Linux: file permissions

[SportSC4]

hopefully this is the correct forum. I'm also a linux newbie.

i'm trying to install wolfenstein: et in kubuntu and when the installer gets to the directory /usr/loca/games it give me an error that i don't have write permissions. i tried to change the permissions and it said that i don't have authorization.

any idea on what i can do?

 

[nweaver]

ls -la /usr/local/games
find the group
add yourself to the group
chmod 775 /usr/local/games

 

[cleverhandle]

/usr/local/games is a system directory - regular user roles don't have permission to write things there. You need to put "sudo" before the command you run to tell the system that you want to act as the administrator. So if the installer is "install.sh", you do "sudo install.sh". Then it will ask for your password. Enter that, and you should be set.

 

[drag]

Ya.. All you should have to do is use the 'sudo' command to gain root (administration) rights for that paticular command..

Like if you have a install script install.sh
sudo ./install.sh

Like cleverhandle said.

 

[cleverhandle]

I suspect that nweaver is suggesting adding oneself to the group because some games may not handle permissions well for save games and such. If a game is coded well it should figure out what your home directory is from $USER and put your save files and other temporary stuff there rather than somewhere under /usr/local/games. But not all games are that careful. So you may need to set some group permissions to get things working.

 

[drag]

Wolfenstein shouldn't have this problem though. It's a high quality ID software-related game.

All user stuff is stored in hidden .filename files in your home directory.

For most things like this I install them to my home directory however. I have a ~/apps directory I install games and such to that I don't want mucking around with the rest of my OS. With good games it's pretty easy to install them this way, however you end up having to use command line to go to that application directory and launching it from there.(that way I also don't have to use sudo or become root to install stuff like this, also I don't have to copy files and reinstall inbetween Linux installs since my home directory is on a seperate partition from the rest of the OS. Some games like Ut2004 or Neverwinter Nights can take quite a long freaking time to install from all those dvds/cdroms)

The games themselves usually have good permissions setup usually, but pak downloads, mods, and stuff like that generally don't.