Error trying to change user directories

Issues & Assistance Lxqt
1

Hello friends.

This is my first post here.

I'm Rômmulo, from Brazil, and I greet you all!

Garuda Linux is the only O.S. that I was able to install in dual boot with KDE Neon on a GPT SSD, with BIOS in UEFI mode!
To my surprise, it easily created a nice menu, where I can choose to boot Garuda or the KDE Neon!

Before creating this topic, I searched this forum, but I didn't find anything that matched the situation below. The "Your topic is similar to..." pane also has nothing similar.

In my Garuda LXQt (updated a few days ago), I'm trying to change user directories to another location, but it always gives error.

I open "Session Settings", "User Directories" tab, then I set the new paths for each directory.

Ex: change "/home/rpga/Downloads" to "/home/rommulo/Downloads"

When clicking "Close", the following message appears:

"An error occurred while applying settings for the Downloads location"

I sincerely thank whoever helps me.

Here is my system information:

System:
  Kernel: 5.16.0-zen1-1-zen x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen
    root=UUID=70fb46ae-55b5-403c-8c8c-3934ba2fd211 rw rootflags=subvol=@
    quiet splash rd.udev.log_priority=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0
    systemd.unified_cgroup_hierarchy=1 loglevel=3
  Desktop: LXQt 1.0.0 tk: Qt 5.15.2 info: plank, lxqt-panel wm: kwin_x11
    vt: 1 dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LG product: A560-T.BG77P1 v: TBD
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Quanta model: QLGA v: TBD serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Insyde
    v: QLGALQ131 date: 01/23/2013
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 0.3 Wh (100.0%) condition: 0.3/56.2 Wh (0.6%)
    volts: 12.4 min: 10.8 model: SMP-LG52 MWL32b type: Li-ion serial: N/A
    status: Full
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-3630QM bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Ivy Bridge
    family: 6 model-id: 0x3A (58) stepping: 9 microcode: 0x21
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 256 KiB desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB
    L3: 6 MiB desc: 1x6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2569 high: 3295 min/max: 1200/3400 scaling:
    driver: intel_cpufreq governor: performance cores: 1: 3287 2: 1729 3: 2632
    4: 2431 5: 1783 6: 2147 7: 3250 8: 3295 bogomips: 38310
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf
    mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: spec_store_bypass
    mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1
    mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional,                                                                                                                                          
    IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling                                                                                                                                                                       
  Type: srbds status: Vulnerable: No microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics vendor: LG driver: i915
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0166 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA GK107M [GeForce GT 640M] vendor: LG driver: nvidia
    v: 390.147 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:0fd2
    class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.21.1.3 compositor: kwin_x11 driver:
    loaded: intel unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa display-ID: :0
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x2160 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 506x570mm (19.9x22.4")
    s-diag: 762mm (30")
  Monitor-1: LVDS1 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 139 size: 350x190mm (13.8x7.5")
    diag: 398mm (15.7")
  Monitor-2: HDMI1 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 98 size: 500x280mm (19.7x11.0")
    diag: 573mm (22.6")
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 4000 (IVB GT2)
    v: 4.2 Mesa 21.3.3 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio vendor: LG
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1e20
    class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.16.0-zen1-1-zen running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.19 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: no
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.43 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
    bus-ID: 07:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:0887 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp7s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR8161 Gigabit Ethernet vendor: LG driver: alx
    v: kernel port: 3000 bus-ID: 08:00.0 chip-ID: 1969:1091 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp8s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Centrino Bluetooth Wireless Transceiver type: USB
    driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-1.3:3 chip-ID: 8087:07da class-ID: e001
  Report: bt-adapter ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down
    bt-service: enabled,running rfk-block: hardware: no software: no
    address: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 252.91 GiB used: 170.74 GiB (67.5%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: SanDisk model: SD8TB8U256G1001
    size: 238.47 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 3101 scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 type: USB vendor: Kingston
    model: DataTraveler 3.0 size: 14.44 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: PMAP scheme: GPT
  SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 40.03 GiB size: 40.03 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 26.35 GiB (65.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda4 maj-min: 8:4
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 60 MiB size: 59 MiB (98.41%)
    used: 8.2 MiB (13.9%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 150.37 GiB size: 147.01 GiB (97.77%)
    used: 132.94 GiB (90.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5 maj-min: 8:5
  ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 40.03 GiB size: 40.03 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 26.35 GiB (65.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda4 maj-min: 8:4
  ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 40.03 GiB size: 40.03 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 26.35 GiB (65.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda4 maj-min: 8:4
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8 GiB used: 13.7 MiB (0.2%)
    priority: -2 dev: /dev/sda7 maj-min: 8:7
  ID-2: swap-2 type: zram size: 7.64 GiB used: 756 MiB (9.7%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 74.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 311 Uptime: 2h 47m wakeups: 1 Memory: 7.64 GiB
  used: 5.38 GiB (70.3%) Init: systemd v: 250 tool: systemctl Compilers:
  gcc: 11.1.0 clang: 13.0.0 Packages: pacman: 1467 lib: 399 Shell: Bash
  v: 5.1.16 running-in: qterminal inxi: 3.3.11
2

Hi there, welcome to the community

Maybe it is wrong because you are assigning download folder of one user to another user. Also, are these 2 users on same installation, that is Garuda?

