Can't save documents to my external drives after upgrade from Mint 19.3 to Mint 20.2

Hi there community!

This is my first post and I am glad to have found you guys!

Mr. Abhishek Prakash is a friendly cool guy with extraordinary teaching qualities and that’s pretty rare in this rather confusing linux world out there. I’m myself a linux novice (3rd year) and I am quite content when the machine is running and doing it’s job to help me doing mine. I will answer and contribute as much as possible, but still, please be patient…

Thank you for your time & Kind regards!

After my upgrade from mint 19.3 to 20.2 there is a problem to save LibreOffice writer files to my external drives. No problems to save to ‘My Documents’ etc.

So here is the requested template:

Specifications

→ Add the output of inxi -Fxmz command here!

hagal@hagal-Celsius-W420:~$

bash: !-: event not found

hagal@hagal-Celsius-W420:~$ <!-- dmesg --time-format iso > dmesg_$(date +“%Y%m%d%H%M%S”).log →

bash: !-: event not found

hagal@hagal-Celsius-W420:~$ <!-- dmesg --time-format iso -l err,crit,alert,emerg > dmesg-err_$(date +“%Y%m%d%H%M%S”).log →

bash: !-: event not found

I didn‘t get any other results from this

→ Add the output of for f in $(find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -name 'dmesg*.log'); do echo "${f}"; printf '%s\n\n' "$(<"${f}")"; done command here!

hagal@hagal-Celsius-W420:~$ for f in $(find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -name 'dmesg*.log'); do echo "${f}"; printf '%s\n\n' "$(<"${f}")"; done

hagal@hagal-Celsius-W420:~$

I didn‘t get any results from this

Additional Information (if applicable)

  • Software title | (linux mint)

  • Software version | (20.2)

  • Was the software title installed freshly or updated/migrated?

I did use linux mint 19.3 and since the support run out, i got a new installation of linux mint 20.3. I did have all partitions formated and had a partition 140 GB for the system / the rest 844 GB /root and the rest as swap installed.

Steps to reproduce

- I want easy access to my drives to save any document as it was easily possible with linux mint 19.3 standard libeoffice installation.

Actual behaviour

- Since the new istallation upgrade to 20.3 I couldn‘t save a new libreoffice writer doc into my 3 external drives. I could copy it in my documents etc. but not to any external drive. Somtimes I get the message from libre office: ‚couldn‘t save because the drive is No folder‘ but all my external drives are properly listed under ‚drives‘. Aparentely there are some issues with libreoffice, but there have never been any problems so far…

Extra details

  • There are NO issues with accessing my 3 drives otherwise. They seem to be properly mounted. The installation is quite fresh. No extra software installed or any altered specifications.

HERE IS SOME INFORMATION ABOUT MY DRIVES:

hagal@hagal-Celsius-W420:~$ lsusb

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 1058:25a3 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Elements Desktop (WDBWLG)

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1bcf:0005 Sunplus Innovation Technology Inc. Optical Mouse

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 004 Device 003: ID 1058:107c Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Elements Desktop (WDBWLG)

Bus 004 Device 002: ID 1058:25a3 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Elements Desktop (WDBWLG)

Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub

Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

hagal@hagal-Celsius-W420:~$

hagal@hagal-Celsius-W420:~$ lspci -v | grep -i usb

00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04) (prog-if 30 [XHCI])

Subsystem: Fujitsu Technology Solutions 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller

00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])

Subsystem: Fujitsu Technology Solutions 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller

00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])

Subsystem: Fujitsu Technology Solutions 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller

hagal@hagal-Celsius-W420:~$

hagal@hagal-Celsius-W420:~$ sudo blkid

[sudo] Passwort für hagal:

/dev/sdd1: LABEL=“SPEICHER II” BLOCK_SIZE=“512” UUID=“7778221D328362AD” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTUUID=“235cc22c-01”

/dev/sdb1: LABEL=“Elements” BLOCK_SIZE=“512” UUID=“0252496752496091” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Elements” PARTUUID=“cff0dd91-54b6-4269-951c-568d4923cc3b”

/dev/sdc1: LABEL=“Volume” BLOCK_SIZE=“512” UUID=“DC4418AA44188982” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTUUID=“12f18451-01”

/dev/sda2: UUID=“614F-09AF” BLOCK_SIZE=“512” TYPE=“vfat” PARTLABEL=“EFI System Partition” PARTUUID=“a4e62acd-8f65-4d7a-9e26-34b626705c9b”

/dev/sda3: UUID=“2a94b07c-9905-4abe-9d42-4cbb34d7f8ef” BLOCK_SIZE=“4096” TYPE=“ext4” PARTUUID=“e2cb0c13-1d25-4b88-8a70-4f4ae0b68073”

/dev/sda1: PARTUUID=“f8c9f388-f1b4-416f-8648-ddb49d6b1f02”

THANKS!

