group of a file or a directory. You must, again, be either the root user or the owner of the file in order to change the group ownership.

chgrp works pretty much the same way as chown does, except it changes the file's user group instead of the owner, of course.
$ chgrp usergroup somefile
After issuing this command, the file somefile will be owned by a user group usergroup. Although the file's group has changed to usergroup, the file's owner will still be the same.

The options of using chgrp are the same as using chown. So, for example, the -R and -v options will work with it just like they worked with chown:

$ chgrp -Rv usergroup somedir
changed group of 'somedir/' to usergroup
changed group of 'somedir/boringfile' to usergroup
changed group of 'somedir/somefile' to usergroup

chown nicely reports to you what it did to each file.