connect usb drive but can't backup *.so to it

I formatted my usb hard drive to fat and was able to copy some folders to it. Files ending with .so could not be copied.

 

You may well need to be root to copy these files - .so files are usually part of the system or required for programs toi run, so they are not available for any ordinary user to mess around with.

Try starting the file manager (Thunar) as root. Use the run dialog (alt-F2) and type "sudo thunar" into the box, and click run. You'll get a version of the file manager with a red bar at the top telling you it's dangerous (as root can beak things!).

You should now be able to copy the files. Make sure you copy and don't move - if you move them it's likely that your system will not work properly (hence the root ownership of the files, and the warning in that red bar).

 

Thanks very much. I found a website that provides some linux commands. So I could use the command line to format a usb drive and tell it to copy the system to it, then I would only have to copy all the files to that usb drive to make it bootable? At least that's the way to do it with windows as long as you copy the invisible files, too.
I just found out that the old dvd rom from wife's broken computer will boot and play dvd's with the AA1 so I really don't need to worry about making a boot usb now but just wondering if this would work to keep a current backup just in case something breaks. Going back to watching Firefox DVD. Great!

What are those .so files anyways? Something like windows cab files?

 

1.

- come on share it with us newbies...

2.

How did you do that? or was it a usb drive?

 

The website with the linux commands was already posted on the newbie section so I didn't re-mention it. I believe the website is http://www.unixmen.com/linux-command/li ... nners.html

No.. it didn't use to be a usb dvd drive. It was an internal drive and my external cd writer got removed from its case and I put the dvd rom (read only) in it. It recognized the dvd so I was trying out some videos on it last night. Then fell asleep. Next morning the computer was locked up on the menu screen at the end of the movie. Had to once again hold down the power button to make it respond, shutdown and reboot.

Then I decided to try and install slacker on my win98 computer from the dvd... not it couldn't find the dvd but there were some iso images of slacker so I installed them and it wouldn't reboot. So much for linux! So now I'm reinstalling windows 98 because linux can't be installed on it because it can't find external anything... only the cd and the hard drive and although the writer of linux magazine said there was a windows boot file... nothing like it exists on the dvd.
Screw linux! No easy way to install it.