Starting simple
Unplug having ejected the external drives
Restart your computer
Plug in one of your external drives
Does it show on your screen ok
Can you open it and copy a file to it by dragging and dropping
If that works repeat with other drives
If it fails … Right click on the external drive and select properties does it show as read only ?
If you go into menu, accessories and select drives can you select the external drives, there is a image of a cog on the screen to get info on the drive and repair check is the drive ok ?

3 Likes

Are the three problem drives the NTFS drives? I think I remember some kernel changes affecting NTFS, but it was supposed to improve performance I think.

2 Likes

His blkid says they are ntfs formatted.
I think you have the answer.

I format all my flash drives ext4. It seems to avoid lots of problems. ntfs does not keep linux file permissions properly, and it cant handle links, so it is not really an adaquate filesystem to use with linux.

Nice to hear from you Klaus.

1 Like

Hey Paul,
thanks for your ideas!
I didn’t have problems moving files in between the drives. However your idea of checking the properties, they were checked on ‘read & write’, showed me that they were talking about SAMBA must be activated to access the drive. Then I started to read up about it and found an UBUNTU page in german, which told me that my account ‘hagal’ [username] must be first introduced to the network.
I did that: ‘sudo smbpasswd -a hagal #’
and then you have to create an new password, I did that, too.
There is the command ‘sudo smbpasswd -a USERNAME’ to do that. However right after the introduction the machine asked me to create a password right on the prompt. Without the command!(?)
After that nothing happened. I did try to save files from the outside and it didn’t work. Bummer!
I did shut the engine down.
Today I decided to check each drive individually, as you proposed, with only on drive at the machine and voila, it did work, I was finally able to save files form the outside to the drive. Then I checked the other drives and it did work also. So I figured it must have been the SAMBA command, that finaly did the trick.
Maybe it needed to reboot, but there was no order to do that at the UBUNTU page.
Anyways, I’m quite happy now, that the pain is gone and in a couple of days I try with a new account, since I don’t want to surf around with the admin account forever.
Many thanks! ‘HAPPY SURFER’ signing out… :star_struck:

‘sudo smbpasswd -a USERNAME #’ ads USERNAME to Samba filesystem and activates it
‘sudo smbpasswd -x USERNAME #’ deletes USERNAME from Samba filesystem
‘sudo smbpasswd -d USERNAME #’ deactivates USERNAME in the Samba filesystem
‘sudo smbpasswd -e USERNAME #’ activates the previously deactivated USERNAME in the Samba filesystem again

2 Likes

Hello pdecker,
thank you for your effort!
I did chose ntfs, in case I would somewhere find myself stranded with a windows machine…
The case is solved so far. Please read above at my reply to Peter.
See you around…

Hi Neville Jackson,

thank you for your input and your friendly welcome!
As I told pdecker I did chose ntfs for flexibility. So far I didn’t have issues with ntfs.
I never knew that it doens’t keep file permissions properly, but I’m glad that I do now.
I’m not sure what you mean by ntfs can’t handle links?
Of course it is really not the right file system to use with linux, but hey, it was a compromise.
I wish I could format all my drives to ext4, but we’re talking about 14 TB data to move around.
Guess, I need a bigger monster drive!
Anyways the matter is solved, please read up at my reply to Paul for details.
So long…

Sorry pdecker!
I meant, please read above at my reply to PAUL!

Peter & Paul…

Hey mate,
didn’t realize yet that you’re from down under.
How’re you holdin’ up down there?
Got inlaws in WA, Perth.
Went sailing the Great Barrier Reef for 8 weeks in 1987.
Starting from Cairns to Brisbane.
All in all I did spent 6 month down there.
Best country in the world!
Cheers
N.W.F

I was surprised with the samba command when I first read your reply, but then when I realised you had formatted on NTFS it became clear as you need it to be able to communicate with windows or Mac devices.
Lesson learned for us both

Hi Klaus,h
I meant soft links, made with the ln -s statement in linux.
If you look at your OS files, eg in / directiry, you will see lots of symbolic links. linux uses them a lot. That is why you cannot put Linux on an ntfs filesystem. The root filesystem for linux has to support links.

Yes ntfs is a reasonable compromise, because Windows can read it. It is fine for storing data files. Just be careful what you write to it. Some apps will try to make links.

You have a lot of data. Make sure you have a backup plan.

Regards
Neville

2 Likes

Hi Neville,

sorry for being ‘late’!

Thanks for your hint about the Linux file system. Hard links / soft links etc…I wasn’t aware about the deeper connections and how different Linux is. I guess it is high time to start reading a beginners book about the system I’m working with, to understand at least the basics.

I will change it all to Ext4 just to make sure the system can work properly and in case of travelling I will carry an USB installation stick.

The last days I experienced documents to be easily saved and then all of a sudden, about 1 in 10 times it doesn’t and gives me the sign of ‘not sufficient user rights’.

