Where do I start - it all seems difficult to learn

[megavolt]

@lahpyrcopa

This is by far the most understandable explanation I have seen for mounting a device

Glad to hear that

@lahpyrcopa

I’m guessing that making a directory (mkdir) is the partition part of the equation.

The cup → Partition on the drive
The staw → An empty folder
Putting the straw into the cup → Mounting

So yeah, a mounted folder can only display one partition.

@lahpyrcopa

That said, what about permissions and such?

So lucy and you can drink the cup without restrictions.

Now you want to drink Sprite and she wants Fanta, but there is only one cup.

We now create 2 vessels, and put them in the cup:

mkdir -pv /media/lahpyrcopa/{sprite,fanta}

Now create name cards for it:

sudo useradd lahpyrcopa

sudo useradd lucy

Now we say the first vessel can only be drunk by lahpyrcopa

sudo chown -R lahpyrcopa:lahpyrcopa /media/lahpyrcopa/sprite

and the second vessel can only be drunk by lucy:

sudo chown -R lucy:lucy /media/lucy/fanta

After some time of drinking, you are tired of drinking Sprite and want to taste Fanta, but you don’t want to merry her. You force her in the most brutal way to give access to her fanta without permissions:

sudo chmod -R o+rwx /media/lucy/fanta

o → other
+ → add
r → read
w → write
x → execute

But she doesn’t like that so she does:

chmod -R o-rwx /media/lucy/fanta

o → other
- → remove
r → read
w → write
x → execute

and said: “First you have to merry me!” Long story short thought, you both get married and she gets your family name:

sudo usermod -aG lahpyrcopa lucy

and you get access to here fanta:

sudo chown lucy:lahpyrcopa /media/lucy/fanta

Now she has access to the sprite and you have access to her fanta through your family name (group name).

That is of course not everything, but a basic view, maybe you get the point.

[lahpyrcopa]

Funny guy/gal, you are.

Well I’ve come to my first stomp and I’m forever grateful that I have a USB with another Linux distro on it (EndeavorOS, if curious), because had I not put EndeavorOS on my USB or any distro for that matter, I could not come here for help. I wouldn’t have any installation media to gain access to my computer.

THE PROBLEM
I was in the terminal on Manjaro and I tried some commands thinking I knew what I was doing or had an idea any way. What I did, which clearly didn’t do what I thought it did, caused my Manjaro install to be broken/unstable/not sure, take your pick.

What has happened is I went to KDE Partition Manager and unmounted my SSD from /mnt to /home/jesse after I typed (or something very similar) sudo chown 777 /home/jesse/dev/sdb1 into the terminal, the terminal told me that such a file or directory does not exist.

I thought fine, whatever, I did it wrong.

I pressed the file manager button and suddenly I got an error message, something along the lines of no file or directory exists. I didn’t know what to do other than to try again, this time that same message popped up in the corner of the screen again PLUS a message in the middle of the screen popped up telling me a similar error and that it was likely caused by a full device.

GParted shows that my boot drive is clearly not full.

To further my confusion, when I rebooted thinking that would correct what was wrong, I can’t get passed the log in screen. When I type my password in I just get a frozen computer.

I’ll be using EndeavorOS as a live machine for a little while to see if anyone can help me figure this out. I’d rather not reformat my entire machine - could be the easier solution but I’d really rather not.

[Nachlese]

harddisks are labeled as sda, sdb, sdc
(or: nvmexx if they are modern ssd’s)

sda1, sdb3, sdc5 … are referencing specific partitions on each of these hard disks

in the example:
the first partition on sda
the third partition on sdb
the fifth partition on sdc

partitions are a way to divide the storage space of a hard disk into separately accessible pieces

These subdivided pieces of a hard disk can be attached to any point in the filesystem

Usually, the /mnt directory is used - so that the contents are accessible via /mnt/xxx
(creating the xxx directory is your choice and responsibility …)

external USB devices are usually attached (and are thus accessible) via the
/run/media
directory
these attachments (aka: mounts) are not permanent, do not survive reboots …
they are for removable devices …

…you just need to learn.
learning by doing (and making mistakes) is pretty effective.

[maycne.sonahoz]

@lahpyrcopa

What has happened is I went to KDE Partition Manager and unmounted my SSD from /mnt to /home/jesse after I typed (or something very similar) sudo chown 777 /home/jesse/dev/sdb1 into the terminal, the terminal told me that such a file or directory does not exist.

Knowing the exact commands you ran will help ascertain what went wrong. I think there is a way to get those from a LiveUSB.

Using chroot, it is possible to have a terminal run from a LiveUSB as if it does from your actual system. Manjaro provides a tool in its ISO to ease the process, but since you use something else, you’ll need to use the basic one.
The idea is, after you chroot into your system:

• log into your system user
• print the commands history

su --login jesse
history

[lahpyrcopa]

Are you instructing I go to the terminal in Endeavor and type chroot su --login jesse and then type “history”?

[maycne.sonahoz]

Bummer.

---

On a side note:

@maycne.sonahoz

Avoid using screenshots of text outputs.
It is largely preferred to post text outputs as text, so your helpers can directly use them, and may help other users in need to find your thread.

[lahpyrcopa]

Fair enough.

So now what? I really don’t wanna reformat if I don’t have to.