For achieving this, best way (imho) is to have a separate download partition. It also have advantage that you don’t have to worry about it if you reinstall os, or in above case, both of your installed os can share downloads folder or downloads partition.

1 Like
3

I agree, in my opinion this is the best way.

I have a couple multi-boot machines and I always make a separate partition for /home/user/ folders (Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, et cetera), then I delete all the folders from the /home/user/ directory and replace them with sym links that point to the shared partition.

cd ~
sudo ln -s /mnt/shared_partition/Documents
sudo ln -s /mnt/shared_partition/Downloads
sudo ln -s /mnt/shared_partition/Music

and so on. This way you still have all your normal folders and can still interact with them in a typical way. Any programs you run under that user can still use any applicable default path (~/Downloads for something you download in a web browser, for example), but no matter what OS you boot into all your stuff is there.

3 Likes
4

And don't forgot to auto mount this on boot with /etc/fstab

3 Likes
5

My /home in Garuda LXQt is /home/rpga, and in KDE Neon it is /home/rpneon.

The path /home/rommulo belonged to Linux Mint MATE 20.2 which I uninstalled, but all my personal files are in it.

These three paths (rommulo, rpga and rpneon) are in the same partition that I created separately to be /home.

However, on KDE Neon I was able to make the same adjustments (and this was after trying the same on Garuda), and I didn’t have any problems.
In Neon I changed /home/rpreon/Documents to /home/rommulo/Documents, and did the same for Music, Images, Videos and Downloads.

Can I fix this error by applying a chmod 777 to /home/rommulo ?

6

Ok, I got it.

But I would like to know, if the /Downloads created on shared partition, causes (makes) browsers and download managers already treat it as system default path to store downloaded files.

Because in fact I’ve already created direct links to home/rommulo/Documents, Images, Music and Videos in my current Garuda home (/home/rpga).

I just kept /Downloads, where my “Persepolis” and “Xtreme Download Manager” creates subdirectories to organize the files they download.

7

The problem with that strategy is you would have to set up the rpga partition to automatically be mounted when the rommulo user is signed in. Even if you managed to get it set up, you might start running into issues with permissions and ownership as files are created and modified.

So I would say: perhaps not impossible, but I would not advise it.

Setting up a separate shared partition might seem like a lot of work up-front, but it's a cleaner setup and I definitely think it would be worth it.

8

Considering I re-edited my answer after your comment, do you have anything new to comment on or do you stand by what you already said?

In fact, there is only one user in Garuda (the “rpga”) and also only one in KDE Neon (the “rpneon”).

The user “rommulo” was from Linux Mint MATE 20.2 which I uninstalled, but the /home/rommulo partition remains with all my personal files preserved.

So, wouldn’t it be possible to treat just the home/rommulo/ path as a share destination?
“sudo ln -s /home/rommulo/Documents”, Music, Images, etc.

Or would I really have to move the files to a separate shared partition?

9

No harm in trying it out! Give it a shot, and if it works then it works!

This is where I would start, good thinking.

If you run into any problems and decide a separate partition is the way to go, it is pretty simple to shrink down a btrfs filesystem, then shrink down the partition (to make space for a new partition). So no worries if you need to change course later on.

1 Like
10

There is only one user on my Garuda, “rpga”, and only one on KDE Neon, “rpneon”.
The user “rommulo” no longer exists. This was from the Linux Mint MATE that I uninstalled. But as I said, all my personal files remain intact in /home/rommulo.

11

Wow! I got it!

But for that, I needed to delete the personal directories in /home/rpga and created in their place sym links to the /home/rommulo directories.

When opening "Session Settings", "User Directories", the links I created already appear there as real paths!

They are now as I wished:

Desktop: /home/rpga/Desktop
Downloads: /home/rommulo/Downloads
Shared directory: /home/rpga/Public
Documents: /home/rommulo/Documents
Music: /home/rommulo/Music
Images: /home/rommulo/Images
Videos: /home/rommulo/Videos

1 Like
12

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