Strange, however this only appears with documents, NOT with pictures or videos of any type. So I thought, maybe it is not only a ‘user rights’ problem, but also has something to do with LibreOffice Writer. When I was working with LM 19.3 I didn’t had these Issues, but it was always very tricky, since a to quick move with the mouse, eg. closing the doc, did send the system mostly into tilt. Seems to me the cooperation between LM and LibreOffice has some basic flaws??

YES, my backup plan needs to be professionable scrutinized. Starting with the switch to Ext4…

Thanks for your brain power!

Good day & kind regards
Klaus

Hi Community,

thanks to all who were interested and responded to help out.

Still I don’t realy get two things:

  1. If its a matter of ‘rights’ and the SUDO command solution, as explained to Paul, did get the permission to access the drives. Then why does it work only off and on?

  2. If it’s a matter of NTFS formated drives and links of the Linux system, as mentioned with Neville, then why ist it, that there are no problems at all to save a document to ‘my documents’ on the system drive, which is ALSO formated with NTFS?
    And why is it possible to copy and pace to any file from ‘my documents’ or ‘videos’ or ‘desktop’ to all the other NTFS external drives?

Anyone care to comment? It would be highly appreciated!

regards
Klaus

They are good questions.
The only possibility that fits the facts is that LibreOffice may have trouble writing directly to a flash drive, especially if the filesystem is NTFS.
That sounds rather farfetched, but stranger things have happened.
Flash drives have to be mounted. I do know that a mount done by accessing the drive with the File Manager ( eg Thunar) is different from a mount done by superuser at the command line with the mount statement. LibreOffice can access a flash drive, so LibreOffice is able to do a mount, but it will be a user mount like the File Manager does, not a superuser mount.
How that is relevant I dont know, but normal filesystems on your HD are superuser mounts. A superuser mount point has permissions drwxr-xr-x, a user mount point has permissions 'drwxr-x—+` so they are different. Only owner and group can access a user mount point.
So maybe LibreOffice has a groups issue? Would it be possible that LibreOffice operates as some special user who belongs to some special group that normal users do not belong to? That sort of thing happens with CUPS - users of printers need to belong to the lpadmin group to be able to use printer commands. It seems unlikely LibreOffice would do that .
So we are left with… mounts made by LibreOffice are user mounts. They should work for the same user and for anyone in the users group.
I dont suppose you are moving these flash drives around between computers, where the UID number may differ even when the login name is the same? That might lead to file access problems, and it would have nothing to do with NTFS. You might check on that?

Regards
Neville

Thanks Neville!

I just mounted the drives as / but it didn’t work out saving was still only off&on possible. However I found out that apparently files, when I don’t give them names (untitled.odt), with them same content, are saveable anywhere, whereas if I put a title in I get the ‘No user rights’ prompt.

I did get these results with the file standard manager. Since I’m not at all familar with the terminal use and eg. cammands like your drwxr-xr-x.

I always tried to circle around that, unless I really had to, but I guess there is no avoiding to kneel into the pain right now anymore.

Talking about user friendly… (and I’ve got at least 25 years under my belt and a one year training as a webmaster) I wonder what o’l granny next door would do, or even the regular user guy at the office…

Mysterious, or plain stupidity on my side, I wonder…

Regards
Klaus

PS: I don’t move my drives around.

That has to be a clue
I dont suppose you are choosing names with strange characters that ntfs does not like?
or
what is your character set or keyboard? I would expect LibreOffice to work with UTF-8 . Not sure about ntfs?
or
are the names very long? ntfs might have a length limit
or
does it want you to type the .odt extension, or is it adding it and getting two?

Just guesses, I dont know the answer

That has to be a clue
Could be
I dont suppose you are choosing names with strange characters that ntfs does not like?
No, just regular titles of articles as ‘printed’ on the internet
or
what is your character set or keyboard? I would expect LibreOffice to work with UTF-8 . Not sure about ntfs?
Keyboard setting is regular ‘german’ as offered during installation
or
are the names very long? ntfs might have a length limit
No, whether longer or shorter titles it’s just the same. (On/Off situation)
Linux in general accepted way longer names then windows even under ntfs
or
does it want you to type the .odt extension, or is it adding it and getting two?
Actually it leaves this open, when nothing different is choosen, the files will be .odt

I’m thinking about to do a complete new installation, since I switched LibreOffice to OpenOffice and back (console).

thanks & regards
klaus

I wonder do you have to set a language inside LibreOffice, or does it take the system setting
German KB is not all that different to English

Forget tbe keyboard. There seem to be issues with locale settings.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=197928
Check with
echo $TMP

Many thanks!!

But I have to get back to you later.

Little, problem with the washingmachine and plenty of water…

regards
klaus

1 Like

Did we look at if the external drives are powering down in a wait state …

Special characters are a pain quite offer have issues with french and German has many more different ones.

1 Like