[Nachlese]

the command you run from within the booted live session is, I believe:
manjaro-chroot

(you’ll find out if you look for it, for instance here in the forums)

If the goal is just to find out what commands you ran (from that “history” file)
then it will be enough to just access your home directory using the live session
and list what is in the file

the file name (in your users home directory) is:
.bash_history

it’s similar in case zsh was your shell …

Just use the file manager in the live session (enable to show hidden files) to find and see it and list it’s contents.

[lahpyrcopa]

Interesting. I checked the .bash_history file and it does not have the commands in it that I used right before my system became unstable.

I have no idea what’s going on. I did not change anything on my boot drive as far as I know, I attempted to change ownership of my SSD, that specific SSD is not my boot drive.

[Nachlese]

@lahpyrcopa

I checked the .bash_history file and it does not have the commands in it that I used right before my system became unstable.

Then you perhaps used the /root account - a similar file is there.
Or - with the recent versions of Manjaro - the default shell is zsh
and the history file is named differently (but similar - as mentioned).

If you used the command line - there is some evidence there somewhere …

[lahpyrcopa]

I found a root folder, so I’m guessing it’s the one you mean, and I can’t access it, it has a lock on it.

I managed to flash Manjaro on another USB stick I have kicking about, so maybe I can fiddle with Manjaro as a live machine and fix my problem, somehow.

[maycne.sonahoz]

I think @Nachlese meant the root account (either of the LiveUSB or of your installation).
The file that’d interest you should be, starting from the location of your capture, at home/jesse/.bash_history.

[lahpyrcopa]

Thanks for all your help, it really is appreciated. In the end, I did a bit of googling and I ended up bricking my installation. I’m not sure how, I’m a noob when it comes to Linux. So I reformatted BUT I didn’t lose anything so I guess I just need to be extra careful in the future.

Messing with devices/partitions is definitely something I need to do in a VM or a separate PC to get the hang of it.

[linux-aarhus]

[HowTo] become a Manjaro power user when you're a wizard at Windows but a N00b at Manjaro / Linux

Difficulty: ☆☆☆☆☆ Remember when you installed your very first Windows, added bells and whistles and then couldn’t see the wood for the trees any more and had to re-install? Well, you’re in the same situation now: You’re a N00b again! Embrace it! I know right now you’re thinking:

Why is this so much more difficult than Windows?

[image]

Whereas in 6 months time, you’ll be like:

Why can't I make Windows jump through fiery hoops like I do with Linux???

<a class="lightbox&qu…

[denonom]

@lahpyrcopa

In the end, I did a bit of googling and I ended up bricking my installation.

Don’t worry, it is not entirely your fault.

This thread is a little bit weird. In my opinion, recommending a Linux starter to use the command line for partitioning devices leads to results like this. GUIs were invented to make life easier. Don’t let anybody talk you into anything.

Sure there are a lot of helpful answers and funny analogies in this thread, but they are written from people who already know about this stuff and they actually don’t really address your problem.

What is your problem actually? As far as I understood, you want to create another partition to save your Steam games there.

Maybe it is better to start a new thread with the title “Help with partitioning devices” instead of some chit-chat thread without any real goal.

[Nachlese]

I meant the folder /root which is in your screenshot (third row on the right, with the lock symbol on it).
This is the $HOME of the root user - and it contains a .bash_history file just like your own and any other users $HOME does.

You can access it as … the root user
which in your case would require you to start/use the file manager as the root user
I’m not familiar with KDE or it’s filemanager Dolphin
which is what you used.

I much prefer a terminal filemanager (mc) - I’m just used to it and it works everywhere, even when the graphical environment isn’t there for some reason and you can’t use a tool like Dolphin …

Seems to be a moot point now.

[megavolt]

@denonom

What is your problem actually? As far as I understood, you want to create another partition to save your Steam games there.

Maybe it is better to start a new thread with the title “Help with partitioning devices” instead of some chit-chat thread without any real goal.

@lahpyrcopa I fully agree here. It makes no sense at the end. Feel free to create a thread with a specific goal. If the goal has been reached, then you have learned something useful.

[lahpyrcopa]

@denonom @megavolt To answer why this thread doesn’t make sense. I actually commented in another thread and my comment which is the starter “question” to this thread was not created by “me” despite the website saying it was. Someone else, maybe a mod, created this thread.

Apparently my question/confusion was not appropriate for the original thread.
(original thread [root tip] Use systemd to mount ANY device)

[megavolt]

@lahpyrcopa

Someone else, maybe a mod, created this thread.

Yep, that makes sense, since your “comment” was not really related to the tutorial text itself, but rather a support request. So a moderator or community manager has moved it.

However, I won’t repeat myself. But rather give you a little guidance.

When creating a thread…

1. document as much as possible in the correct sequence, what you have done.
2. copy&paste the history of the terminal, if possible, in a codeblock.
3. include System Information, or ask what is needed.
4. avoid long “babble” around it. Talk straight about the problem.
5. Don’t be too stingy with paragraphs, commas, and periods.

We, the “problem solver”, need some straight forward information, to guide someone.

[lahpyrcopa]

so to sum this all up to make a game partition for my steam games…

would the following be accurate and work for me?

sudo mkdir -pv /media/jesse/games

and then

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/jesse/games

I got a hunch that I’ll have to re-mount the partition every time I start my machine, so I’m guessing there must be a way to auto-mount?