[04:50] <Eleanor> Could anyone please tell me how my USB drive is suddenly being automounted read-only after I updated?
[04:51] <dns53> is it ntfs formatted?
[04:52] <dns53> if it was not unmounted correctly it is doing the safe thing and not allowing you to change it until it has been checked
[04:53] <Eleanor> It is Fat32
[04:54] <Eleanor> Perhaps when I restarted. there was no automatic unmount - the system froze and I rebooted
[04:56] <dns53> try running something like      sudo fsck.vfat /dev/sdb1
[05:00] <Eleanor> Thanks - I hope this is alright - I had to mount it befor fsck could find it and I an unaccustomed to checking mounted drives
[05:02] <blahdeblah> Eleanor: You should only fsck on unmounted drives
[05:03] <blahdeblah> That especially applies to vfat devices
[05:05] <Eleanor> Yes, that is what I thought - I have stopped it. Fsck couldn't find it when it was unmounted - the /dev entry is missing unless the drive is mounted.
[05:06] <Eleanor> Something screwy is going on.
[05:09] <Eleanor> When the drive is mounted, I can create and delete files, but not read or write to them, according to Nautilus.
[05:15] <skwashd> blahdeblah: where is the fun in that? ;)
[05:16] <blahdeblah> skwashd: :-)
[05:16] <blahdeblah> Eleanor: When you say "mounted", do you mean "plugged into your PC"?
[05:17] <blahdeblah> Eleanor: Regardless, try this:
[05:17] <blahdeblah> 1. eject the drive, unplug it, and reinsert it
[05:17] <blahdeblah> 2. open a terminal window and type "sudo mount"
[05:18] <blahdeblah> 3. pastebin the results: http://ubuntu-au.pastebin.com/
[05:19] <blahdeblah> skwashd: BTW, do you still have any of those stickers left?  I've got a new laptop and the only stickers i had left were a bit small.
[05:20] <skwashd> blahdeblah: the ubuntu ones i posted on list? nah ... sent them all out quite some time ago
[05:20] <blahdeblah> So no spares?
[05:27] <skwashd> blahdeblah: sorry ... you might want to see if there is interest on the list for another order
[05:29] <blahdeblah> skwashd: no worries
[05:29] <skwashd> blahdeblah: if you find 5 people you will save a lot
[05:30] <Eleanor> blahdeblah: Shouldn't there be a "Paste" button on the pastebin page? I don't see one ...
[05:30] <blahdeblah> skwashd: How so?  Cheaper postage?
[05:30] <blahdeblah> Eleanor: "Submit"
[05:30] <blahdeblah> Eleanor: you might have to scroll down
[05:31] <skwashd> blahdeblah: yeah ... it is like 10AUD for the first one inc postage and <1AUD per sticker sheet inc postage after that
[05:31] <blahdeblah> skwashd: OK, i might post on the list and see what interest there is
[05:32] <skwashd> so for 5 you're looking at 3AUD per sheet instead of 10 ... and i ordered 12 sheets iirc ... and it cost me ~2AUD per sheet
[05:33] <Eleanor> This Gnome Browser is weird - I wish I could change distros - no Submit button either. However, the drive seems to be working after the re-plugging thing, thanks. Wonder how it'll go after the next, inevitable, restart.
[05:35] <blahdeblah> Eleanor: do you use noscript or something like that?  You might need javascript turned on to get the submit button.  I would recommend Firefox or Opera if you want to be sure it works well.
[05:37] <Eleanor> blahdeblah: It has java turned on, default set-up, it just doen't work properly. Opera is not in the repositories, apparently, because it uses non-free components. Ditto Firefox, which I don't care for anyway.
[05:38] <blahdeblah> Eleanor: javaSCRIPT, not JAVA
[05:38] <blahdeblah> Eleanor: Firefox is most certainly in the repositories
[05:38] <Eleanor> Sorry - javaSCRIPT
[05:39] <blahdeblah> Eleanor: you can add opera using this repository: "deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ stable non-free"
[05:42] <Eleanor> blahdebalh: I was under the impression that adding non-free softare will irreparably break my system. I waa told that installing Opera was what made gNewSense inoperable before my last re-install.
[05:48] <blahdeblah> Eleanor: this is #ubuntu-au, not #gnewsense-au... ;-)
[05:48] <darkrose> someone's been feeding you <expletive deleted>
[05:49] <Eleanor> I suspected as much!
[05:49] <Eleanor> Right - Opera here I come ...
[05:49] <blahdeblah> Eleanor: I have to agree with darkrose - the idea that installing a proprietary package can break your system is at best nonsense, and at worst, a reason for switching to vanilla Ubuntu.
[05:51] <Eleanor> Since the initial Ubuntu (8.04 Hardy) install, my DVD-RAM has been able to read cds and dvds fine, but will not write to anything, thus the iso files of other distros are now sitting in a folder and I can't produce the cds
[05:53] <blahdeblah> Double-check that you have permission to do that in System > Administration > Users and Groups
[05:55] <blahdeblah> There's a permission called "Use CD-ROM drives" in the Advanced settings for each user.
[05:56] <Eleanor> Permission I have, but Brasero says "the medium is not writeable with the current set of plugins" and apparently this means I do not have the correct hardware driver for my drive.
[06:05] <blahdeblah> what does ls -l /dev/cdrom (or whatever the name of your drive is) say?
[06:05] <blahdeblah> and what is the output of id?
[06:10] <blahdeblah> I'll be offline for a while - converting my physical server to a virtual machine.
[06:10] <blahdeblah> Good luck Eleanor
[06:12] <Eleanor> /dev/cdrom = lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 2010-11-21 15:42 /dev/cdrom -> scd0
[06:12] <Eleanor> user@server:~$ id
[06:12] <Eleanor> uid=1000(user) gid=1000(user) groups=4(adm),20(dialout),24(cdrom),25(floppy),29(audio),30(dip),44(video),46(plugdev),104(fuse),112(lpadmin),123(admin),1000(user)
[06:13] <Eleanor> Never met id before - always happy to learn about something new, thank you.
[06:17] <dns53> it tells you what groups you are in, you are in the group cdrom group so that should be fine
[06:25] <Eleanor> dns53: I'm pretty sure the cdrom issue is about kernel modules and not permissions. I am going to try to get the hang of modules.dep ... I think it may be where much of my trouble lies.
[10:30] <skwashd> blahdeblah if you don't know what the proprietary binaries will do they can trash your box
[10:30] <skwashd> but then i've had FOSS kill boxes too
[20:12] <head_victim> blahdeblah: I might have a spare sticker sheet if you don't get enough for an order. I'd have to double check but I'm almost certain of it.